“Western Civilization” means Classics…and White Supremacy
Earlier this month Iowa congressional representative Steve King, known for his xenophobia, support for white supremacy, and long history of promoting racist politics, was quoted by The New York Times asking “white nationalist, white supremacist, Western civilization — how did that language become offensive?” No one has defended King for asking this about “white nationalist” or “white supremacist,” but Texas congressional representative Louie Gohmert said that it’s “a fair question” to ask “when did Western civilization become a negative?” and South Carolina Senator Tim Scott said “I am unsure who is offended by the term ‘Western civilization’ on its own.” If Scott were to look into it, he would find many different people, including classical scholars arguing that “Western civilization” is coded language for white supremacy, even in response to King’s latest remarks. But it’s important to keep reiterating the case. Just this month a member of the professional association for classical scholars prefaced a racist attack on a scholar of color by insisting on the need for classical scholars to protect Western civilization. And we need to reiterate not only that “Western civilization” refers to a racist ideology, but that those who use it as King does are referring to Greco-Roman antiquity.
King did not explicitly mention Classical antiquity but it seems likely he had it in mind. Most of the coverage of King’s comments have focused on the quote given above, but King said more than this. He also said: “Why did I sit in classes teaching me about the merits of our history and our civilization?” He’s probably not referring to courses he took for his Math and Biology majors. Much more likely he means courses he took on ancient Greek and Roman history and literature.
The white supremacist site American Renaissance certainly thinks that’s what King was talking about. It covered his comments in an article entitled “Western Civilization is White Civilization.” The only period of history discussed in this article is ancient Greco-Roman history. This is the same site that Pharos has documented perpetuating the claim that ancient Greeks were the descendants of “Nordic” invaders.
It’s time for classical scholars to recognize that "Western civilization" is a racist dog whistle
Why is the nexus of “Western civilization,” Classical antiquity, and white nationalist politics so clear to the editors of American Renaissance and not to Senator Scott, or, it seems, some professional scholars of Classics? It’s because the racists are tuned into that language in a way that the rest of us aren’t, or haven’t been. In January 2018 reporter Megyn Kelly interviewed Christian Picciolini, who was a member of the Hammerskins white supremacist group and later left the movement to found the anti-hatred organization Life After Hate. Picciolini told Kelly that when white supremacists hear news reports about “globalism” or “the liberal media” they understand these to be coded references to “the global Jewish conspiracy” and “the Jewish media.” It’s time for classical scholars to recognize that “Western civilization” is a similar dog whistle. We may think it means everything good about the classical past but to many people — including some, if you’re a teacher, that may be in your class — it means a justification for racist politics and the “defense” of a white ethno-state.
And indeed, it’s not hard to find sites that mix together the language of “Western civilization” with white supremacy and other forms of hatred. You just need to look. Last year Pharos documented a site arguing that the study of Greek and Latin are “a key to the renewal of Western civilization.” It may seem nice to see a site promoting an area of classical studies whose future is uncertain, until you realize that the site also promotes racism and homophobia.
Other examples from sites Pharos has documented:
- Ricardo Duchesne, whose white nationalist website includes homophobic and racist articles on ancient material, has written a book entitled The Uniqueness of Western Civilization. The neo-Nazi site Counter Currents gave it a five part, twenty-thousand word review, one part of which begins with an image of the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius.
- The misogynist site Return of Kings, which frequently makes use of Classical material, has published many articles about the supposed “decline” of “Western civilization,” including “How the elites are using radical Islam to subvert and destroy western civilization.”
- The racist and xenophobic site VDare, which compares contemporary immigrants to late-antique “barbarians,” features an article by Paul Kersey, whose racist site Pharos has also documented, arguing that “Black anti-social behavior is absolutely destroying what’s left of Western civilization in the United States.”
- A leading anti-Semitic website, The Daily Stormer, published an article about the death of holocaust denier Robert Faurisson in which they said that “despite the way the Jews have smeared him, he will be remembered for what he was: a hero of the people and a champion of Western civilization.” Pharos will document some of The Daily Stormer’s Classical content in the coming months; we have already documented an article by the site’s founder blaming Jewish people for “the utter decay… [of Greece], the place where Western civilization was birthed.”
- Augustus Sol Invictus, the holocaust denier and white nationalist who admires Greco-Roman antiquity so much that he legally changed his name to an amalgam of Roman imperial terms, published an article on his website The Revolutionary Conservative arguing that immigration is “a danger for Western civilization, Whites, and any of those who value liberty and the right to a state or community that centers around your culture.”
- The misogynist site A Voice for Men, which published an article arguing that the late-antique author Macrobius is a model for how men can survive in a culture supposedly dominated by women, published an article entitled “In Praise of Dead White Men.” It complains that “North American, and Antipodean university students and professors have rebelled against the study of Western civilization” and the first example it gives is the “rejection” of Classical Studies “because the Greeks and Romans were too white” (a gross caricature of calls for a broader view of the ancient world). Later it describes “Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Sophocles, Aeschylus, Euripides, Aristophanes” as “certainly white” and “foundational for Western civilization.” The same article defends slavery and the forced assimilation of the indigenous people of North America.
Pharos contributor Rebecca Futo Kennedy has written that teachers of Classics “embolden those who would use it as justification for present racism and misogyny” when they “ignore, downplay, or fail to call out…the ancient world’s darker propensities” toward misogyny, racism, or xenophobia. Steve King all but stated that his teachers emboldened him in this way. And this isn’t just something that could happen in decades past: a university in Australia has announced it is creating a degree in “Western civilisation” to allow students to “engage directly with great literary, artistic and intellectual works that are cornerstones of Western civilisation.”
To anyone who wishes for a more just assessment of the past and dreams of a more equitable society, it’s pretty clear that, in the words of one critic of the new degree, “The concept of ‘Western civilisation’ is past its use-by date in university humanities departments.” Think about whether you’re using this or related language and think about whether it’s accomplishing what you want it to.
We’ve linked above to archived versions of the hate sites we’re documenting to avoid generating traffic and advertising revenue for them.
