Dr. Lori Brooks, a professor at Fordham University, provided insight.
Childish Gambino's new single, "This Is America," has become a hot talking point since its release last weekend.
The four-minute video is crammed with references to race relations, violence and the way African-Americans are portrayed in commercial culture.
InsideEdition.com asked Dr. Lori Brooks, a professor of African and African-American Studies at Fordham University, to provide insight into what the video means.
It critiques depictions of African-Americans in popular culture, such as blackface minstrelsy, she said. There are nods to other cultural moments, such as Michael Jackson's "Black or White" music video, and it references acts of violence against African-Americans, such as the South Carolina church shooting.
"I think most people would recognize it as a video that protests police brutality," she said. "I think for African-Americans, it's about the limitations that are placed upon African-Americans in terms of their forms of expression, in terms of their ability to express anger in a way that will be understood by the broader community and not caricatured or demeaned."
Childish Gambino — the musical alter-ego of actor Donald Glover — released the video on May 5. It has already been watched nearly 120 million times on YouTube, and is the most-streamed and top-selling song of the week.
For more of Dr. Brooks' insights, watch the full video above.
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