Ash's First Blog

With so much going on around us in the world its clear there are a lot of changes that need to be made. Instead of going forward to make a better history we are going backwards in a more modern time. Technology has become more advanced than the people using it. Soon we’ll end up like the movie Wall-E with technology ruling us and humans not having anymore soft skills. We NEED things to change and the change needs to be NOW before its too late.

Rapper, Television Producer, Actor, and Comedian, Donald Glover (a.k.a. Childish Gambino) has caused an uproar of controversy  with his music video, “This Is America”. Published on May 5, 2018 he addresses many topics including leadership, the impact of social media, and how much racism is still a huge problem in todays society. He supports this claim effectively because he is a person of color, references real life occurrences, and using emotional tone.

Gambino is a person of color himself and if not for his fame he would most likely be racially profiled himself. His audience is more to younger growing generations such as Millennials, other people of color, and those with authority. The Africa American and Mexican American communities are seen as minority groups when in actuality they make a majority. People of color are often seen in a negative light since the days of the mayflower. Causing events such as segregation to come into play. Glover emphasizes on this in many parts of his video. He wants the older generation to see that changes be made and tries to give the younger generation such as millennials that are becoming of age to vote to make those changes. Because he is a person of color and can closely relate to others of color he recognizes that authority such as the government and police forces have become corrupted and something needs to change.

Glover lets us not forget about real life occurrences that have happened in the past that are still a problem to this day. In the beginning of the video a man is seen walking to a chair to play the guitar that is laying on it. As the video continues to zoom in more on Gambino himself he dances closer to the man who is cut out during the zoomed in scene. Once Gambino stops behind the man that was once playing the guitar the man is seen with a sack over his head. If payed close attention to the man seems to resemble Tracy Martin the father of the late Trayvon Martin. Trayvon was a 17 year old high school student that was shot and killed by an off duty police officer back in 2012. George Zimmerman had seen Martin walking alone and called the police on suspicion of Martin assuming he had a gun and was in the neighborhood to commit illegal activity. When told to stay put and only to keep an eye on Trayvon’s movement’s from a distance by dispatchers, Zimmerman took matters into his own hands and started to begin an altercation with Trayvon and Trayvon then began to defend himself. After being shot by Zimmerman Martin was found dead by police with only a cellphone, a can of Arizona Iced Tea, and a bag of skittles.This was the start of a major movement to how racial profiling needed to be acknowledged because it can cost an innocent life even that of a child. Through out the video Gambino is seen wearing pants resembling the pants belonging to the uniform of confederate soldiers. Many on the internet have pointed this out and as we know in history the confederate soldiers fought to keep slavery. Although slavery no longer exist today thanks to the Union army African Americans and people of color are still treated like degenerates today as they were back then. Although people of color have made a come up and have shown they can be more and do more in society since the end of slavery and segregation, they are still seen as a lesser being and deserving of less because the “white man” believes they are still superior. To add insult to injury at the scene of Glover shooting the man in the back of his head, Glover is seen making an odd stance. At first you would think nothing of it because you might assume it is for humorous reasons because as many fans know Glover is a comedian. But when payed close attention to a viewer of the video they recognized his stance and the “Jim Crow” stance. Jim Crow was the name given to describe Africa American and given the embodiment of a dark skinned black man with tattered clothing and shoes. This figure was used mainly to humiliate black peoples to make them seem unfitting to society. When used for entertainment white actors covered themselves in dark paint to resemble a black person and it became known as “Black Face”. Jim Crow then became the name of the segregation laws. As I think to what is going on today segregation seems to be a fad that is trying to make its way back into society. One study suggests that the traffic in Atlanta City is due to segregational reasons. The two interstate highways in Atlanta were studied to see why there was always so much traffic. During this time it was found that the highways were acting as a separation device to keep the north and south of Atlanta segregated. With the 2 highways going different directions one was noticed to lead more to the nicer richer neighborhoods and the other leading south was going to the more poorer neighborhoods like “The Projects” or the “Ghetto”. This is not the only form of segregation we see today. We can also see reference our “WONDERFUL” leader the president himself Donald Trump. Since his running for president he has promised “A WALL” to be built at the border to separate the U.S. and Mexico. 

Rapper, Television Producer, Actor, and Comedian, Donald Glover (a.k.a. Childish Gambino) has caused an uproar of controversy  with his music video, “This Is America”. Published on May 5, 2018 he addresses many topics including leadership, the impact of social media, and how much racism is still a huge in todays society. He supports this claim effectively because he is a person of color, references real life occurrences, and using emotional tone.

Gambino is a person of color himself and if not for his fame he would most likely be racially profiled himself. His audience is more to younger growing generations such as Millennials, other people of color, and those with authority.

1. Who is the intended audience?

Millennials and older people such as law makers and legal voters.

2. The intended audience can relate closely to it because they are aware of the problems in out society. Millennials want a change in gun laws people of color do not want to be seen as a threat and the only way things can change is for those who can vote to make a change do vote.

3. How will the audience benefit from this topic? What can be done with the information provided? Why is it necessary to know this? What difference might it make? They can benefit by realizing they need to stay focused on the real problems that need to be changed and not the small problems that can wait. Everyone will realize we need a change and can be apart of that change. They can make a difference by seeing the problems that are right in front of them and fixing them.

4. In what context is the reader looking at this material? Are the readers already somewhat interested? Are they completely unaware? Are they antagonistic/hostile toward the topic, or doubtful about any point which might be made? Are they supportive/sympathetic? Are they neutral? How do you know? Why do you suspect this to be the case?

They are seeing and hearing it in a music video by a well known artist which catches their attention. Based off some reactions from viewers many stand with the artist and are also sympathetic towards the situations presented and some are even effected by the situations.

5. What questions might the audience need to have answered? What questions might the audience be left with after reading/seeing/listening to the argument? What kind of background information might they need before they accept the claim? What more can we do or where do we start might be a question. They might want more details on the issues they aren’t noticing no matter how many times they see the video.

6. What is the audience’s background (for example, technical or educational)? In general, are they prepared and able to understand, interpret, and apply the information in the piece? They can understand the shooting of the church choir because it was a gruesome event that left many in utter disbelief. They can also understand death riding a horse if they are religious. Most commonly referred to as the apocalypse. Almost can understand the feeling of being discriminated against if they are a person of color just as the author is.

Rapper, Television Producer, Actor, and Comedian, Donald Glover (A.K.A. Childish Gambino) has caused a controversy  with his music video, This Is America. Published on May 5, 2018 he addresses many topics including leadership, the impact of social media, and how much racism has become a big problem. He supports this claim by showing the effects of leadership throughout the video, gives examples of how much social media has an effect on us, and finally racial profiling. Gambino’s purpose is to show us what we aren’t seeing or paying attention to that are becoming real world problems in order to make us realize we need to take action to change them. He adopts a hostile role as both the criminal and leader in his video.                                                                                      Donald Glover has made a big impact with his rap career as Childish Gambino. With his video “This is America” he shows representation of all the current problems we are having in the US. He shows how being a follower has an impact on life. If you follow the crowd you will be safe from harm, but if you don’t follow you can be at risk of danger. In multiple instances of the video he has a group of school kids dance with him following his lead. In one instance they are seen dancing around him in a circle as to make them the center of attention showing his control he has over them. throughout the video these children are the only ones unharmed as chaos ensues in the background and around them.
“Get off your phone!” is a phrase we tend to hear quite often now with how much technology has advanced. From Facebook to Instagram to Snapchat and even Twitter have changed our lives. We tend to look to these platforms for entertainment and news when we are on the go. But not everything we see and read are always true but we tend to believe it without looking at the facts. He shows how social media has influenced us how to act when there are things happening in front of us. In one shot of the video you can see a group of kids with their face covered recording everything that is happening in the background. The anonymousity and the influence social media has had on us has been negative. It has made us apart of the problem instead of the solution. We record the problem instead of putting our camera down and fixing the problem.
From school shootings to church shootings gun control and racism have become more hand in hand than ever before and has been a big controversy. In one scene Glover is seen shooting a church quire primarily of Africa Americans. This scene was in reference to a white supremacist that walked into a Baptist church opening fire killing multiple Africa Americans. This is still an ongoing problem of racism even towards Mexican Americans and Mexican migrants as well. He also shows this with traditional African dances in multiple scenes in the vide. In the begging of the video shoots a man in the back of the head in a stance referencing how African Americans were seen  during the time of Jim Crow laws.

Works Cited 

https://www.youtube.com › watch

Donald Glover has made a big impact with his rap career as Childish Gambino. With his video “This is America” he shows representation of all the current problems we are having in the US. He shows how being a follower has an impact on life. If you follow the crowd you will be safe from harm, but if you don’t follow you can be at risk of danger. 

He shows how social media has influenced us to act when there are things happening in front of us. In one shot of the video you can see a group of kids with their face covered recording everything that is happening in the background. The anonymousity and the influence social media has had on us has been negative. It has made us apart of the problem instead of the solution. We record the problem instead of putting our camera down and fixing the problem.

From school shootings to church shootings gun control has been a big controversy. In one scene Glover is seen shooting a church quire primarily of Africa Americans. This scene was in reference to a white supremacist that walked into a baptist church opening fire killing multiple Africa Americans. This is still an ongoing problem of racism even towards Mexican Americans and Mexican migrants as well.

Rapper, Television Producer, Actor, and Comedian, Donald Glover (A.K.A. Childish Gambino) in his music video, This Is America, published in May 5, 2018 addresses the topic of current events and argues that social media has taken over our lives. He supports this claim by referencing shootings , then shows the effects of leadership, then gives examples of corruption, and finally racial profiling. Gambino’s purpose is to show us what we aren’t seeing or paying attention to that are becoming real world problems in order to make us realize we have to start being more aware of the real problems and take action to change them. He adopts a hostile role as both the criminal and leader in his video showing the school kids unharmed when joining him to dance.

1. Support for Claims: Are all claims supported by evidence, or are they sometimes supported by more claims? It is mostly quotes with supported evidence.
2. Credible Evidence: Is the evidence used to support the claims from credible sources (relevant, sufficient, typical, accurate)? The supporting evidence is from TIME Magazine which is a neutrally fair news source.
3. Emotions:Are emotions used to lead us to make judgments or feel a certain way? Somewhat yes, because they are referencing a celebrity that is popular along with an ongoing environmental issue.
4. Word Choice: Does the word choice simply present the facts with neutral language?  Neutral language = Fair Does the word choice lead you to make judgments about the facts or feel a certain way about them? Leading Language = Biased It was both neutral and leading because the reader can have a bias but the person of topic was mostly quoted.

When it comes to writing I know I am good at making connections, seeing both sides of an argument, and writing a professional email.

• Q:What type of content are your top three posts (or most recent) on your timeline? Is this pretty typical for your timeline? What kinds of social groups/communities are you a part of? Compare what you see with what your peers see. Are there more similarities or differences?
• A:The top 3 recent post are memes and funny videos, which is typical for my time line. Most of my content is from friends or from celebrity accounts of promotion, which seems to be the same with my peers.
• Q:What is the relationship between what you see in your social media timeline and what you know or believe?
• A:Most of the memes refer to the Area 51 “raid” or relatable post I can relate to due to experience.
• Q: How does your social presence compare with the professional/student biography that you created?
• A: I like to keep my personal life and professional life separate so those that know me more personally understand my humor.
• Q: Where do you find examples of bias in your social media timelines?
• A: With articles shared about new movie reviews about what others find or do not find appealing about a certain movie.
• Q: Who do I potentially influence on social media?
• A: I influence my friends if they find the content I post funny.
• Q: Who do I engage with most on social media?
• A: I engage most with my friends and boyfriend if I do not have their personal information or they can not be reached through their personal numbers.