The latest entry in the Annals of Wokeness can be found in an essay Robert Spencer wrote here. More on this can be found here: “Shakespeare’s birthplace to be ‘de-colonised’ over fears his success ‘benefits the ideology of white European supremacy,'” by Emily Jane Davies, Daily Mail, March 16, 2025:
William Shakespeare’s birthplace will be de-colonised over fears that portraying his success as the ‘greatest’ playwright ‘benefits the ideology of white European supremacy’.
Shakespeare’s Birthplace Trust owns buildings in the playwright’s hometown of Stratford-upon-Avon.
It wants to ‘create a more inclusive museum experience’ and announced it will move away from Western perspectives after concerns were raised that Shakespeare’s ideas were used to advance ‘white supremacy’ ideas.
The trust also said that some of its items could contain language or depictions that are racist, sexist, or homophobic.
It comes amid an ongoing backlash against the writer. Some productions of his works have been slapped with trigger warnings for misogyny, racism and ‘problematic radicalised dynamics’ that link whiteness to beauty.
In 2022, a research project between the trust and Dr Helen Hopkins at the University of Birmingham postulated that the idea of Shakespeare’s ‘universal’ genius ‘benefits the ideology of white European supremacy’.
This is because European culture is portrayed as the standard for high art and the playwright as a symbol of British ‘superiority’, according to The Telegraph.
The project said this narrative has caused harm, and advised that the trust stop saying Shakespeare was the ‘greatest’ but part of a community of ‘equal and different’ writers globally.
Some of its organised events celebrated Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore, and a Romeo and Juliet-inspired Bollywood dance workshop.
The trust also promised to remove offensive language from its collections.
Some of the items at the trust include archived material, literary criticism, books linked to the writer and gifts from around the world offered in honour of him.
A statement from the trust said: ‘As part of our ongoing work, we’ve undertaken a project which explores our collections to ensure they are as accessible as possible.’
In 2021, The Globe Theatre launched a project to ‘decolonise’ Shakespeare’s famous plays, while experts claimed his work is ‘problematic’ for linking whiteness to beauty.
The London theatre, which is a reconstruction of the Elizabethan playhouse where William Shakespeare wrote his work, has begun ‘anti-racist’ seminars to discuss ‘decolonising’ Shakespeare’s esteemed plays.
Experts claimed that the bard’s plays are ‘problematic’ for linking whiteness to beauty, while an academic said all of Shakespeare’s plays are ‘race plays’ as they all contain ‘whiteness’.
Also in 2021, it was reported that a growing number of ‘woke’ academics are refusing to teach Shakespeare in U.S. schools, arguing that the Bard promotes racism, white supremacy and intolerance, and instead are pushing for the teaching of ‘modern’ alternatives.
It should be enough to point out the passages in his writings that prove Shakespeare to have been a defender of British imperialism even before there was a British empire to defend, and a racist to boot. Once those offending passages have been pointed out, shouldn’t they be excised from all future editions of his works, and from all future performances of his plays?
Or perhaps, given Shakespeare’s “racism,” why not remove his works altogether from the libraries, school syllabi, and repertoire of plays allowed to be put on? No one should be given a pass to spread racist views in his writings just because some consider that writer talented. As for me, now that his racism has been brought to my attention, I will never read a line of Shakespeare again. I will urge my local library to divest itself of his books so that no one else, including impressionable young people, inadvertently runs across them. And you will find me out on the picket line outside any theatre that has the bad taste to put on one of his plays. We have so many writers who are not racists; why do we need Shakespeare?
Wellington says
More Leftist rubbish which is rooted in many negatives, two of which are regularly self-hate and ignorance.
gravenimage says
+1
Westman says
Amen!
Westman says
Amen!
Eddie says
Childish rubbish with no foundation in anything remotely sensible.
Pathetic.
So why not scrap everything that white westerners ever wrote, ever invented, or ever produced as art or music ?
Truth is the that there would not be much left.
Let’s have just what came out of the third world countries .
And to round it up nicely let us live to the dictates of some religion that was created by a 7th century Arab war lord
gravenimage says
Yes–that they are going after the greatest playwright in history is no accident.
somehistory says
To be truthful, I have never really cared for the things Shakespeare wrote. But, that just being personal taste, I’ve never tried to keep others from reading his works. I had a collection of his plays and tried reading them to see what was so fascinating to others, but they were just not for me.
mozlums come along, and I can imagine that if they ever read any of it, they would be at a loss to understand it. But, it was written by an infidel and that is just not acceptable in today’s fawning-over-islime world.
bo ordered NASA to make mozlums feel intelligent. Now, this “trust” (untrustworthy, they are) is doing the same with changing, limiting, disparaging, Mr. Shakespeare.
There is an old saying about a sow’s ear and a purse. But, everyone is casting aside old (and True) sayings in order to make those who wish us all dead, feel good about themselves.
Nothing is done to make them “feel good about those they want to murder” and they already “feel” their supposed superiority.
There is a lot of “beauty” in White. Clouds, clear eyes ,a field of cotton, smiles that show white, healthy teeth.
islime is chock full of jealousy…..mozlums are insanely, demonically, jealous of Jews and Christians…and maybe others.
Truth is being shredded because islime is built solely on lies; and islime is the order of the day for so very many wimpy souls. Including those ones who were *entrusted* with the works of William Shakespeare.
gravenimage says
Sonehistory I’ve had that reaction myself to the works of some artists considered great icons–they just don’t speak to me–but like you, I just consider that personal taste. Ths is what civilized people do.
I doubt that many of these tools even know much about Shakespeare and his work, though–they just know that he is considered a great Western artist, and so want to discredit and destroy him.
somehistory says
Thank you, g. I have the same doubts. And if they did read some, likely it would swoop right over their heads.
Especially if they tried it in old English. Most of them are terrible at modern English.
Andrew says
Apparently they forgot about Othello and Twellfth Night when it comes to diversity.
St Croix says
True. And they might even enjoy The Merchant of Venice because of the Jewish money-lender (“there, a hateful, vengeful, difficult evil Joo”), or they might just say it’s antisemitic. England and Europe were antisemitic, definitely. But is Shakespeare playing with the Christians, who are not necessarily aware of “who their neighbour is”?
Shakespeare does play upon and reveal all the shades and facets of human character. It’s not always pretty, but it’s pretty fascinating.
The Merchant of Venice came out as a movie in 2004 with Al Pacino. Shylock was given humanity, and I prefer to believe it was there in Shakespeare’s intention. 4-D Chess, Shakespeare style.
As for delightfulness, The Taming of The Shrew, Much Ado About Nothing and A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
*********
“A statement from the trust said: ‘As part of our ongoing work, we’ve undertaken a project which explores our collections to ensure they are as accessible as possible.’”
As for that gem of a statement, it’s the extinction of the culture, the “ethnic cleansing” of English identity, though a weak, yet convincing to those who can’t see very well, facsimile might be allowed to remain.
“As Accessible as possible” where “accessible” is not referring to wheelchair ramps. “Accessible” means non-offensive to other people than the group to which Shakespeare belonged “racially” and culturally.
The removal of any whiff of ANYTHING that might trigger those who object to “whiteness” and “white culture” and “colonizers.”
More shades of Orwell, unfolding in front of our eyes.
Nathaniel Winterson says
A first class illustration of degeneracy. A dying culture which can’t wait to die. What we should be proud of we decry. What we should value we desecrate.
Does respecting the eminence of Rabindranath Tagore put down European culture as inferior? Those born to Bengali culture are not being racist when they admire that. Declaring that the opposite is true of Europeans simply reveals a fear – that European culture IS superior. THAT is what we don’t know what to do with.
sporticus says
Shakespeare could have found an autopen quite useful.
Half a dozen or so scrabbed signatures attributed to him are all we have from his inked feather quill.
It’s no use trekking to Stratford to look at the manuscript of Romeo and Juliet. There is no such thing. There are no manuscripts by Shakespeare’s hand of any of his works.
Who was Shakespeare if he were anything at all?
“Shakespeare” seems more like an easily recognised trademark or logo of a theatre company.
Let’s just cancel all the members, all men, of Shakespeare Global if we can find them. Big bad dead white men -especially the huge dude who played Othello using blackface.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
Something I had overlooked: not only wasn’t there a British empire, there wasn’t even a Britain! Shakespeare was patronized by Queen Elizabeth I – the last queen of England!
I have condemned him in the past for his antisemitism, which was real, and showed itself in the “Merchant of Venice”. Which also painted a Moroccan ruler as rather chivalrous. For “Taming of the shrew”, I do think that since the values of that era did require that the sole role of women was marriage, that was not as inappropriate. But to call him a racist, when there were only Whites in England at the time, albeit of different races – Normans, Saxons, Celts,… is just ludicrous
On a different note, given the retarded language skills of Gen Z and beyond, maybe reading Shakespeare is a futile exercise
Rarely says
Shakespeare’s place as the greatest playwright in the English language is firmly established. It has been said that if he had never written a play he would still have been considered the greatest English poet for his sonnets. His incredible broad knowledge, unparalleled insight into human nature and mastery of the English language are impossible to comprehend. A true genius.
Any prejudices he had can easily be attributed to his being a man of his time so it would be wrong to judge him based on 21st century values.
I suggest that should one wish to attack western civilization it would be best to pick some lesser beings to hone in on..
gravenimage says
Rarely, I think these creeps honed in on Shakespeare *because* he is so accomplished (and so famous, even over 400 years after his death).
If Shakespeare is discredited, what chance do Ibsen or Beckett or Checkov or Lillian Hellman or Tennesee Williams have?
Rarely says
Shakespeare’s place as the greatest playwright in the English language is firmly established. It has been said that if he had never written a play he would still have been considered the greatest English poet for his sonnets. His incredible broad knowledge, unparalleled insight into human nature and mastery of the English language are impossible to comprehend. A true genius.
Any prejudices he had can easily be attributed to his being a man of his time so it would be wrong to judge him based on 21st century values.
I suggest that should one wish to attack western civilization it would be best to pick some lesser beings to hone in on..
Tim gallagher says
So Shakespeare was a racist and English patriot, so what, he was also a genius who would leave these idiots who try to drag him down a thousand miles begins when it comes to intelligence and ability as a wordsmith. This bullshit is pathetic. Maybe these morons can go and find some flaws in Einstein but it wouldn’t detract from his towering genius. Same for Shakespeare.
Jim says
I know I’m preaching to the choir here, but this is nothing more than the continued effort by the International Left (also known as the Comintern) to completely destroy Western Civilization.
gravenimage says
Spot on, Jim–that is the goal here.
gravenimage says
Shakespeare, a ‘White Racist’ and ‘British Imperialist’
……………………………………..
What claptrap–most of this is anochronistic rot–British imperialtism came long after Shakespeare. And the few characters Shakespeare featured who were “people of color” were actually rather sympathetic.. In fact, this greatest villians were all white–including Richard III, Lady Macbeth, and Othello’s jealous underminer Iago.
Captain Quirk says
I quote: ‘The trust also promised to remove offensive language from its collections.’ Well, that would seem to lead to the conclusion that Romeo and Juliet must be removed. Take act 1, scene 1: obscenity after obscentiy. Hilarious, in truth, but indeed obscene. Yet the obscenity serves a distinct purpose, because it prepares the audience very furtively for the peripeteia. So? Remove? Come on! B.S.
Captain Quirk says
I quote: ‘The trust also promised to remove offensive language from its collections.’ Well, that would seem to lead to the conclusion that Romeo and Juliet must be removed. Take act 1, scene 1: obscenity after obscentiy. Hilarious, in truth, but indeed obscene. Yet the obscenity serves a distinct purpose, because it prepares the audience very furtively for the peripeteia. So? Remove? Come on! B.S.
Statler says
Double, double toil and trouble,
Fire burn and cauldron bubble.
Statler says
Double, double toil and trouble,
Fire burn and cauldron bubble.
Statler says
I did not click twice. I’m sure of that.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
A lot of us are having this issue of duplicate posts: it’s not you. I do wish the site admins would look at it, and automatically prevent the posting of duplicates
࿗Infidel࿘ says
A lot of us are having this issue of duplicate posts: it’s not you. I do wish the site admins would look at it, and automatically prevent the posting of duplicates
Statler says
I did not click twice. I’m sure of that.
Waldorf says
Fair is foul and foul is fair,
Hover through the fog and filthy air.
Waldorf says
Fair is foul and foul is fair,
Hover through the fog and filthy air.
Andrew Blackadder says
So the Bard was an English gentleman that wrote Plays for an audience of English people all of whom were of the Caucasian Race and somehow thats a bad thing today.
Are these people insane or what… That’s not a trick question.
I do remember Negroes in America screaming as loud as they could…
Black is beautiful…. Such racists.
Ian Harris says
I look forward to reading some works by black 17th century writers.
TIJERANDY says
Oh yes! Return all Civilization back to the Stone Age…reside there with the Mohammadans and other surviving Neaderthals.