{"id":40480,"date":"2025-06-19T11:15:55","date_gmt":"2025-06-19T09:15:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bcu-lausanne.ch\/racism-and-antiquity\/"},"modified":"2025-06-19T11:15:57","modified_gmt":"2025-06-19T09:15:57","slug":"racism-and-antiquity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bcu-lausanne.ch\/en\/our-collections\/racism-and-antiquity\/","title":{"rendered":"Racism and antiquity"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

On May 25, 2020, Georges Floyd, a 46-year-old African-American citizen, died in Minneapolis, United States of America, as a result of severe police violence. In the popular and editorial turmoil that followed this tragic event, the Antiquipop<\/a> website drew my attention to a distressing reality: the link between antiquity and racism, antiquity and fascism, the list goes on. <\/p>\n\n

I’d like to take you on a little tour of what I’ve gleaned on the subject, from far away to closer to home.<\/p>\n\n

Pharos<\/h2>\n\n

In the Department of Greek and Roman Studies at Vassar College in New York State, the Pharos<\/a> website clearly announces the color: \u201cPharos is a platform where classical scholars, and the public more broadly, can learn about and respond to appropriations of Greco-Roman antiquity by hate groups online<\/em>.\u201d Articles are regularly published, such as Racist Commemoration of Greco-Roman History as White History<\/a><\/em>June 26, 2020 or Anti-Semites Enlist Cicero Against Anti-Racism<\/a><\/em>May 27, 2020. <\/p>\n\n

Not seeking to change the minds of those who use antiquity to support their racist ideologies, the site’s contributors aim, in particular, to expose the errors, omissions and distortions that underlie the interpretations of these groups.<\/p>\n\n

Antiquipop<\/h2>\n\n

TheAntiquipop<\/a> website decodes references to antiquity in contemporary popular culture. In June 2020, Fabien Bi\u00e8vre-Perrin, PhD in History and Archaeology from the Universit\u00e9 Lumi\u00e8re Lyon 2, published a post entitled Antiquit\u00e9, racisme et x\u00e9nophobie (Antiquity, racism and xenophobia<\/a> ), in which he gives a lengthy review of online resources on the subject, in French and English. <\/p>\n\n

Interested readers will find a bibliography of scientific articles and books, press articles, blog posts and, above all, numerous links to recent programs and podcasts.<\/p>\n\n

Museums<\/h2>\n\n

On June 2, Lionel Pernet, Director of the Mus\u00e9e cantonal d’arch\u00e9ologie et d’histoire in Lausanne, published an article on LinkedIn entitled Museums, racism and the Palais de Rumine<\/a>. The events surrounding the death of G. Floyd in Minneapolis prompted him to publish his paper on the decolonization of museums sooner than expected. <\/p>\n\n

He concludes his analysis with the announcement of a forthcoming exhibition at the Palais de Rumine in September 2020: Exotic?<\/a> ” More than 150 objects, paintings and books from all over Switzerland, dating from 1650 to 1815, will reflect the way in which Elsewhere was constructed in the Swiss collective imagination and how, in return, Switzerland was also \u201cexotic\u201d for the rest of Europe, with its Alpine cretins, its monsters and its wonders. A return trip that should encourage us to take a step aside and ask ourselves, again and again, whose savages we are, and what right we have to consider Others wilder than ourselves… The Museum alone will not cure us of xenophobia, but it can, along with other cultural venues, contribute to the fight against ordinary racism. <\/em>.”<\/p>\n\n

Bibliography on Renouvaud<\/h2>\n\n

Here are a few resources that we can find closer to home, in our library<\/a>, commented on thanks to the back covers:<\/p>\n\n