Feels Like Environmental Racism

A breakdown of "Feels Like Summer" by Childish Gambino

“Feels like Summer” by Childish Gambino was one of the two tracks released in July of 2018 on his EP Summer Pack. The song discusses many issues in the world today, specifically climate change and how environmental issues often overlap with racism. The animated music video for the song, released in September of that same year, took the Internet by storm with people scrambling to decode its hidden meanings.

The video illustrates Gambino walking down an Atlanta-inspired neighborhood on a summer’s day, and features over 60 Black artists and celebrities doing summer-related activities. The video was directed by Gambino, he told the animators which celebrities he wanted portrayed, in what order, doing certain activities, but didn’t tell anyone why, so the meaning of the music video often gets interpreted in several different ways.

With all the celebrities, the familiar setting, and cookout-esque summer activities, a lot of people think of the video as a celebration of Black culture. However, because of the deeper meaning behind the lyrics, I think the song really focuses on how climate change not only negatively impacts the environment, but also disproportionately negativity impacts POC communities.

VIDEO BREAKDOWN

For example, one of the few things we know for sure about the video comes from comments made by character designer and creative director Justin Richburg, and co-director Ivan Dixon. It’s color palette of orange and red that makes the neighborhood look hot and hazy was on purpose, Gambino wanting it to feel polluted.

This can be connected to environmental racism; the unequal access to a clean environment and basic environmental resources based on race.

LYRIC BREAKDOWN

The whole song is very calming with slow beats and relaxed vocals, the perfect summer song you can listen to on a drive with the windows rolled down. But it has a darker meaning.

“You can feel it in the streets

On a day like this, the heat

It feels like summer”

The song annotation on Genius theorizes the opening lyrics allude to the fact that, since the video was released in September, at the tail end of summer, climate change has caused it to still “feel like summer”. It also suggests the lyric “in the streets” is referencing summertime crime spikes, because as temperatures rise, so does the crime rate.

“Seven billion souls that move around the sun

Rolling faster, fast and not a chance to slow down

Men who made machines that want what they decide

Parents tryna tell their children please slow down”

In the first verse, Gambino addresses the negative impact of overpopulation and the fact that it’s not slowing down anytime soon. He then goes on about how our capitalist society turned humans into working machines that do anything and everything for authority. I think this can connect to environmental racism because the working class population is majority POC, most having no choice but to be a machine for the man, living paycheck to paycheck.

“Parents tryna tell their children please slow down” could refer to parents encouraging their kids to hold onto their youth, trying to protect them from a life of labor.

“I know

Oh, I know you know that pain

I'm hopin' that this world will change

But it just seems the same”

This particular lyric is what makes me believe the fight for a better environment overlaps with the fight for civil rights. The want for the world to change and care for the environment, and the want for the world to change and care for Black lives. There is this feeling of seeing it all before, knowing things won’t change, a hopelessness. A Youtube comment on the music video points out, in the video, Shannon Sharpe sits on a bench eating Chocolate AND Vanilla ice cream, that eventually melts due to the “heat”. And notices that neither one of the ice cream flavors MIX due to the change in temperature.

“Every day gets hotter than the one before

Running out of water, it's about to go down

Go down

Air that kill the bees that we depend upon

Birds were made for singing

Waking up to no sound

No sound”

Verse 2 has the most impactful lyrics of the whole song, actually listing the growing concerns of climate change. Another connection to environmental racism is how BIPOC communities like Flint, Michigan and the Red Hill crisis in Hawaii don’t have access to clean water BECAUSE of careless actions by the U.S. government, putting profit before people and the environment.

“Waking up to no sound” is a reference to Rachel Carson’s 1962 “a Silent Spring” which is the environmental science book, focusing on the overwhelming amount of birds that died from air pollution.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Though "Feels Like Summer" by Childish Gambino is a great summer song, perfect for relaxing and enjoying the sun, the deeper meaning can get overshined. Gambino is talking about some serious issues and telling us to wake up and smell the dying roses.