On March 26th, 2013, Lil Wayne released his album “I Am Not A Human Being II” which featured the song “God Bless Amerika”. In this song he raps about the social injustice shown towards African Americans in everyday society. The way he created the video shows specific instances in which this injustice occurs.

The video starts off with Lil Wayne standing in front of a large American flag. (0:11) The fact he starts off with this image is showing how even with all the wrongs and issues in the United States he is still represented by the American flag. The flag is much larger than Lil Wayne in the same way the government is much bigger than all of us and sometimes we can be overlooked. The main point of the video is to show how life is for the less fortunate African Americans but it can relate to any of us because we all have very little power to control what we can do and what we cannot. While he is in front of the flag he says “God bless Amerika, This is so godless Amerika”. The point he is making is that the United States is supposed to be a place protected by God and people follow him as their religion but with all the racial issues it is very hard to believe that there is actually a God.

Shortly after Lil Wayne is standing in front of the flag it switches over too two Caucasian policemen in full riot gear. (1:01) The camera for this shot is in bug’s-eye view giving the feeling that the police are overpowering and larger than anyone else. This is how some African Americans view the police because they feel like they will get in trouble for small things that others will not which actually causes them to be scared of law enforcement. Both of the officers have very stern faces which only adds up towards their image of being ruthless and showing hate towards minorities. If the police were standing in front of the flag in a normal police uniform smiling or eating donuts or something it wouldn’t give off the dangerous, hateful vibe that they give off. 

In the next scene when the flag drops and shows a large group of African Americans standing behind where the flag was not showing emotion (1:16) emphasizes how they feel towards the views of America and the way they are treated by police, government, and other greater powers. The way they are standing makes it seem like they are trapped or not willing to put up a fight because they are drained from all the injustices they have gone through. Many of them have their heads down and are not looking at the camera while Lil Wayne is rapping and looking straight at the camera. They are not looking at the camera showing fear or distrust towards the camera which represents the rest of America watching the video. In the crowd there are young kids, elders, and men and women representing how everyone is affected by the issues that they face on a daily basis. It is not only African American adult males but also females and kids are all included in these injustices.

In one scene Lil Wayne is inside an abandoned house rapping and above him on the wall the words “They don’t care!” are spray painted. (1:17) This is a strong written text within the visual motif because it points out the distrust that is felt throughout the community. With the words being inside an abandoned house you can relate it too how the African Americans do not have any support to be able to survive and afford the house which is just showing another way that the government does not care about them. Throughout the whole video they show many houses and streets that are just as bad as the house which has the words spray-painted in it. The whole city in which the video is shot is not a place where people would want to be living and that none of them have support from the government unlike the common white neighborhood. The only time the police show up In the video besides the part where they are standing in front of the large flag is when they are trying to control a riot in the neighborhood. This points out that the law enforcement is only their when there is an issue but not there in general when they really need help to survive and thrive in basic living conditions. 

The visual text was produced by a four time Grammy Award winner that was born in a poor African American city near New Orleans, Louisiana. He wrote this song to get the word out to the rest of the United States about how difficult some people have to live like. He knows first-hand what it is like from his youth where he started carrying a handgun at the age of 11 years old.

Lil Wayne does a great job of showing people who do not understand what it is like in the ghetto how difficult life is and how the police are not there to help or protect them. This video is very strong and gets it point across. In every scene you can see some of the social injustices he was trying to bring out of the shadows and call for change in the predominantly African American neighborhoods.
