Rough draft 2

Nick K. Satterly

Janel Spencer

WRT 101S

18 September 2019

                                  Rhetorical Analysis of “This Is America” by Childish Gambino 

                                        In the song “This Is America” by singer and songwriter Childish Gambino released on May 5, 2018, Gambino discusses and visually shows his opinion on the current day problems of African American life. This song/video was created because of the mistreatment and brutality of African Americans over the recent years. Gambino’s main project was to display and create awareness about discrimination and police brutality. When it comes to rhetorical strategy, the focus is on pathos as Gambino is showing a lot of emotion and expressing it through his lyrics too. Such as sadness, disappointment and anger created by police brutality. Gambino’s main goal was to create wide controversy and bring a lot of attention to the wrong being done and lack of care for all human life. This controversy is created by the intense presentation the video gives and the message it stands for, leading to disagreement of many. This all leads up to a wide variety of reactions from the public. Whether it was a lot of criticism and hate or a tremendous amount of support backing his message of the corrupt country. Gambino wrote this song in hope of change in the country and views on what’s going on in America. Gambino effectively influences his audience emotionally by displaying emotionally intense imagery, real events and choice words to sway the way they feel.         Preceding onto the topic of Gambino’s lyrics, he is displaying emotionally loaded language and his profession/background. Gambino’s main lyrics to tie everything together is “This is America.” Without this line it would make the video harder to interorate. Also from Gambinos standpoint as an African American activist, you can infer he is bashing the country and its flaws. He connects to his audience by saying “Don’t catch you slippin’ now” referring and using slang to inform the audience to be aware and careful of brutality and racism. Any small mistakes could lead to aggression towards the African American community. Another notable line from Gambinos song recites “Police be trippin now,” by saying trippin he is suggesting that police are not being humane or proceeding with just legal actions. Police will act wrongly upon African Americans purely off race and not their actions. Police will also hesitate to shoot a white man who is armed and dangerous. When it comes to Gambinos lyrics of his profession, background and credibility, he will refer to himself as a “black man” showing that he is also in danger of the country’s corruption. As for his other lyrics “I’m so fitted, I’m so Gucci, I’m so pretty” is his way of establishing the audience of his career. Referring to his many talents, Financial successes, as well as some modeling. To wrap up the song Gambino uses the lyrics “You just a black man in this world, You just a barcode,” displaying the level of insignificance of African American life now and days. Lastly Gambino shows to his audience even at the most oppressed of times, that he is still successful by driving expensive cars and having successes as an African American male. Furthermore establishing his Ethos.

Work Cited

Glover, Donald. “Childish Gambino – This Is America (Official Video).” YouTube, YouTube, 5      May 2018, www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYOjWnS4cMY.

“Childish Gambino – This Is America.” Genius, 6 May 2018, genius.com/Childish-gambino-this-is-america-lyrics.