Watching the music video for “This Is America” was just so engrossing and eye opening for me, especially after not having watched it since it debuted several years ago. Combining that viewing experience with reading the commentary on the video and son by Lamar Osman was very powerful. It is truly amazing the massive amounts of allegories, references, and motifs that Gambino and Hiro Murai stuff into the barely four minute runtime of the song. Allegories to police brutality and hate crimes towards Black Americans are the most vivid and apparent, and obviously the most compelling. But what struck me the most was the commentary of the frenetic, high velocity pace of the video. It truly is a reference to the fast paced world we live in this days; constantly overwhelmed by never ending streams of information, having to keep up with new and increasingly shocking tales of hate and violence every day. That allegory was something I certainly missed n my first viewing all those years ago, but it could not be more relevant now after nearly a year of protests for social justice as large as the original civil rights movement.
On the podcast, I found the ties between jazz and prohibition incredibly fascinating. It is one of those things that made complete logical sense, that I had never really considered before. Of course speakeasies were the perfect way for disadvantaged Black musicians to play at- too risky for white musicians. Jazz clubs and speakeasies were an incredibly interesting time period and “experiment” so to speak in racial integration. What better to bring people together than brand new, bopping Jazz music and alcohol; music and booze being one of the great uniting forces between people in my own anecdotal experience. And since the speakeasies were illegal, who was going to enforce policies of segregation? Not the bar owners in most cases, why would they turn down more money and more entertainment? Of course, policies of segregation would inevitably come back to bars once alcohol was officially legalized again in 1933, but this microcosm of minute integration in America is truly a fascinating time period for me.
I hadn’t really considered the connection between segregation and speakeasies. I’m sure there were probably a few that enforced it, but it’s a great point that the bar owners likely wouldn’t care as it would just mean more customers.
I also had never considered the opportunities that speakeasies granted black musicians. It is just another example of the greater risk we as a society expect minorities to take because they lack the privilege of the white majority. It is beautiful that they got to share their music, but there is definitely a darker message of oppression and criminalization surrounding the illegality of speakeasies providing the perfect stage for black men and women.
I think that is a great point of how there was integration for a short period of time. It is a shame that even with the integration the musicians were viewed as musicians but were still respected to the art that they created in the environment for the individuals at the clubs and venues. But I do this it was a good first step for society but then we took two steps back.