SOCY 101 Activity 3 This is America

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Jan 9, 2024

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Name: ____ ___________________________ SOCY 101 Activity 3 Directions: Please watch the “This is America” music video by Childish Gambino. Once you have watched the entire music video, please respond to the following 4 questions. Your responses should be between 3 to 5 sentences each. You are encouraged to relate your responses to the course material. Points will be deducted for spelling and grammar issues. WARNING: Some of the content of the music video contains blood and acts of violence. 1. Based on the music video, what do you believe is the artist’s intended message? This song is about the political and cultural turmoil that America was/is going through. This song was meant to target the life of African Americans in American culture. This music video shows the contrast between how some people view America for people of color and the reality of America from a person of color’s perspective. The video has happy versus then dark and aggressive versus, or a happy tone with dark lyrics. 2. How does the song and music video connect to topics we have discussed in this course so far? This song discusses how African Americans aren’t treated fair and race plays a role in a lot of things. There is violence that many tend to asocial with African Americans, and this song demonstrated that. Towards the end he said, ‘You just a black man in this world You just a barcode.” Meaning that even after he was dancing seeming happy and killing the choir and others, he is still in danger. Since he is black, he will always be in danger, because that is how society is. 3. In your view, how might race and ethnic background play a role in our current social system? By being a black person in society, it is very difficult. People tend to associate violence with black people. Those in the black community have different life lessons and unsaid rules that they must be taught compared to one of another race. For example, when dealing with police officers, always be respectful and don’t talk too much or move unless instructed. There was a man who was stopped by a police officer wearing an outfit that one would assume didn’t belong to an officer on duty. The man pulled off, thinking it was a trap per se, and his life ended later that night for no reason. His name is Tyre Nichols, this case was made public for maybe a week or two, and then it has died down. The movie “The Hate you give” does a pretty good representation of being African American today. There are even still sundown towns that are known to not be safe for African Americans even though it is the 21 st century and 2023. My friend even experienced racism at the daycare she worked at this past summer. It was her last day since she was going to college and school was about to start. She was hugging the students as they left to as her final goodbye, one student a young Caucasian boy told her “I don’t like black people” and his mother sat there and watched and said nothing. The next day he came back, and his mom asked him to give her a hug with a tone of disdain. This is a sad reality problem that is still being taught in society, that should’ve ended.

4. What was one scene in the music video that was impactful to you? What made it powerful? I felt as if the scene that was most impactful to me was the ending of the video. Like I said in the last question, being African American is as if you always have a target on your back even if you never committed a crime. You’re just as guilty as those who have.

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