"This is America " and its hidden messages.

You could say Donald Glover is in his best time. A 34-year-old Californian artist who plays Lando in the new Star Wars movie; And in parallel he produces, directs and acts in his own tv show, Atlanta, the role for which he received the Emmy for best comedy actor. But his last success has nothing to do with his performance, but with his music. Here we begin to talk about his alter ego, Childish Gambino. With "This is America", his latest videoclip, surpassed the 60 million of reproductions in just 5 days. Making it the most watched video of the year at the moment.

The hidden messages.

The videoclip draws attention to its audiovisual work, but there is a lot of symbology that can go unnoticed and hides a fierce complaint/critique.

The video begins with Childish, which is very similar to Yvon Martin, who was a 17-year-old African American murdered in 2012 by a vigilante from a private neighborhood of Florida, who was released. Then appears Gambino, who dances in a strange way and making grimaces and shoots him in the nape of the neck.

The pose refers to Jim Crow, a character from the early nineteenth century. This character was a slave, played by white men painted black, was a stereotypical and racist view of African-Americans.

The grimace is another reference to racism, like his clothing, which refers to the uniform of the Army of the Confederate States, which during the Civil War, fought on the side of those who were in favor of maintaining slavery.

It also draws attention to the treatment that is given to firearms. Gambino uses them on two occasions (to kill the musician and the chorus, a reference to the massacre of the Church of Charleston) and after using them another person receives it in a red cloth. Some interpret this person as a critique of the use of firearms within American society, fortified by the Second Amendment.

On the other hand, Gambino is without a doubt the protagonist of the video and where the focus is placed. With his dances he distracts after killing people and also diverts attention from the terrible things that happen in the background. At this point, a possible interpretation is that it represents the mass media, which do not put violence against African-Americans in the center of the scene.

Many readings coincide in that the rare dance moves of This is America want to be, and they want it to be for a reason: distract us from everything that happens in the background. For example, a man darting into the void and committing suicide. Or death riding a white horse, escorted by the police. "Behold a pale Horse," quoted Johnny Cash, directly from the Bible, in the Man comes Around, "and the name of who occupies his mount was death, followed by hell."

References to racist terrorism in This is America do not stop there: The phrase "This is a celly, that's a tool" ("That's a phone, this is a tool") could refer well to how smartphones can document police brutality against the black community, Well to the death of Stephon Clark, an African-American killed by the Sacramento police time ago, when the agents mistook Stephon's smartphone with a pistol.

The phrase was rate with a group of children recording the disaster of the video with their phones.

Although Glover's dances and companions have deep roots in African culture, with movements reminiscent of South African "Gwara Gwara", the genre of This is America is definitely trap. "It is a tribute to the cultural dominance of the trap and a reflection of the ridiculous-social logic that emerges the style, which is no other than the primacy of money and criminalization of every black man," says Frank Guan in Vulture.

"Donald Glover is not trap, but he's trapped."

You can watch the video here