Jim Crow Laws References and Symbolism in Childish Gambino’s This is America Video

If you’ve seen Childish Gambino’s ‘This is America’ video, then you know that this music video has a lot of symbolism. There’s Jim Crow references, Confederate soldier pants, Charleston church shootings, and signs of gun law requirements. These are all symbols that are important to the history of America, and a few are symbols of what we need to accomplish in our future. When you watch the video you might notice the slight details of how Gambino is standing, or how carefully the guns are cared for in our society. The symbolism is the most important part of the music video. Jim Crow is known as a series of racist laws and acts that discriminated against African Americans in 1876-1965. Jim Crow was actually the name of a racist character in one of the acts. The acts that were put on were white actors in blackface, portraying black people as if they were still slaves and not people in their society. The Jim Crow Laws mandated racial segregation in the south.

That being said, that law started the segregation of public schools, public places, public transportation, and the segregation of restrooms, restaurants, and drinking fountains. The segregation was then extended to parks, cemeteries, theatres, and restaurants in an effort to prevent any contact between blacks and whites as equals. This caused an uproar from parents of the child victims who were segregated in school. One mother, in particular, went to bat for her child in the Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka case. This case declared segregation in public schools unconstitutional, so by extension, that ruling was applied to other public facilities. Over the years after the law was overturned many similar kinds of laws were overturned in the Jim Crow legislation.

This symbolism in the video is important to see because this was a major part of our history and people need to remember that this actually happened. The Confederate soldier pants symbolize the Confederacy back in 1861. The Confederacy was the 11 Confederate states in America who wanted to keep slavery in the south. The 11 states were Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, Texas, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri. These states called themselves the Confederate States of America. The Confederate soldiers were fighting against the United States to continue slavery in the Civil War. The Union soldiers were fighting on behalf of ending slavery, where the Confederates said they were fighting for liberty and slavery. The Confederate pants are an important symbol in the music video because they represent what the south used to believe in and fight for. The Charleston Church shooting took place June 17th, 2015. This shooting was labeled as a terrorist attack. Dylann Roof, a 21-year-old white man, opened fire on an African American church killing 9 people. Dylann was said to have deemed the shooting worth it because of the wrong be believed were done by the black community. Roof’s case was complicated due to him representing himself with no real defense. Dylann Roof was given 9 life sentences and was found guilty for all 33 counts.

At first, he was a little weary about being imprisoned until he stated “I remember how I felt when I did these things when I committed these murders, and how I knew I had to do something. And then I realized it was worth it.”. This symbolism in the video is one of the most important ones because it’s happening in our society now. Black people were killed just because of their skin color not even 4 years ago. People need to see this symbol so they know that this is wrong and it needs to be fixed. Gun laws and safety repercussions are widely talked about today. Gun violence is an epidemic in our society. Gun violence kills over 30,000 people a year, adding up to about 90 a day. School shootings and gang violence are seen as taboo topics because they’re talked about so often. But why would we talk about them so much? We talk about them because there have been over 307 mass shootings in the last year. In the music video, you see Gambino shoot a man in the head and then carefully hand the gun over onto a cloth, as the dead man’s body is just dragged away. People are dying every day because we don’t have enough safety regulations set in place. This symbol is important because we are treating guns like they’re more important than people. From what I’ve written, you know that this music video has a lot of symbolism.

There are Jim Crow references with Gambino’s stance, he’s wearing confederate soldier pants, he references the Charleston church shootings, and he showed many signs of gun law requirements. Racism is a huge part of our history and we need to remember that. Gun violence has taken over our lives in this country. The symbolism is the most important part of the music video.