After our discussion of Claudia Rankine's Citizen, I would like to suggest a close viewing and listening of Childish Gambino's (Donald Glover) new song and music video "This is America". As a powerful commentary on racism, police brutality, gun violence and society's inherent alienation and disregard, "This is America" presents itself in dialogue with Rankine's lyric. The music video contains a lot to unpack, from Jim Crow impersonations to mass shooting and biblical references. Ultimately, it is about the trauma and marginalization of the black community in America, the collective suffering of the brotherhood Rankine speaks of.
In an interview with WNYC, Childish Gambino's creative director Ibra Are speaks of the shift between violence and joy of the video, describing it as a compartmentalization of trauma in everyday life:
“If you’re at the club and there’s a shooting outside, you still have to go get food afterwards and you have to compartmentalize that (...) Being marginalized is compartmentalizing trauma to exist in the world. I cant stop being black because of trauma and discrimination. I still have to live life and forge on.”
The parallel between Rankine’s lyric and Gambino’s “This Is America” is extremely pertinent, and, to add to what Francisca has wrote, I would l like to highlight pages 10 and 11 from the book, which I think translate really well what Ibra Are says about the compartmentalization of trauma.
ReplyDeleteThis subject- the compartmentalization of trauma- is not necessarily the most represented one when it comes to artworks revolving around racism, but Rankine’s writing does an excellent job in capturing these subtleties, which are difficult to see, and therefore difficult to represent in art.
Gambino’s “This Is America” achieves a somewhat similar result, though in a much blunter, almost caricature-like way, precisely by shifting from violence to joy in the song and music video, as Francisca wrote.
(Maria Kopke)
Great. I didn't know about this video. I think the idea about the compartimentalization of trauma is quite interesting. As well as of performance and the grotesque - which is not so striking in the book, but surfaces for instance in the analysis of Serena Williams.
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