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My 18-year-old son approached me in our media room a few days ago, exclaiming, “Mom you have to see this music video!” I must have watched the video he recommended at least eight times. It was a video for a song called ‘This is America’ by Childish Gambino, a pseudonym for actor Donald Glover. Each time I watched the video, I noticed something different. It truly felt like I was watching history repeat itself, and wondering if we really understand the consequences of “actions”, or we are just so programmed as to be immune to the reality of violence.
Warning: the following video contains disturbing depictions of violence
‘This is America’ tells us a story about contemporary America, but it is also applicable to so many other places, including my own adopted home country, India. The video has been widely acclaimed by many critics as a commentary on America’s relationship with firearms and with the tragedies involving guns that have become common in America. However, even while Americans have the Second Amendment (the right to bear arms), the video is commenting not only about gun violence but also about a culture of entertainment, ignorance and the violence visited upon the bodies of people of colour.
I am a white female, who was unaware of the impact of racism until I experienced it second hand when I married an Indian man and raised mixed-race children with him. In America, my husband is seen as a man of colour. My children were born American but are growing up in India. They are boys and men of colour.
My children have never had to endure what it feels like to be absolutely hated and put into a stereotype. I have been very privileged to have been able to raise my children for the better part of their lives in India, shielding them from the true reality of life in America for persons of colour. I now question whether this was the right thing to do? By shielding them from America’s reality, have I let my children paint their own beautiful (and unrealistic) image of what America is and how people of colour are treated there?
My husband and I have always raised our children to be independent thinkers. We are proud of our children who question anything and everything, without judgement. Our dining table is the centre of all modes of discussion, no matter the topic. Our job as parents is to help guide them to think for themselves, to make decisions based on what is right or wrong, and to question and listen to other opinions without prejudice. My husband and I believe this is the best way to shape productive world citizens.
My 18-year-old, after watching Childish Gambino’s video, said that he wanted to visit his home country and was ready to “experience this”. I was shocked and almost angry because this is not something to “want” to experience. His simple reply was, “I have to experience both sides, mom, you can’t shelter me from real-life experiences.” Acceptable answer? This makes me question, have I done enough to prepare my children for the harsh life outside of India when it comes to race discrimination?
It is a felony to put another race other than what you are on a birth certificate. I’m white, my husband was Indian. However, my ancestry also includes Native American, Irish and German. So, I wrote “human race”. To me that had become the only acceptable race category.
Growing up, I was always the odd one out in my family. My family are descended from immigrants from Germany and Ireland. My upbringing could be called “borderline KKK”. However, I have always been an independent thinker and never conformed to popular and commonplace thinking. This put me at odds with my blood relatives and parents. We were told from early on “not to question and only follow instructions”. I like to listen to all sides and really reflect on what I truly feel and how to move forward and form my own opinions. I did this with my own family. I do love them, but I just couldn’t accept their way of thinking and I wanted to live a life where colour of skin would have no hold over my personal decisions. I said goodbye to my family 21 years ago and have absolutely no regrets. When my children were born, I knew I had done the right thing as I could not imagine having my children grow up with prejudices either in their hearts or prejudice being hurled at them as they navigated society.
But, again I didn’t know the feeling of actual racism until we moved from Florida to Michigan in late 1999. I never understood why my husband was always paranoid in Florida on being around a certain set of people. I used to assume that my husband was just paranoid and that the racism he felt was perceived, not real. But Michigan changed that. We were hated, kicked out of restaurants, pulled over by police “out of suspicion”. One time I was asked if I was “safe” because I was in a vehicle with a “questionable-looking” person. At one point our baggage was not bagged because “my husband was a n*****”. When I tried to educate the baggage handler he said “sand n*****”. I had never felt absolute rage for ignorance until then. I had never really understood what it meant to be hated.
In Florida, when my son was born, the law stipulated that the mother’s race had to be written down on the birth certificate. It is a felony to put another race other than what you are. I’m white, my husband was Indian. However, my ancestry also includes Native American, Irish and German. So, I wrote “human race” on the birth certificate as to me that had become the only acceptable race category.
So, after a year in Michigan, I finally and truly understood what it felt like to be discriminated against and negatively stereotyped. Others had power over us. They decided who we were based on the colour of our skin, religious beliefs, and, cultural background. In this manner they were starting to decide a new-born’s fate even before he could walk or speak. Why is this acceptable?
Childish Gambino’s video sparked a debate in my mind about colonisation, oppression and freedom and how these facets of history and philosophy play out in my original and new homes — America and India. With the Trump administration, America has turned back the clock on values that were once considered self-evident and inalienable. Both countries may be free from colonialism, but that freedom is now compromised. We may be politically “free” but our minds are not. Freedom is no longer a right to think for yourself. The general public is blindly allowing socio-psychological colonisation to happen right under their noses, with the help of media and technology.
Frederick Burr Opper (1894)
‘This is America’ demonstrates this. While Childish Gambino dances and entertains his audience, the background is bleak, without colour where violence is visited upon the bodies of black persons. We don’t see it in the first go. We ignore it while popular media tells us to focus on “fun”. “As long as it is not directly happening to me, it’s not my problem”, suggests the video satirically. Similarly, has India actually embraced the freedom that its freedom-fighters once sought? What I can see is that when British colonialism ended, another type of colonialism started — that of Indians by elite Indians. So what does freedom mean in India when we live in an environment when space for discussion and discourse is rapidly shrinking and anyone who thinks differently or progressively, has abuse hurled at them?
Could there be an Indian version of ‘This is America’? What would it look like? What if this video had Indian kids dancing and smiling for the camera while real-world phenomena such as rape, abuse, corruption, encounter deaths, suicide and hate crimes float around in the background? More importantly, is there space in India for such a video to be made, released and appreciated?
Or maybe this video shows us what is happening globally. Audiences only see events that are foregrounded, while the structural and systemic violence in the background is neglected. Are we so consumed with only seeing the “G-Rated” version of what’s really happening around us? Have we been programmed to only see the dancers and miss what is actually happening in the background? After days of thinking about this video, I started questioning many things. It seems societies are fated to repeat their historical mistakes. What categories do my children and I belong to in America and in India?
Warning: the following video contains strong language.
Last year, a music video called “I’m not Racist” by Joyner Lucas was released, which also went into the fundamental issues of racism, and attributed them to a lack of communication. People of one culture do not understand, or deliberately misrepresent, those of another culture. In spite of direct and contradictory evidence, they continue to follow what they have been taught and what they believe, without doing the other side the decency of hearing their story.
A line that spoke to me in this video was “That don’t mean I’m not affected by the history”. The fear of history being forgotten for long enough for it to be repeated in a fresh form is a harsh reality of life. As our world moves closer to protecting its identity categories with hard lines drawn in the sands of culture and politics, I know my responsibility is to continue to be open-minded, keep listening and keep teaching my sons to think for themselves. For, if I, or we, don’t do this, we forsake the possibility of our children’s children ever having equal rights or being seen as global citizens. Our ignorance, our inability to listen and see the other side will prove to be our undoing.
In an interview, Childish Gambino was questioned about some elements of his video and was asked to explain it. He refused. So ‘This is America’ is now left for our interpretation. Perhaps that IS the point — to get us to talk, discuss, listen, reflect and remember.
