Should we destroy the classics to save them from whiteness?

[image: reproduction of a Trojan archer sculpture, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco]

A friend of mine the other day asked me if I had read an article in the New York Times talking about Prof. Dan-el Padilla Peralta, of Princeton University, and his crusade to save the Greco-Roman classics from their (alleged) whiteness. I looked, and my first thought was “this is far too long, is it really going to be worth my time?” You see, one of the classic authors in question…