You're listening to a podcast from blogging heads TV John make water back. How you doing man? I'm good. Come on. How are you doing? I'm doing very well indeed. I am Glenn Lowry. This is the Glenn show at substack.com. We move from Patreon to substack everybody. Glenn Lowry dot substack.com. You can find my newsletter and you can find this podcast. And John and I are still

every other week. And once a month on the Q&A, I interview other people on the off week. So John doesn't have time for me. Other people like Cornell West, who my interview with him and tell Joe's heroes of philosopher went up for the inaugural substack post for the podcast on Monday. We're speaking here on Friday. And it has been well received. And next Monday. It'll be me.

And John, but the Monday after that, it's going to be me and Charles Mary. John. Yeah. So we're off to a good start here at the new version. This is the glen show three point. Oh, now a substack version of the glen show. But in any case, I'm with John McWhorter. We are the black guys and whatever platform that we occupy. Our beat is amongst other things. Race and American culture.

And John, you've been weighing in recently to that effect. I saw your post on Princeton University's classics department, deciding not to require that students be acquainted with Greek and Latin and read the text in the original languages, but nevertheless can major in classics at Princeton without master in Greek and Latin.

You seem to have a problem with that. Is that a sign of the time? What's up with that?

Well, I'm going to first say about substack that for those of you who by some chance might also follow my lexicon Valley podcast, I am moving that from slate to substack very soon. So I hope you will follow me there. In any case, yeah, it's interesting. You bring up the whole Princeton case because it actually relates to the Charles Murphy issue, which is that, you know,

there is perhaps a justification for thinking do students who delve in the grand old classical text really need to know Latin and Greek. And there's no doubt that to really understand them in a masterful way to understand them completely to really participate in discussion.

You do have to know Latin and or Greek, but the question is, is that effort worth it, especially on the undergraduate level? I completely understand that it's kind of disappointing, but

you know, I'm a language nerd. So that's a part of me that kind of salivates at the idea of learning Latin or Greek, but I know that's not everybody has my colleague Graham Wood has said in the Atlantic, but this is the issue.

Princeton is doing this not just because it wants to bring in more majors. That's a problem that all classics departments that are

Princeton is doing this after June 2020 and the documentation of the statements make it very clear that they're doing this with black people in mind, you know, all the languages there, all the DEI kind of language underrepresented, you know, and welcoming all that is in the statement and what it means what they all but say this means is that they've decided that it's a white supremacist business to require Latin or Greek.

And so you can just see that I doubt if it was ever said, but you can see those white professors sitting there and saying, well, if we're going to have more black students in the major, we have to stop requiring people who are on the real analytical track that we have to know Latin and Greek.

It's white supremacists to impose that on them. And you can see all of them pretending to actually think that's true. And yeah, I do mean that I'm sorry, pretending to actually think that's true.

And you don't think they believe that I'm sorry, excuse me for interrupting. You think they're insincere when they say that.

I think they are showing that they are not racist, but I don't think they genuinely believe that it's white supremacists to ask a black person to learn a language like Latin or Greek, they've learned to pretend that and I can put myself in their position.

Problem with it is though that if the idea is that we're going to suspend the requirement to know Latin or Greek to do this because of black people were in trouble because in about 10 minutes, everybody is going to be screaming and yelling about Charles Murray and his airing the idea that we're not as bright.

Everybody's going to be screaming at you for even entertaining it. That's going to be the big thing. How dare you this white supremacist that uncle Tom that okay, how about that. I have no respect.

No respect that sound like you. I have no respect for anybody who is going to jump all over Charles Murray for saying that black people aren't as intelligent.

While sitting there with their hand on their heart, saluting the idea that classics gets rid of the requirement for learning Latin or Greek out of the idea that it's too much to expect of black people.

No respect direct contradiction. All of this is implying that black people just aren't as bright that we can't be subjected to real challenge that it's white supremacists. I'm sorry.

So that is my problem with this prison decision. You want to talk about suspending that requirement, Greek, but talk about it when you're not talking about black people.

And so I'm I'm disgusted. I don't like the idea that the way you show you're not a racist is to deny us sincere challenge. What do you think of that?

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