The Protagonist (This Is America)

The Unnamed Protagonist is the main protagonist of the Childish Gambino song This Is America, more specifically the music video, as he isn't actually mentioned in the lyrics. He is portrayed by Donald Glover. The music video starts with a man sitting in a chair and preparing to play on his guitar, and the song has a lighthearted sound to it. However, the protagonist comes, and this time the man is wearing a grey mask. The protagonist grabs a gun from his pocket, and fatally shoots the innocent man. From here on, the song drastically changes, and becomes much darker, but the protagonist continues dancing around and keeps a smile despite killing a man.

After singing for a while about how "dope" he is and giving other self-proclaimed compliments, the protagonist walks into what looks like a new room. There is a choir cheerfully singing, and the protagonist seems to enjoy their singing, dancing equally cheerfully to the music and still smiling. However, he quickly grows bored, gets thrown an assault rifle, and decides to shoot all ten of the singers, once again fatally so.

He walks away, and yet another group of singers are shown. They dance together, and he looks happy once again. However, the group surround him, and it looks as if he is going to shoot them as well. However, he stands still, but still poses like he is holding a gun and is preparing to shoot someone. He slowly walks away alone, and yet another guitar-player is sitting in the same pose as the previously murdered one. The protagonist jumps on a car and starts dancing. Another man with a grey mask is shown sitting on a car next to the protagonist, but no one else is shown.

A black screen is shown for a couple of seconds, until it skips to a scene where the protagonist is running away from a bunch of people in a hall, and the protagonist is panicked, seemingly being punished for his actions, but only presumably.

Alot of theories have been made on what the music video is supposed to symbolize, and most of all the protagonist. The most popular and likely theory is that the protagonist is supposed to symbolize America as a whole, and the fact that he is happy most of the time despite his vicious tendencies is supposed to symbolize America trying to deny the troubles the country has. Donald Glover has refused to talk about what it does symbolize, and has left it for the viewers to speculate.