Dead white males or Dead White European Males (DWEM) is a derogatory term that refers to a purportedly disproportionate academic focus on contributions to historical and contemporary Western civilization made by 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.
Read more about Dead White Males: History, Criticism of Term, Sculpture
Famous quotes containing the words dead, white and/or males:
“To say yes is to die
A lot or a little. The dead wear capably their wry
Enameled emblems. They smell.”
—Gwendolyn Brooks (b. 1917)
“We are all androgynous, not only because we are all born of a woman impregnated by the seed of a man but because each of us, helplessly and forever, contains the other—male in female, female in male, white in black and black in white. We are a part of each other. Many of my countrymen appear to find this fact exceedingly inconvenient and even unfair, and so, very often, do I. But none of us can do anything about it.”
—James Baldwin (1924–1987)
“For a boy to reach adulthood feeling that he knows his father, his father must allow his emotions to be visible—hardly an easy task when most males grow up being either subtly or openly taught that this is not acceptable behavior. A father must teach his son that masculinity and feelings can go hand in hand.”
—Kyle D. Pruett (20th century)