Systemic Racism is Real

There is an article going around from the New York Times about Dan-el Padilla Peralta, a Classics professor at Princeton (specifically history of Rome).

In my opinion this NY Times article about Padilla is very well written and displays a well-rounded observation of Padilla’s history in and views on Classics as a field. I don’t know much about Padilla personally, but to this classicist, the things he says rang true — that Classics should cease being dominantly white, Christian, and solely focused on Greece and Rome. That the systemic racism and prejudice must end.

There have been many who have come to the defense of Classics as a field of “Western” study, and those who have come to its defense simply because they hate people who are “woke”. I have something to say to the latter. Systemic racism and prejudice is real, especially in the white and male-dominated field of Classics.

For those who don’t know me, I am a Classicist. I’ve been studying Latin since I was 12, I have my M.A. in Latin language and literature, and now I teach Latin for a living. I am also a non-Christian woman. Ergo, I see what’s going on, and I pay attention to others when I don’t see. But some people forget that I (and many others) have this insight in the field because they either don’t see or choose not to see, and often hate the people who have these insights for trying to change the status quo.

I have had experience with those who hate “woke” people on multiple occasions, including incidents on Twitter. Here is a recent exchange I had with such a person — for context this person is a conservative man, over 70, and a Trump supporter. You get the picture.

I get an email from this person with the NY Times article attached, complaining about Padilla and what he (and apparently others also) calls the “wokerati”. I then explain to him that “Classics is full of systemic racism and unfortunately Jews [like us] are victims there too.” He then asks me how the victimization of Jews in Classics is any different from how Jews were victimized in higher education decades ago. And, I explain, the fact that it isn’t all that different is the problem. Of course it’s not just Jews, though as a Jew my focus tends to go there first. I then explain my own experiences with systematic racism in Classics:

“…the fact that classics continues to be run by white people, and focuses mostly on Europeans and Christians perpetuates the very real systemic racism. Padilla is only saying what is true.

The fact that it isn’t different for Jews or any other groups is the problem. Saying [“]oh it’s the same as it always has been[”] isn’t a good thing.

Classics, and many other fields, have to change if they want their fields to grow.

There is so much about the classical world that just isn’t taught as part of a mainstream curriculum because it isn’t European or Christian. I know nothing about the many, many Jews who lived in Ancient Rome, nor about the interactions of the peoples of North Africa or the Middle East. To exclude these from the curriculum is a huge problem that has indeed been addressed but not fixed.”

Padilla says many things akin to this, and though there are many who hate the person or people saying these things, that doesn’t make those things any less true. Systemic racism is real, exclusion from the curriculum of people and places that existed in the classical world is real and a problem.

Action needs to be taken, of course, but first we who are “woke” need to be listened to and understood.

If you haven’t yet, please do read the article about Padilla. You don’t have to like him, but I implore you to listen to what he has to say. He doesn’t want to destroy Classics. In fact, I argue that he wants to save it from stagnation.

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Abigail Siegel, 2021

Article link: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/02/magazine/classics-greece-rome-whiteness.html?fbclid=IwAR0aEesD8HkfxvWfNpvUNDl5iaml_5T1EL0XLfcILB4t3fN2KKOraPUGy4I