Cambridge, ‘whiteness’ and the politicisation of Classics

In Cambridge University’s latest push to right the wrongs of history, its Museum of Classical Archaeology will add some signage to explain the ‘whiteness’ of its collection of Greek and Roman statues.

The Classics faculty, of which the museum is part, has taken this great and noble mission upon itself in response to an open letter signed by dozens of students, alumni and academics — including the chair of the Classics faculty itself. The letter calls for ‘an acknowledgement of the existence of systemic racism within Classics’ and argues that the white plaster casts of Classical statues give a ‘misleading impression’ of an ‘absence of diversity’ in the ancient world. The museum agrees, and so up goes the signage.

Mad as it may sound, there is logic in the lunacy.

The statues overlooking the bustling fora of the ancient Mediterranean were not seen by the togaed passers-by in the creamy white of the marble they were carved from.