What's missing? How about any reason why it was removed. That statement reads like a wife-apology, spoken to slighted husbands everywhere with a dismissive such as, "I'm sorry you felt that way." One reply to the official statement reads, "Now do a 'blackness' chart." I have a feeling the Smithsonian would remove that, too.
Why was that infographic published in the first place? I do not believe it was intended to cause an offense to anyone of any race; rather I believe it was published because those who created it believe it's correct.
And, of course, it is.
I wrote this editorial in the context of the release of Christopher Nolan's "The Odyssey" adaptation, about which Jack Posobiec wrote the following: "Helen of Troy was white. Achilles was white. Odysseus was white. This is all white culture."
"Some critics of Nolan's casting choices for 'The Odyssey' have lamented the cast lacks Greek actors and is allegedly historically inaccurate ... [S]ome critics have also criticized his casting of rapper Travis Scott in a small part. Nolan defended his choice ... saying, "I cast him because I wanted to nod towards the idea that this story has been handed down as oral poetry, which is analogous to rap ... When you're looking at the ancient past ... 'What is the best speculation and how can I use that to create a world?'"
Analogous? Is it though?
The Odyssey is the foundational work of Western epic poetry traditionally attributed to the ancient Greek poet Homer. There was no meaningful direct contact between Greece and sub-Saharan Africa by that point in history. In fact, the Greeks thought of even Ethiopia as "a mythical land at the farthest edges of the earth." But of course, rap music, if one can call its quasi-rhythmic lyricisms that, descends directly from traditional African storytellers called griots.
"Rap is fundamentally based on vocal styling, based on call-and-response, which is the foundation of all Black music," CNN reported a Nigerian record executive saying in 2023.
I suppose rap, then, is analogous to Greek oral poetry like the Mediterranean sweet pastry baklava is analogous to thiakry, a west African dessert made with couscous and milk—which is to say, not at all, besides the fact that two different peoples in two different places participated in two different activities. So ... analogous. Simply consider these two passages to conclude this comparative literature lesson.
"Great goddess, do not be angry at what I say.
"I know myself that wise Penelope is less than you,
"it's true, in looks and stature, being a mortal,
"while you are immortal and ever young.
"Even so I yearn day after day, longing to reach home,
"and see the hour of my return."
"In the 305, bitches treat me like I'm Uncle Luke
"(Don't stop, pop that pussy)
"Had to slop the top off, it's just a roof (uh)
"She said, 'Where we goin'?' I said, 'The moon'
"We ain't even make it to the room"
The former is white culture; the latter, black culture. Obviously.
Because what is a culture but what its people make it to be for themselves, their kin, and their progeny? Culture, I learned through my communication degrees and studies therein, is an organically emergent phenomenon that is self-reinforced and ever-self-re-inventing through the participation of its members, its people.
It’s no surprise that Japanese culture differs from Louisiana Cajun culture, which differs from South African culture, which differs from Persian culture—because those peoples are different, and naturally their cultures are too.
Which brings us to the white culture—the whiteness—of "The Odyssey."
That Smithsonian infographic contains text written by Judith H. Katz, a forty-year paradigm-shifter on "cutting-edge approaches to white awareness, inclusion, the leveraging of differences, covert processes, and strategic change." Katz has "consulted to colleges and universities including Stanford School of Business, Harvard Library, and the University of Connecticut Law School." She also authored "the first systematic training program to address racism from a white perspective."
Before DEI, there was Judy Katz; because of Judy Katz, there is DEI. Other so-called anti-racist trainers, speakers, consultants, educators, and such have also published work that both frames and details white culture, whiteness, even "white supremacy" as all the things in that Smithsonian Institution info-piece—which, by the way, contained statements written by Katz copyrighted to the year 1990! It's difficult to tell the anti-white apart from the pro-white, I have gathered, because it's all the same sets of claims.
The point is, the denizens of DEI training are not wrong, and neither is Posobiec. They completely agree for what I presume are completely opposite reasons. Here are just ten random examples where Judy Katz's acknowledgements of white cultural traits map onto Homer's (not Nolan's) Odyssey and various events, points, and twists within the oral work's arc:
- Rugged individualism: Odysseus alone tricks Cyclops ("Nobody"), rams stake solo. Self-reliant winner.
- Nuclear family: Twenty-year quest reclaims Penelope (homemaker wife) plus independent Telemachus. Dad is head of house.
- Objective, rational, linear thinking: Counts sheep, times blinding perfectly, plugs ears with wax in sequence. Cause-effect engineer.
- Respect authority: Defers to Athena/Zeus/Hermes hierarchy, follows higher order.
- Rigid time schedules: Tracks seasons, winds, exact days on raft, times return for bow contest.
- Plan for future / delayed gratification / action: Rejects Calypso's immortality/sex for future in Ithaca. Chooses suffering and constant action.
- Hard work before play: Nonstop toil building raft, rowing storms, enduring trials. Work means survival.
- Justice / protect property / intent counts: Massacres 108 suitors stealing livestock, wife, throne. Restores entitlements.
- Primacy Western / Greek / Judeo-Christian: Whole epic is literally Greek tradition—heroism, order, rationality as core.
- Written tradition: Odysseus's long structured linear tale becomes foundation of Western canon.
And what of the people of that "tradition"? Well, as you might expect, Helen of Troy, either a real individual or based on a true story, was decidedly not Kenyan like Nolan's Helen, Lupita Nyong'o. On the makeup of the ancient Greeks, from Nature:
"The Minoans and Mycenaeans . . . were homogeneous, supporting the genetic coherency of these two groups. Differences between them are only relative, viewed against their broad overall similarity to each other and to the southwestern Anatolians, sharing in both the 'local' Anatolian Neolithic-like farmer ancestry and the 'eastern' Caucasus-related admixture . . . [Another hypothesis with data to support is] the idea that Proto-Greek speakers formed the southern wing of a steppe intrusion of Indo-European speakers."
Caucasus. As in, Caucasian. Indo-European. As in, Aryan. (The Anatolians were Indo-European, too.)
That said, there is nothing wrong with being Kenyan. I've met plenty. I've also met Greeks. And again, aplenty. Nothing "wrong" with either. Neither shall I make any comparison or judgment of relative betterness of either, neither to each other, nor to any other. I'm sure that couscous action with the dairy and whatnot is tasty, and surely, too, is that honey pastry up north way above Africa. With this piece, I am simply doing a little noticing and asking the question:
Are we sufficiently post-woke to allow ourselves to acknowledge that Greek and Kenyan culture, customs, and clans are not interchangeable?
And that neither are any two distinct peoples of other distinct places in distinct times?
Well, are we?
Are you?
