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In Defense of the Classics, Against New Racism

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In Defense of the Classics, Against New Racism 2021-4348-AJSS-SOC – 01 JUL 2021 1 In defense of the Classics, against New Racism 2 3 4 The Tenets of Critical Race Theory (CRT) 5 6 In our country ―People of color lead shorter lives, receive worse medical 7 care, complete fewer years of school, and occupy more menial jobs than do 8 whites,‖1 but lamentable not only that. There is a racial gap in many aspects of 9 life - rates of infant and maternal mortality, longevity, level of schooling and 10 educational achievements, menial and professional job, unemployment, 11 abortion, marriages, divorce, single motherhood, median family income, 12 people living below the poverty line, health, alcoholism, drug dependency, 13 HIV/AIDS, and healthcare. In all these cases, Blacks perform worse than 14 Whites. The gap persists despite the society-wide historical improvement 15 brought on by the Civil Rights movement and along with Affirmative Action. 16 Blacks‘ life improvement occurs in the background and context of Whites‘ life 17 improvement. So, life of Blacks, despite meaningful improvement, might be 18 seen and felt as getting worse. Paradoxically, CRT comes as a reaction to this 19 relative deprivation. 20 ―Critical Race Theory questions the very foundations of the liberal order, 21 including equality theory, legal reasoning, Enlightenment rationalism, and 22 neutral principles of constitutional law.‖2 23 According to CRT, ―racism is the usual way society does business, the 24 common, everyday experience of most people of color in this country, the 25 norm. The system of ―white-over-color ascendancy‖ serves important 26 purposes, both psychic and material, for the dominant group. Racism is 27 difficult to address or cure because it is not acknowledged.‖ The color-blind or 28 ―formal‖ conception of equality covers and can remedy only the most blatant 29 forms of discrimination, which stand out and attract our attention. ―3 30 Although in all indicators of a good life ‗Whites‘ stand behind ‗Asians,‘ 31 CRT considers the binary Black-white relationship as the paradigm central to 32 racial analysis,4 the window onto ignored or alternative realities.5 ―To see the 1Delgado, Richard and Jean Stefancic, Foreword by Angela Harris, 2017. Critical Race Theory. An Introduction, Third Edition, New York: New York University Press, p.13. 2Delgado, Richard and Jean Stefancic, Foreword by Angela Harris, 2017. Critical Race Theory. An Introduction, Third Edition, New York: New York University Press, pp.3, 13. 3Delgado, Richard and Jean Stefancic, Foreword by Harris Angela. Critical Race Theory. An Introduction. Third Edition. 2017. New York: New York University Press, p. 8. 4Delgado, Richard and Jean Stefancic, Foreword by Harris Angela. Critical Race Theory. An Introduction. Third Edition. 2017. New York: New York University Press, p 169. 5Delgado, Richard and Jean Stefancic, Foreword by Harris Angela. Critical Race Theory. An Introduction. Third Edition. 2017. New York: New York University Press, p. 46. "Alternative facts" was a phrase used by U.S. Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway during a Meet the Press interview on January 22, 2017, in which she defended White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer's false statement about the attendance numbers of Donald Trump's inauguration as President of the United States. When pressed during the interview with Chuck Todd to explain why Spicer would "utter a provable falsehood," Conway stated that Spicer was giving 1 2021-4348-AJSS-SOC – 01 JUL 2021 1 world as binary and to choose the side of righteousness makes life much more 2 meaningful, - Andrew Sullivan commented. - It banishes doubt and 3 complexity. It makes us feel better to be part of a tribe and to have a simple 4 enemy or ally who is clearly visible — just check the color of their skin, as 5 every elite student is now trained to do. ―6 6 The wisdom of street smart guys might help us here. 7 8 What are you looking for? The keys. 9 Did you lose them here? No. 10 Why are you looking for them here? It‘s light here. 11 12 In that vein, why not denigrate Western Civilization? 13 14 Polychromy in Antiquity - Gods in Color - liebieghaus.de 15 16 ―So what does it say to viewers today when museums display gleaming 17 white statues? What does it say when the only people of color one is likely to 18 see appear on a ceramic vessel? Sara Bond wrote. Intentional or not, museums 19 present viewers with a false color binary (CRT tries to impose) of the ancient 20 world?‖ - Sarah Bond asks. With rescoring their true polychrome, ―we can 21 come to better understand ourselves.‖7 22 To the credit of Richard Delgado, and Jean Stefancic, they recognize that 23 CRT may become ―the New Civil Rights orthodoxy‖ and embed itself ―in 24 academic scholarship and teaching and that its precepts became commonplace, 25 part of conventional wisdom.‖8 The CRT is analyzed but rejected as ―overly 26 radical, inconsistent with Enlightenment philosophy, and a bad example to 27 minority communities.‖9 The proponents of CRT commit to working toward 28 social justice and reject liberalism with its support of colorblindness, equal 29 opportunity, and meritocracy. 30 In modern societies, meritocracy means the power of people distinguished 31 by their talents and skills regardless of class, race, gender, or ethnicity. This is 32 a historically progressive social arrangement because, more than any other 33 social arrangement, it opens to people at the bottom of society a path to social 34 success based on their abilities and efforts. According to its vision of the 35 society as a system that works against people of color to benefit white people, 36 Critical Race Theory, broadly recognized in American colleges and "alternative facts." Todd responded, "Look, alternative facts are not facts. They're falsehoods." (Taken from the Internet) 6 Sullivan, Andrew. 2021. ―The unbearable Whiteness of the Classics.‖ The Willey Dish. 02.06.21. 7 Bond, Sarah, 2017. ―Whitewashing Ancient Statues: Whiteness, Racism and Color in the Ancient World,‖ Forbes. 8 Delgado, Richard and Jean Stefancic, Foreword by Harris Angela. Critical Race Theory. An Introduction. Third Edition. 2017. New York: New York University Press, p. 158. 9 Delgado, Richard and Jean Stefancic, Foreword by Harris Angela. Critical Race Theory. An Introduction. Third Edition. 2017. New York: New York University Press, p. 159. 2 2021-4348-AJSS-SOC – 01 JUL 2021 1 universities, overshadows and even substitutes any merit, blamed as 2 ―mechanical scales,‖10 with the right color – the further from white, the better. 3 ―The classical past has never been co-opted by only one political tendency: 4 Classics have probably legitimated as many revolutions as they legitimated 5 conservative dictatorships,‖ - as Mary Beard, a professor of Classics at 6 Cambridge, writes. - ―Classics are, of course, about us as much as about 7 Greeks and Romans.‖11 8 From one side of the academic spectrum, ―Our discipline was built to 9 exclude,‖ Rebecca Futo Kennedy wrote. ―It continues to be used to craft and 10 promote exclusions. I look around this room today and I see a sea of whiteness, 11 just like we see at every conference and still too often in our classrooms.‖ We 12 have to truly ―embrace a ‗classics for all‘ mentality and way of acting, and 13 understanding that ‗classics‘ don‘t have to be an ex uno unum--it is and should 14 be an e pluribus unum.”12 15 From another side of the academic spectrum, Roger Kimball wrote, 16 ―There has never in history been a society more open to other cultures than 17 our own; nor has any tradition been more committed to self-criticism than 18 the Western tradition: the figure of Socrates endlessly inviting self-scrutiny 19 and rational explanation is a definitive image of the Western spirit. 20 Moreover, ‗Western‘ science is not exclusively Western: it is science plain 21 and simple—yes, it is ‗universal‘ science — which, though invented and 22 developed in the West, is as true for the inhabitants of the Nile Valley as it 23 is for the denizens of New York.‖13 24 The wave of the struggle against ‗white privilege‘ and ‗systemic racism‘ 25 has not excluded the field of classics, the study of Ancient Greece and Rome. 26 ―Although the faculty members and departments are obligated to operate as 27 market actors procuring resources in a hypercompetitive environment,‖14 and 28 students are mostly imbued with utilitarian goals, either their own or those 29 transferred from their parents who are paying tuition bills,15 the wind of 30 cultural wars 16 did not disappear from the sails of the Black Athena 31 controversy, presented and symbolized by this collocation. ―When you hear 32 someone – be the student, a colleague, or an amateur -- say that they are 33 interested in classics because of ‗the Greek miracle‘ or because Classics is ‗the 34 foundation of western civilization and ‗culture,‘ Donna Zuckerberg, the Editor- 10 Delgado, Richard and Jean Stefancic, 2017. Critical Race Theory: An Introduction, New York: New York University Press, pp.104, 179. 11 Beard, Mary. Confronting the Classics. Traditions, Adventures, and Innovations, New York London: Liveright Publishing Corporation, 2013, p. 7. 12 Futo Kennedy, Rebecca. 2017. ―Why I Teach About Race and Ethnicity in the Classical World.‖ Eidolon, Sep. 2017. 13 Kimball, Roger. 2021, New Criterion, ―Tenured Radicals‖: a postscript, Vol.19, No.10, p.8. 14 Shullenberger, Geoff. 2021. ―Social Justice, Austerity, and the Humanities Death Spiral.‖ The Chronicle of Higher Education, February 8, 2021. 15 Beye, Charles.1998. Who Killed Homer? The Demise of Classical Education and the Recovery of Greek Wisdom, Bryn Mawr Classical Review, Free Press: 98.5.12.
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