{"id":5263,"date":"2018-05-09T14:45:41","date_gmt":"2018-05-09T18:45:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/afutureworththinkingabout.com\/?p=5263"},"modified":"2024-11-07T19:03:39","modified_gmt":"2024-11-08T00:03:39","slug":"my-thoughts-on-this-is-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/afutureworththinkingabout.com\/?p=5263","title":{"rendered":"My Thoughts on &#8220;This Is America&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Childish Gambino - This Is America (Official Video)\" width=\"627\" height=\"353\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/VYOjWnS4cMY?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JSim07\/status\/993302585707716608\">Others<\/a> have already examined the dances, the layering of images, so\u00a0 much else, but wanted to try to\u2026 evoke something of what I felt, watching this.<\/p>\n<p>The absolute bare minimum simplest way to interpret this working is as an attempt to force a reckoning with the fact of and our complicity within the commodification of life, death, and culture, generally, and most specifically the commodification of <em><strong>Black<\/strong><\/em> lives, deaths, cultures.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=VYOjWnS4cMY\">Donald Glover&#8217;s newest song and video<\/a> (song and dances, singing and dancing, schuckin&#8217; and jivin&#8217;) constitute a celebration and a condemnation. It is about and IS complicity in the system which demands that Black people sing and dance or die\u2014as in either be killed for not singing and dancing the way those with power want you to, or just, y&#8217;know, die for all they care (though if we kill each other who cares [&#8220;Go Away&#8221;]), but we&#8217;d better not resist (in any way they can understand, and even then our time on the stage in the spotlight had better be brief and cultivated for their pleasure), and we&#8217;d better not show anything real\u2014unless it has a beat and you can dance to it.<\/p>\n<p>I say again, it is a condemnation of this, and is <em><strong>about<\/strong> <\/em>this, but it also <em><strong>is this<\/strong><\/em>. Because it has to be? Because the only time this country is Happy to listen to the voices of Black people is when they&#8217;re porgy-and-bess-in&#8217; it\u2026but also because Glover knows that&#8217;s what it takes to sell his art, tell his stories, to stay alive long enough to do so. (&#8220;<a class=\"referent\" href=\"https:\/\/genius.com\/Childish-gambino-this-is-america-lyrics\" data-id=\"14512956\">Get your money, Black man<\/a>.&#8221;)<\/p>\n<p>But when you&#8217;re the product of 500 years of kidnapping and genocide, shouldn&#8217;t you get\/don&#8217;t you need\/want to breathe and laugh and dance, in spite of\u2014because of\u2014everything\u2026 and to keep it from happening to you?<\/p>\n<p>This song and this video is about all of that. (And all the guilt and weight and weariness that all of that implies.)<\/p>\n<p>I want this placed in conversation with both Beyonc\u00e9&#8217;s &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/afutureworththinkingabout.com\/?p=5133\">Formation<\/a>&#8221; working, and the series version of <em>DEAR WHITE PEOPLE<\/em>. Maybe in a classroom, or a podcast, or a panel discussion at a conference. I want scholars of color to undertake an exegesis of fame and incantations of power and safety in PoC-made pop media, and I want it in any way, shape, or form that it can be made to happen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; Others have already examined the dances, the layering of images, so\u00a0 much else, but wanted to try to\u2026 evoke something of what I felt, watching this. The absolute bare minimum simplest way to interpret this working is as an attempt to force a reckoning with the fact of and our complicity within the commodification [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[1198,1288,1286,1172,418,419,555,1177,1168,648,649,679,681,682,684,1287,887,1285],"class_list":["post-5263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-audio","tag-childish-gambino","tag-donald-glover","tag-hypersigils","tag-invisible-architecture-of-bias","tag-invisible-architectures-of-bias","tag-music","tag-music-videos","tag-police-brutality","tag-pop-culture","tag-popular-culture","tag-race-and-art","tag-race-and-history","tag-race-in-media","tag-racism","tag-this-is-america","tag-violence","tag-visual-media"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5WByP-1mT","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5295,"url":"https:\/\/afutureworththinkingabout.com\/?p=5295","url_meta":{"origin":5263,"position":0},"title":"At HPE: &#8220;4 obstacles to ethical AI (and how to address them)&#8221;","author":"Damien P. Williams","date":"July 8, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"I talked with Hewlett Packard Enterprise's Curt Hopkins, for their article\u00a0\"4 obstacles to ethical AI (and how to address them).\" We spoke about the kinds of specific tools and techniques by which people who populate or manage artificial intelligence design teams can incorporate expertise from the humanities and social sciences.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"A Future Worth Thinking About\"","block_context":{"text":"A Future Worth Thinking About","link":"https:\/\/afutureworththinkingabout.com\/?tag=a-future-worth-thinking-about"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/web.archive.org\/web\/20201109005732\/https%3A\/\/www.hpe.com\/content\/dam\/hpe\/insights\/articles\/2018\/07\/4-obstacles-to-ethical-ai-and-how-to-address-them\/featuredStory\/How-to-fix-AI.jpg.transform\/nxt-1043x496-crop\/image.jpeg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/web.archive.org\/web\/20201109005732\/https%3A\/\/www.hpe.com\/content\/dam\/hpe\/insights\/articles\/2018\/07\/4-obstacles-to-ethical-ai-and-how-to-address-them\/featuredStory\/How-to-fix-AI.jpg.transform\/nxt-1043x496-crop\/image.jpeg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/web.archive.org\/web\/20201109005732\/https%3A\/\/www.hpe.com\/content\/dam\/hpe\/insights\/articles\/2018\/07\/4-obstacles-to-ethical-ai-and-how-to-address-them\/featuredStory\/How-to-fix-AI.jpg.transform\/nxt-1043x496-crop\/image.jpeg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/web.archive.org\/web\/20201109005732\/https%3A\/\/www.hpe.com\/content\/dam\/hpe\/insights\/articles\/2018\/07\/4-obstacles-to-ethical-ai-and-how-to-address-them\/featuredStory\/How-to-fix-AI.jpg.transform\/nxt-1043x496-crop\/image.jpeg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":5249,"url":"https:\/\/afutureworththinkingabout.com\/?p=5249","url_meta":{"origin":5263,"position":1},"title":"&#8220;We Built Them From Us&#8221;: My Appearance on the TEAM HUMAN Podcast","author":"Damien P. Williams","date":"February 22, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Earlier this month I was honoured to have the opportunity to sit and talk to Douglas Rushkoff on his TEAM HUMAN podcast. If you know me at all, you know this isn't by any means the only team for which I play, or even the only way I think about\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"algorithmic bias\"","block_context":{"text":"algorithmic bias","link":"https:\/\/afutureworththinkingabout.com\/?tag=algorithmic-bias"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5899,"url":"https:\/\/afutureworththinkingabout.com\/?p=5899","url_meta":{"origin":5263,"position":2},"title":"ChatGPT is Actively Marketing to Students During University Finals Season","author":"Damien P. Williams","date":"April 4, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"It's really disheartening and honestly kind of telling that in spite of everything, ChatGPT is actively marketing itself to students in the run-up to college finals season. We've talked many (many) times before about the kinds of harm that can come from giving over too much epistemic and heuristic authority\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"A Future Worth Thinking About\"","block_context":{"text":"A Future Worth Thinking About","link":"https:\/\/afutureworththinkingabout.com\/?tag=a-future-worth-thinking-about"},"img":{"alt_text":"Screenshot of ChatpGPT page:ChaptGPT Promo: 2 months free for students ChatGPT Plus is now free for college students through May Offer valid for students in the US and Canada [Buttons reading \"Claim offer\" and \"learn more\" An image of a pencil scrawling a scribbly and looping line] ChatGPT Plus is here to help you through finals","src":"https:\/\/cdn.bsky.app\/img\/feed_fullsize\/plain\/did:plc:ybkylffhwhn2an2ic2lxh76k\/bafkreidh6mhffosfxhbgnxx6aybjycvgj3c2ygzto2xhzvsohdsv3g6evm@jpeg","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/cdn.bsky.app\/img\/feed_fullsize\/plain\/did:plc:ybkylffhwhn2an2ic2lxh76k\/bafkreidh6mhffosfxhbgnxx6aybjycvgj3c2ygzto2xhzvsohdsv3g6evm@jpeg 1x, https:\/\/cdn.bsky.app\/img\/feed_fullsize\/plain\/did:plc:ybkylffhwhn2an2ic2lxh76k\/bafkreidh6mhffosfxhbgnxx6aybjycvgj3c2ygzto2xhzvsohdsv3g6evm@jpeg 1.5x, https:\/\/cdn.bsky.app\/img\/feed_fullsize\/plain\/did:plc:ybkylffhwhn2an2ic2lxh76k\/bafkreidh6mhffosfxhbgnxx6aybjycvgj3c2ygzto2xhzvsohdsv3g6evm@jpeg 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":5135,"url":"https:\/\/afutureworththinkingabout.com\/?p=5135","url_meta":{"origin":5263,"position":3},"title":"Cops, Drones, and The Fundamentally Inhuman Status of Minority","author":"Damien P. Williams","date":"July 15, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"[Originally Published at Eris Magazine] So Gabriel Roberts asked me to write something about police brutality, and I told him I needed a few days to get my head in order. The problem being that, with this particular topic, the longer I wait on this, the longer I want to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"A Future Worth Thinking About\"","block_context":{"text":"A Future Worth Thinking About","link":"https:\/\/afutureworththinkingabout.com\/?tag=a-future-worth-thinking-about"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5133,"url":"https:\/\/afutureworththinkingabout.com\/?p=5133","url_meta":{"origin":5263,"position":4},"title":"Formation: The Magick Act of Beyonc\u00e9","author":"Damien P. Williams","date":"February 9, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"[Originally posted at Eris Magazine] I recently watched and have been spending some time with the semiotics of the video and Super Bowl halftime performance of Beyonc\u00e9's \"FORMATION.\" And if that statement makes you snicker, then YOU NEED TO SPEND SOME TIME WITH THE SEMIOTICS OF THESE PERFORMANCES. There have\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"beyonc\u00e9\"","block_context":{"text":"beyonc\u00e9","link":"https:\/\/afutureworththinkingabout.com\/?tag=beyonce"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5182,"url":"https:\/\/afutureworththinkingabout.com\/?p=5182","url_meta":{"origin":5263,"position":5},"title":"Outline: &#8220;The Minds of Others: What Will Be Known by and Owed To Nonhuman Persons?&#8221;","author":"Damien P. Williams","date":"September 16, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"This summer I participated in SRI International's Technology and Consciousness Workshop Series. The meetings were held under the auspices of the Chatham House Rule, which means that there are many things I can't tell you about them, such as who else was there, or what they said in the context\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"A Future Worth Thinking About\"","block_context":{"text":"A Future Worth Thinking About","link":"https:\/\/afutureworththinkingabout.com\/?tag=a-future-worth-thinking-about"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/afutureworththinkingabout.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/OctMantPep.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/afutureworththinkingabout.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/OctMantPep.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/afutureworththinkingabout.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/OctMantPep.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/afutureworththinkingabout.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/OctMantPep.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/afutureworththinkingabout.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/afutureworththinkingabout.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/afutureworththinkingabout.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/afutureworththinkingabout.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/afutureworththinkingabout.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5263"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/afutureworththinkingabout.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5263\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5860,"href":"https:\/\/afutureworththinkingabout.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5263\/revisions\/5860"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/afutureworththinkingabout.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/afutureworththinkingabout.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/afutureworththinkingabout.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}