Childish Gambino and John Guare: A Stab at Breaking Modern Day Stereotypes

John Guare, in his play Six Degrees of Separation, emphasizes the racial issues that have lasted beyond the Civil Rights movement. Similarly, actor, writer, and rapper Donald Glover, known as Childish Gambino, attempts to redefine common black stereotypes and highlight the racial problems black people still face in this Post-Civil Rights era through his unconventional and possibly revolutionary music. The picture above properly depicts Gambino as a black rapper who breaks the barrier between race and a certain clothing style. Gambino makes the same statement through his music: black people shouldn't be limited to certain realms. Despite the fact that black people now have equal rights, society still promotes wrongful stereotypes and sections black people into certain groups. Guare and Gambino both preach the problems of these societal ideals through their works.

John Guare

Nowadays society is obligated to "accept" black people. America's despicable past has forced white people to treat black people equally in order to not seem racist. However Guare and Gambino both show how blacks are still not treated equal. Dr. Fine from Six Degrees of Separation originally accepts and even admires Paul, yet when Fine believes that this black man has broken into his home he screams "this fucking black kid crack addict came into my office lying-" (Guare 66). Once the seal of trust was broken, Paul stopped being the preppy, wanna-be white kid and became the stereotypical low-life crack addict to Dr. Fine. Thus, Guare argues that if one gives a white man a single reason to think poorly of a black person, in this society the white man will take that opportunity.  Guare's pointing out of Post Civil Rights racism is mirrored in Gambino's music. In his song "Hold You Down," Childish tells us that

This one kid said somethin' that was really bad;
He said I wasn't really black because I had a dad.

and thus exemplifies the white view of real black people as family-less savages, and how in a situation like Gambino's, the man isn't even considered "black." Both Guare and Childish use the "white" black person as an example of how modern day racism works. Society will accept black people as long as they disenfranchise black culture and "act white."

 "Hold You Down" - Childish Gambino

The parents in Six Degrees of Separation are overjoyed to tell each other of their new black friend; they even seem to brag to over their acceptance. However through the Dr. Fine "crack addict" scene, Guare proves that acting not-racist is much different than being not-racist, which is also the argument Gambino makes in "Hold You Down." Gambino states that "you're not not racist cause The Wire's in your Netflix queue" to make the argument that watching shows about black culture doesn't mean that you truly value, understand, and accept all black people. In other words, pretending to be accepting doesn't make someone a good person, just as the Upper East Side residents' facade of acceptance doesn't make them the liberal-minded equality preachers they claim to be.

"The Wire" on HBO

Upper East Side Manhattan home

Through his style and music, Gambino attempts to break the black rapper/gangster stereotype and tries to revolutionize black rap as we know it. His stylistic and lyrical differences from your typical rapper like Tupac or Dr. Dre are obvious; while he often talks about sex, he rarely mentions drugs and never mentions crime or violence. He also has real instruments accompanying his music, and real musicians accompanying him when he performs live, instead of just a DJ and speakers. Gambino often writes about the problems he faces as a different black rapper. In his song "You Know Me," he claims that the hood thugs tell him to "stick to the right business and stop making rap music for these white kidses," showing that the black, gangster rap-lovers think he's appealing too much towards the prep-school white kids. The feeling is reciprocated from the opposite side however, and he makes that apparent in his song "That Power":

Staying on my me shit, but hated on by both sides
I’m just a kid who blowing up with my father’s name
And every black "you're not black enough"
Is a white "you're all the same"

Being half-black and half-white, Childish claims that he is "hated on by both sides" ; thus, he states that just as there are many blacks who think he isn't gangster and hood enough to rap, there are just as many white people who say that he isn't white enough to be a respectable musician. The difficulties of this middle zone that Gambino mentions are also exemplified in Six Degrees of Separation. While Guare doesn't give the readers any information of Paul's past in the play, the author does emphasize Paul's need for acceptance and "everlasting friendship," likely driven by the fact that he's a gay black man (99). It's not hard to fit into a well knitted, strictly defined group. However Paul doesn't fit into any group as a gay, black con-man. He's more of a freely drawn, "wild and vivid" Kandinsky painting rather than a "geometric somber" one (3). The point being, Paul, like Childish Gambino, struggles to fit in, and through this, Guare, like Childish Gambino, argues that society should be more accepting and freely drawn rather than restricting people into certain social categories.

"That Power"                          "You Know Me"

As mentioned before, Gambino revolutionizes rap by breaking the stereotype of the gangster rapper and by defying the racially exclusive groups. In his song "My Girls" from the mixtape I Am Just A Rapper, he raps

And niggas waiting on me, we didn't have a voice;
you used to have to act street and now you've got a choice.

in proof that he appeals to the black kids who would rather not associate with the thug lifestyle and would rather fit into a different, "whiter" group. Gambino asserts that he has given black people all over the nation "a choice" to be who they want to be. In his song "Both Hands," he even calls himself "a nigga off the chain" who "Abraham Lincoln'd" black culture by liberating the black kids who don't necessarily want to act thug. In the same sense that Paul liberates himself by, despite having no relation to white Upper East-Manhattaners, entering these people's lives on a personal level.

"My Girls"                          "Both Hands"

Childish Gambino and John Guare use their respective mediums to make an argument on racial issues in this Post Civil Rights era, and they both make similar arguments. In order to overcome these racial problems, one has to break the barriers that cause these problems. Gambino attempts to destroy the stereotypes of there only being white hipsters and of there only being thug black rappers. Through his play, Guare argues that people must overcome their unintentional but still racist mindsets and overcome the paralysis that holds them into their societal groups.

The black hipster Childish Gambino