"This is America" rhetorical analysis by https://padlet.com/henryericksonhinchcliffe/b4makcsu7d2n Henry Hinchcliffe Mrs. Huff RCC Composition 28 May 2019 en-us 2019-05-22 01:08:05 UTC 2023-05-09 12:11:14 UTC hello@padlet.com SOAPSTone/Introduction henryericksonhinchcliffe https://padlet.com/henryericksonhinchcliffe/b4makcsu7d2n/wish/362368788 Subject: The subject of "This Is America" is an extremely complex subject. The song mainly focuses on the struggles of people of color and disadvantaged people in the United States, which includes drug use, violence and gun violence, mass incarceration, and seeking a way out of impoverishment.
Occasion: The occasion is set in the modern day in a large warehouse space. This warehouse space could be interpreted as the world that disadvantaged people and people of color in the United States are trapped in.
Audience: The main audiences are both disadvantaged and privileged people that are unaware of the plight that affects the aforementioned groups of people.
Purpose: The purpose of the piece is to inform viewers that while there are many things that can make America seem wonderful, there are also many things that can make America a nightmare. 
Speaker: The speaker is a person of color (possibly Donald Glover himself) that has undergone and committed atrocities and explains what is going on and how people like him are struggling with issues they are struggling with.
Tone: The tone of the piece is truly horrific. It has a tone that is outwardly positive, but has interludes and undertones that make the tone very dark.
Thesis: An African-American man, possibly Donald Glover himself, attempts to tell people unaware of his plight that while America may seem outwardly wonderful, there are truly many horrific things going on inside America. They use the appeals of logos and ethos in the lyrics and pathos and logos in their video in an successful attempt at getting their message across. In analyzing the lyrics and video, their use of these appeals is effective at getting their message across.]]> 2019-05-22 01:11:45 UTC https://padlet.com/henryericksonhinchcliffe/b4makcsu7d2n/wish/362368788 Lyrical appeals: Logos henryericksonhinchcliffe https://padlet.com/henryericksonhinchcliffe/b4makcsu7d2n/wish/362369735 The writers of "This is America", Donald Glover, Ludwig Göransson, and Jeffery Williams, all do a wonderful job of incorporating various passages of logos in the song. One such passage is "Yeah, this is America, guns in my area, I got the strap, I gotta carry 'em". This passages is a reference to the large number of guns present in the United States and the large amount of gun violence in the United States. According to a Pew Research survey, thirty percent of American adults own guns, while another twelve percent live in a household that has gun owners living in it. According to the same survey, a large portion of Americans think that they buy guns for their protection, with sixty-seven percent saying they buy guns for their protection. Gun violence is also a colossal problem in the African-American community, with eighty-six percent of African-American homicide victims being killed by guns. Elsewhere, a pair of lines in the song that relate to logos deal with another issue that plagues the African-American community: drug use. "Look what I'm whippin' up", which is frequently used, and "Contraband, contraband, contraband, I got the plug on Oaxaca" are both lyrical references to drug use in the song. The first phrase is a reference to cooking crack cocaine, which many African-Americans often resort to manufacturing in order to make money. The first part of the other lyric is a reference to the illegality of drugs and drug use. The second half is a reference to someone who is a drug dealer. A "plug" is a person who is a provider of narcotics, while Oaxaca is a city in Mexico. Many drugs that are in the United States and in African-American communities come from Mexico, hence the presence of the name of a Mexican city in the lyrics. A final representation of logos in lyrics are the lines "This a celly, That's a tool". This line is a reference to prisons, and how African-Americans make up a disproportionate percentage of the prison population. This incarceration could be considered a "tool" by many, including the songwriters, to keep African-Americans oppressed. These are all excellent uses of logos in the song "This Is America."]]> 2019-05-22 01:16:12 UTC https://padlet.com/henryericksonhinchcliffe/b4makcsu7d2n/wish/362369735 Lyrical appeals: Ethos henryericksonhinchcliffe https://padlet.com/henryericksonhinchcliffe/b4makcsu7d2n/wish/362369941 While much of the emphasis was placed on logos for "This is America", there are also lots of lyrical examples of ethos represented in this song. One example of ethos used in the song is "Yeah, yeah, I'ma go into this, Yeah, yeah, this is guerilla". This relates to how many African-Americans have to struggle without any help in an almost warlike scenario, including the speaker of the song. Another example of ethos used in the song is "Look at how I'm livin' now, Police be trippin' now". The first part of the lyrics relates to how many African-Americans, including the speaker, struggle through poverty and living in a rough situation. The second part of these lyrics is a reference to how many African-Americans, including the speaker, have had negative and even harmful interactions with the police because of their skin color. The third lyric that has to do with ethos is "You just a black man in this world, You just a barcode, ayy, You just a black man in this world, Drivin' expensive foreigns, ayy". Many African-Americans feel that they have been oppressed for so long that they may not see themselves as equals. These are the three main examples of ethos used in the song "This Is America."]]> 2019-05-22 01:16:53 UTC https://padlet.com/henryericksonhinchcliffe/b4makcsu7d2n/wish/362369941 Visual appeals: Logos henryericksonhinchcliffe https://padlet.com/henryericksonhinchcliffe/b4makcsu7d2n/wish/362370034 video]]> 2019-05-22 01:17:08 UTC https://padlet.com/henryericksonhinchcliffe/b4makcsu7d2n/wish/362370034 Visual appeals: Pathos henryericksonhinchcliffe https://padlet.com/henryericksonhinchcliffe/b4makcsu7d2n/wish/362370210 video]]> 2019-05-22 01:17:52 UTC https://padlet.com/henryericksonhinchcliffe/b4makcsu7d2n/wish/362370210 Conclusion henryericksonhinchcliffe https://padlet.com/henryericksonhinchcliffe/b4makcsu7d2n/wish/362777929 The various appeals used in both the video and the lyrics of the song "This Is America" outline many of the issues that African-Americans have to face today, including poverty, violence, and drug use. The use of ethos, pathos, and logos are all successful in explaining to the audience the struggles that many African-Americans have to undergo, and convincing them that African-Americans do often struggle in life because of these things. Because of these uses of symbolism, pathos, ethos, and logos, "This Is America" is a powerful example of how music can highlight problems in our world and how they can be fixed.]]> 2019-05-23 02:54:35 UTC https://padlet.com/henryericksonhinchcliffe/b4makcsu7d2n/wish/362777929 Music Video For Reference henryericksonhinchcliffe https://padlet.com/henryericksonhinchcliffe/b4makcsu7d2n/wish/364210471 2019-05-29 02:20:04 UTC https://padlet.com/henryericksonhinchcliffe/b4makcsu7d2n/wish/364210471 Video with lyrics for reference henryericksonhinchcliffe https://padlet.com/henryericksonhinchcliffe/b4makcsu7d2n/wish/364210738 2019-05-29 02:21:35 UTC https://padlet.com/henryericksonhinchcliffe/b4makcsu7d2n/wish/364210738 Works Cited henryericksonhinchcliffe https://padlet.com/henryericksonhinchcliffe/b4makcsu7d2n/wish/364214535 “Black Homicide Victimization in the United States: a 2015 Analysis of Homicide Data.” Violence Policy Center, Violence Policy Center. Apr. 2018. vpc.org/studies/blackhomicide18.pdf.
Glover, Donald, et al. “Childish Gambino - This Is America (Official Video).” YouTube, YouTube. 5 May 2018. www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYOjWnS4cMY.
Gramlich, John. “7 Facts about Guns in the U.S.” Pew
Research Center, Pew Research Center. 27 Dec. 2018. www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/12/27/facts-about-guns-in-united-states/.
Raaanin. “This Is America - Childish Gambino Lyrics.” YouTube, YouTube. 7 May
2018. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cs_LnAdfKas.

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