"This is America" - Worksheet

"This Is America" (Hiro Murai, USA 2018)

The music video "This Is America" (Hiro Murai, USA 2018) performed by American actor, comedian, and musician Donald Glover (Childish Gambino), explores race relations and systemic racism in the United States.

a) Watch the Zum externen Inhalt: music video (öffnet im neuen Tab) on your own using an Internet-enabled device. Take notes of your first impressions and the thoughts that come to mind.

b) Work in groups of three or four. Share your impressions and create a timeline of the video. Add your observations and use the song lyrics to explain and complement your ideas. Click Zum externen Inhalt: here (öffnet im neuen Tab) for the lyrics of the song with explanatory notes.

c) Discuss your findings with the class. Collect the main ideas in a mind map on the board and identify any questions that remain unanswered.

d) Work in pairs. Research the historical and political background of the issues addressed in the video. Use the questions identified in exercise c) or choose one of the following topics:

• The Charleston church shooting (2015)

• The American Civil War

• Black music and Black popular culture

• The 13th Amendment and the prison system in the United States

• The racist historical stage character Jim Crow

Use the Zum externen Inhalt: New York Times article (öffnet im neuen Tab) as a starting point for your research.
Note: Always evaluate the reliability of your sources.

e) Present your findings to the class. Refer to the sequence in the music video that best illustrates your topic and explain how the cinematic techniques reinforce the intended message.

f) Return to the open questions from exercise c) and discuss them in class. Then respond to the following quotation by Black journalist and writer Ta-Nehisi Coates, drawing on the results of your work:
"America understands itself as God's handiwork, but the Black body is the clearest evidence that America is the work of men." (Coates 2015: 12)

g) Following the release of This Is America, numerous adaptations transferred the video's concept to other national contexts (e.g. This Is Nigeria, This Is Iraq, This Is Sierra Leone, This Is Australia).

Work in small groups. Choose one adaptation and compare it with the original. Identify similarities and differences in content and film aesthetics. Then research the political or social situation of ethnic or political minorities in the respective country. Present your findings in the form of a poster or digital presentation.

h) Present your results in a gallery walk.

Optional
(e.g. as a class project in cooperation with the programme Zum externen Inhalt: Schule ohne Rassismus – Schule mit Courage (öffnet im neuen Tab))

i) Create your own short video, an audio clip, or an Instagram story entitled This Is Germany.
Proceed as follows:

• Work in groups of no more than four students.

• Identify examples of social injustice as well as discriminatory or racist structures in Germany by:

o collecting concrete events from the past five years;
o identifying structural patterns of exclusion and discrimination.

• Develop a production plan outlining the order of your work, the medium you will use, and the materials you need. Decide which media type is best suited to communicate your message and assign clear responsibilities within your group. Discuss your plan with your teacher.

• Produce your video, audio clip, or Instagram story. If problems arise, first try to solve them within your group before consulting your teacher for feedback.

• Present your work in class or at a school event. Selected productions may be published on the school website. Finally, discuss which measures could help reduce discrimination and exclusion in society and agree on a set of principles that you wish to follow in your everyday lives, including at school.