The Making of Childish Gambino’s ‘This Is America’

Here’s what you’ll find on today’s show:

— On Saturday night, actor and musician Donald Glover, working under his musician’s alter ego Childish Gambino, released a music video for his song, “This Is America.” The video quickly became a viral sensation on social media, and as of Tuesday morning the video had garnered 30 million views on YouTube. “This is America” presents itself as a jarring tableau of the American experience, specifically the black American experience. Abrupt, dissonant scenes transition freely from one to the next. Gambino guides us through them fluidly, wearing facial expressions that appear to caricature his performance.

— The American perception of the working class has traditionally been associated with the image of a white, male industrial worker. But that understanding ignores the reality that today, more often than not, a working class American is female, non-white and typically associated with some type of service work. As The Takeaway continues its series of conversations about labels and American identity, we explore what it means to be working class in this country today and whether there is still the opportunity to move up and out of the working class that there once was.

— New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has resigned after four women accused him of physical assault, sexual violence, and threats on their life. The women, two of whom decided to go on the record with their allegations, detailed their experiences in a lengthy exposé by Ronan Farrow and Jane Mayer for the New Yorker magazine. Schneiderman has been lauded as a champion for women’s rights in New York, and more recently gained prominence as part of the liberal resistance to the Trump administration, suing over policies like the travel ban, environmental regulations, and DACA.

— This week could be one of the most influential yet for the federal appeals courts. The Senate is set to take up six of Trump’s nominees for judgeships on these courts. So far, the administration has already confirmed more circuit court judges than any of the last five administrations at this point in their terms. Most attention from the public is devoted to action at the level of the Supreme Court, but the actual number of cases that the Supreme Court hears is pretty small, only about 80 per year. Most decisions are actually being made by federal appeals courts, which exist at a jurisdictional level right below the Supreme Court.