Dead white males

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Dead white males or Dead White European Males (DWEM) is a term that refers in a derisive way to the contributions of historic European males. This paradigm is closely associated with a critical view of the Great Man Theory of history and the Great Books focus of educational essentialism and Educational perennialism.

1 History
2 Criticism of term
3 See also
4 References
5 External links

[edit] History

The phrase "dead white males" (or "dead white men," "dead white guys" etc.) is a term used to criticize the emphasis on high culture in Western civilization in schools (especially those in the United States), as the majority of figures previously considered significant in Western civilization were white males who are usually dead.^{[citation needed]} Critics^[who?] of the traditional curriculum argued^{[citation needed]} that it enshrined a particular world view that valued older European history, for example, over more recent American achievements. Critics^[who?] also implied^{[citation needed]} that traditional curriculum was subconsciously racist and sexist by ignoring the achievements of women and minority groups. A form of history viewed in a similar way is the "Great man theory" of history.

The term has gained widespread enough currency that it can appear in mass-market media. For example, in the film 10 Things I Hate About You (1999), an African-American high-school English teacher performs a rap version of a Shakespearean sonnet. Afterwards, he remarks that despite the fact that Shakespeare is merely a "dead white guy," he reassures the class that the playwright "knows his stuff [sic]" and is still worth the attention.

Australian playwright David Williamson also satirised this approach to education in his play Dead White Males. In the production, the ghost of Shakespeare is shot by a radical post-structuralist lecturer.

Dead White Males: A Year in the Trenches of Teaching was written by playwright William Missouri Downs, A dark comedy and biting satire of the public school system which pulls most of its plots straight from the headlines.

The term doesn't have to apply to dead white men with conservative or centrist views, it has been used ironically to poke fun at "dead white men" on the political left, such as Karl Marx and Edward Said.^[1]

[edit] Criticism of term

Critics of the term have alleged that it is unfair to reject people or ideas on the grounds of race or sex,^[1] and that academics suffers when the valuable ideas of those who are white, male, and dead are excluded from college curricula.^[2]