"Ultimately, my goal is to subvert the common perception of 'black history' as somehow separate from American history and to reinstate it as indivisible from the totality of past social, political and economic occurrences that make up contemporary American culture."
The words are displayed by Hank Willis Thomas, one of the artists whose work appears in "30 Americans," an art exhibition from the Rubell Family Collection that debuted in December 2008 and has been making its way around the country since 2011. "30 Americans" was recently on display at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Missouri, a few blocks from NCR's headquarters.
Thomas' goal is certainly an uphill struggle.
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It is, however, an idea that moved well beyond the bounds of a museum description with "The 1619 Project," an undertaking of The New York Times that might well go down as a publishing landmark under the heading of bold truth-telling.
The title itself requires a reconsideration of American history, of the founding era, of the presumptions that undergird how we think of ourselves as individuals and as a nation.
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