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‘This Is America’ is the protest anthem of choice on TikTok

Childish Gambino and Kendrick Lamar are back on the charts as their songs soundtrack protests.

Photo of Audra Schroeder

Audra Schroeder

childish gambino this is america

Childish Gambino’s 2018 song “This Is America” is seeing a bump on TikTok, and the charts, in the wake of countrywide protests.

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The song—and more specifically the video, which has more than 674 million views—addresses police brutality and racial unrest, and it’s being used to soundtrack TikToks documenting the current unrest across America. Know Your Meme points out that a remix of the song, bookended with Post Malone’s “Congratulations,” started circulating in April but picked up in early May—when the murder of Ahmaud Arbery was finally being investigated.

https://www.tiktok.com/@rxneexx/video/6824692346555354374
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https://www.tiktok.com/@markellandroxan/video/6827401193556397318

But as protests picked up in late May, following the police killing of George Floyd, it was used in more on-the-ground videos.

https://www.tiktok.com/@kareemrahma/video/6831762210218446085
https://www.tiktok.com/@thehighlyeducated/video/6832833237379796230
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https://www.tiktok.com/@moe8145/video/6832340591834139910
https://www.tiktok.com/@wtfricky/video/6834226886474812678

It has also been used in tone-deaf videos, like the Austrian teen who did half-blackface, and later apologized after backlash, or the young man who implied Trump supporters are being oppressed or censored.

The audio’s been used in more than 425,000 videos, though snippets of the original song are also circulating. “This Is America” charted on Spotify again this week, along with Kendrick Lamar’s 2015 single “Alright.”

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this is america chart data
Chart Data/Twitter

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The Daily Dot