iPaulina

Ten very bloody murders in, and if you’re anything like me, you’re probably already wondering who invited Jack the Ripper (bit of a kill-joy if you ask me,) and whether or not somebody is going to ring up Old Bill. Perhaps if the NHS had some money someone could also request a paramedic to deal with the bloody spectacle, but a good old paper towel will have to do. They’re very sturdy.

Upon closer inspection however, the video becomes more and more interesting and less and less absurd. One popular interpretation of the bewildering juxtaposition of murder and dance is that it is a denunciation of the distractions, such as popular dance, that keep many Americans from noticing how the world around them is falling apart. The contrast between white love of black dance with the continual violence projected onto these same black people is a powerful indictment of the unsettling contradictions in American society, and it questions the polarity of the United States’ relation to blackness. ‘Are we your blessing or your bane?’ it asks. 

This represents the balancing act that every African-American goes through while living in a country where their oppression is not only routine, but integral. Glover’s joyful performance of several popular black dance trends as everything crumbles around him seems to say, ‘Well, who cares! What have any of you ever done for me?’ The short film is a direct call for the viewer to investigate American attitudes to weapons, which in this video are treated with more respect than black corpses, and also American attitude to the media, which desensitises us to extreme violence. Bloody genius. You get the gist that if Glover decided to run for President, his slogan would be ‘Make America Sane Again.’ I would personally campaign for ‘Make America Great Britain Again,’ but I suppose we can’t all get our way. You have to concede that Glover’s got a point- the very fact that the dance and murder scenes are already being chopped into fun little GIFS online, divorcing them from the video’s brutality, only serves to prove his message.

Still, despite all of this, many feel that ‘This is America’ is a bit like an animal rights activist who won’t let you look at a ham sandwich but will still hang onto their Canada Goose puffer for dear life. That is to say, rather hypocritical. And you can see why. Here we have Donald Glover, who chooses to argue against a white media culture that desensitises its viewers to violence against black people in a way that plays exactly into that: showing even more black violence against black people. Trump-level logic right there everybody! A truly miraculous leap of reason. Of course, the counter is that it’s necessary to send a message about the epidemic of the murder of black people by showing that violence in unflinching terms, but I would argue that, though effective, this goofy irreverence trivialises the loss of life. After all, the shootings enacted in the video are replications of real-life tragedies, and they should not be used merely as fictional devices to shock, scandalise, and jar. Glover is portraying violence against black people as entertainment for white people. Though it is admirable to discuss blackness in front of the white gaze and under capitalism’s control, and though Glover’s message is an accurate and thoughtful one, I would argue to some extent that ‘This is America’ just lacks enough self-awareness about what it’s presenting to an audience.