This is America: Representing Social Issues Through the Arts
By Katie Orr
Teacher Yolanda Whitted led her eighth grade English students at DC International School through a visual rhetoric exercise where they analyzed Childish Gambino's "This is America" music video. This was a lesson during the DC Area Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action in February, 2020.
Students warmed up by watching Taylor Swift's tolerance bop 'You Need To Calm Down' and then moved on to study Childish Gambino's deeper "This is America." After viewing the video, Whitted asked her students to break into groups to discuss and analyze what they saw. Using worksheets to structure the discussion, the student groups considered the dancing and choreography, the lyrics of the song, and the other forms of symbolism scattered throughout the video.
At the end of the lesson, students reported back in a brief full class discussion.
The next day, Whitted's students gave PowerPoint presentations about social issues and civil rights in the United States. They had each selected their own research question for this assignment. Questions included,
What were the tactics Civil Rights Movement activists used to create change?
How have race relations improved since the 20th century?
Why were Black Americans disenfranchised for so long and after suffrage, how is their vote suppressed?
What similarities and differences are there between Plessy v. Ferguson and Brown v. Board?
In the hall outside her classroom, students created artwork to memorialize Black men and women who were murdered by cops and vigilantes. Whitted said we should remember Trayvon Martin on his birthday, Feb. 5, also the day of the class presentations. In a just world, he would be 25-years-old this week.
Katie Orr is on the staff of Teaching for Change.