While going through the exhibit, I was hit hard several times with a few different themes. One of these was the relationship between blacks and whites in America today. Nanny Now, Nigger Later, No Mommy Me I and No Mommy Me II reminded me (very abruptly) of the phenomenon created when black nannies would care for their white slaveowners’ children during slave times. In many instances, the children would form a bond with these caretakers that was much like the one they had with their mothers (and in some cases even stronger). These same children grew up and learned that the women who had raised them and whom they respected and loved were actually their slaves. Joyce Scott says it succinctly in her title, Nanny Now, Nigger Later. 

What REALLY threw me off was reading a little bit about the pieces and learning that they were actually set in the 1950’s and 1960’s. This added another layer of meaning to the pieces for me. I was shocked by a re-realization. Americans have not at all conquered the race problem. It is something so deeply rooted in our country that a century after emancipation nothing (essentially) had changed.

Even two generations after the Civil Rights Movement, have we really gotten past the larger issues? Consciously and subconsciously, has our country evolved past slavery yet? How far do we have to go, or will these issues always follow us?