Kerby Anderson

It’s time to talk about William Shakespeare. In previous commentaries, I have documented that he coined or invented about 1,500 English words we use today. I have also talked about the phrases we use today that come from him. When we use phrases like “love is blind” or to “catch a cold” or you have a “heart of gold” or “it’s all Greek to me,” we are referring to scenes in Shakespeare.

Of course, I have also done commentaries on the fact that fewer students than ever read Shakespeare. Up until recently, he was the most read English author. Unfortunately, it may be possible that an English major at a university could go through four years of study and never read Shakespeare.

But it gets worse. Rich Lowery writes that now we have activists and academics claiming that Shakespeare created the concept of whiteness. He answers an important question.

If you’ve wondered whether there’s anything that race-obsessed activists, bureaucrats, and academics can’t ruin, the answer is “no,” as they begin to get to work in earnest trying to tear down a towering genius who has had an immense — and profoundly edifying effect — on our culture.

According to one book with the title, White People in Shakespeare, the playwright was engaged in “white-people-making.” And the contributors point to the fact that his influence coincides with what they describe as “global white cultural supremacy.”

I suppose it was only a matter of time before this would occur. Shakespeare, and many of the great authors of the Western canon like Dante, Chaucer, and Dickens, have been banned from the classroom simply because they were considered “dead white males.”

Sadly, now that the Bard has been tagged with the “white supremacy” label, it will guarantee that even fewer students will read his influential works.