I am a Shakespeare scholar—one who has had the audacity to put the word “race” next to his name. The future depends on how we understand and teach the past.
As I write this in fall 2024, there have been at least 807 legislative measures at the local, state and federal levels against the teaching of critical race theory. This onslaught of legislation has caused a chilling effect, where even when such legislation is unsuccessful, the fear influences teachers to censure themselves.
When people imagine hot-button topics in higher education, they rarely envision our ruffed and mustachioed bard, William Shakespeare. Nonetheless, Shakespeare studies has transformed to consider discussions of race as not only interesting, but also necessary to understanding his plays and poems.
When I was a university student, I was taught that race did not exist in Shakespeare’s time because it was a concept that was created in the Enlightenment. This seemed bizarre to me, since Shakespeare wrote plays about Africans and Jews that included explicitly racist and anti-Semitic language. It took meticulous archival work by scholars like Imtiaz Habib and Kim F. Hall to produce a body of evidence that now shows that Shakespeare’s London was much more racially, ethnically and religiously diverse than was previously understood. This body of evidence has allowed a new generation of scholars to teach Shakespeare in an entirely different way—one that invites students to think about how racial formation is baked into the heart of our literary canon.
The future of higher education will depend on how we frame the past. We cannot allow politics to whitewash history.
I frequently receive angry emails from strangers, primarily men, who think my scholarship is disgraceful. Sometimes their anger peaks by accusing me of violating the dead author I write about, as if I were digging up his corpse and …
Yes, you read that right: I receive emails from strangers that accuse me of raping Shakespeare. What inspires such passionate feelings? Well, I am a Shakespeare scholar—one who has had the audacity to put the word “race” next to his name.
Conservative politicians in several states have been seizing on which books children should be allowed to read. Simultaneously, there has been increased interest in the classical education movement, and Shakespeare has place of pride in that curriculum. Even the leaders of the Jan. 6 insurrection felt a kinship with Shakespeare, writing a letter to the Folger Shakespeare Library apologizing for the inconvenience their “protest” would create. It is no wonder, then, that I receive angry emails from strangers.
I am here to proclaim that the future of higher education will depend on how we frame the past. We cannot allow politics to whitewash history. Constructions of race and systemic racism have a much longer history than most of us are ever taught. This this the real anxiety behind anti-CRT legislation. They fear the next generation will demand that we confront our own ghosts.
Shakespeare will always be touted as one of the greats. He must not be cordoned off from his history, the reality of the multicultural renaissance in which he named his theater The Globe. Shakespeare’s world, much like ours, was beautiful and complicated. We cannot let our students live in the two-dimensional world promoted by Project 2025 and the politicians who support it. The future depends on how we understand and teach the past.
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Ms. Classroom wants to hear from educators and students being impacted by legislation attacking public education, higher education, gender, race and sexuality studies, activism and social justice in education, and diversity, equity and inclusion programs for our series, ‘Banned! Voices from the Classroom.’ Submit pitches and/or op-eds and reflections (between 500-800 words) to Ms. contributing editor Aviva Dove-Viebahn at adove-viebahn@msmagazine.com. Posts will be accepted on a rolling basis.
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