The piece made by Kara Walker is interesting because it is transnational. I was struck by how easily Walker's outsider point of view allowed her to perceive something that many locals were overlooking. Britain and Europe have much more extensive histories than the US, and for that reason it is possible for nations there to not feel as directly connected to the slave trade as we are in the US. Here, we are more aware of how fundamental that was in the development of our country. The history of slavery specifically race related slavery dominates our history more than that of countries that go back for many more centuries. It is this uniquely American perspective that Walker takes to Britain that allows her to see the atrocities that these colonial monuments represent. Her identity as not just American, but African American makes her aware in a way that she is able to create work in a place where it's own people have been slow to notice how wrong some of these monuments are.
The piece made by Kara Walker is interesting because it is transnational. I was struck by how easily Walker's outsider point of view allowed her to perceive something that many locals were overlooking. Britain and Europe have much more extensive histories than the US, and for that reason it is possible for nations there to not feel as directly connected to the slave trade as we are in the US. Here, we are more aware of how fundamental that was in the development of our country. The history of slavery specifically race related slavery dominates our history more than that of countries that go back for many more centuries. It is this uniquely American perspective that Walker takes to Britain that allows her to see the atrocities that these colonial monuments represent. Her identity as not just American, but African American makes her aware in a way that she is able to create work in a place where it's own people have been slow to notice how wrong some of these monuments are.
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