A Thank you Letter to Donald Glover and The Importance of Representation
It’s 2011 and I am 14 years old. I’m on Spotify and I’m looking at the new releases for the week. I see this album named Camp by Childish Gambino and it looks interesting so I decide to listen to it. I hit play on the first song of the album Outside and immediately I’m drawn in. I listened to it once, then twice, then three times; I listened until I couldn’t listen anymore because I had to go to bed I was hooked. I had never heard anyone like me speaking to an audience and really have people listen. Someone like me was out there and they were speaking to me, they understood what I was going through. Being told that I wasn’t really black because I didn’t fit their standard black person archetype or that I must have never been in ‘The Hood’ because I didn’t speak the way that ‘black people speak.’ Childish Gambino, the man speaking to me and for me was here, and I have loved him ever since. He made me feel like it was okay that I was the way that I am and that I didn’t need to take photos of me in Coogi jackets and Atlanta Braves snapbacks in my little sisters room and put them on Facebook (Yes, I actually did that). I could be me and that was okay because here was this person being himself, he looked like me, was from the same area as me, and was doing things that I could only dream of doing. He made the most important piece of art to my life. Thus my Donald Glover obsession was born.
Fast forward to 2013, I’m 16 years old, and still fucking love Donald Glover. I’m waiting for Donald to release his second album because the internet (Also, Royalty came out in 2012 and it was fucking amazing). In high school I was in full ‘imitating my idol’ phase and it was pretty obvious. because the internet, which I own on vinyl, changed my life again. It was incredible to me how I’d grown and my favorite artist grew with me both artistically and in level of fame. I’d refused to listen to any leaks that came out before the album released. Then on release day I BEGGED my dad to buy me an iTunes card so that I could buy the album and he did because I think he knew how important it was to me. Listening to the album for the first time while following along with the screenplay was amazing. I still remember sitting on the floor of my room crying listening to Donald touch on so many new topics. Topics that I could really relate to like the saddest song I have ever heard 3005. I still cry listening to 3005 because I am that dude. The character “The Boy” that was me or I guess that is me.
It’s 2017, I’m 19 years old, Donald Glover is still my idol, he released an amazing album, and created my favorite TV show of all time. It’s crazy to me that as I progress in life so does he. After doing theatre in middle school and high school I am now in college following my dreams of becoming an actor, being in films and TV shows, becoming a writer for a sitcom, and doing stand up comedy. While my idol is getting roles in major films like the playing Simba in the FUCKING LION KING, being Spider Man, and STAR WARS. If I had never had this role model in my life I don’t know what I’d be doing right now. Probably going to college and majoring in English which is cool, but without Donald Glover I may not have known that any of what I’m doing is possible for me. I once had someone tell me that I wasn’t creative because I was striving to be like my idol, which at the time really fucked with me and upset me, but today I’m being told by professors that I’m turning in some of the most creative projects they’ve ever seen so to that person… fuck you. Forgive me I’m petty.
Basically what I’m trying to say is that people of color need to see more people like them in the mainstream media and just in general. It can really changes lives. Also, thank you to Donald Glover for changing mine.
