Shakespeare Trust: celebrating Bard ‘benefits white supremacy’

In a society obsessed with political correctness and progressiveness, nothing is sacred – not, it seems, even William Shakespeare. It transpires that the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, which owns a number of buildings in the bard’s hometown of Stratford-upon-Avon, is working on plans to ensure the writer’s place of origin will be ‘decolonised’. The move, as reported by the Telegraph, follows concerns that depicting Shakespeare as one of the greatest playwrights ‘benefits the ideology of white European supremacy’. Er, right.

In a bid to push a ‘more inclusive museum experience’, the Birthplace Trust has announced it will distance itself from Western views on the poet and decolonise its vast collection. The organisation has lamented that some of its archival items may contain ‘language or depictions that are racist, sexist, homophobic or otherwise harmful’ and hopes to explore ‘the continued impact of Empire’ on its collections, the ‘impact of colonialism’ on world history and how ‘Shakespeare’s work has played a part in this’.