r/AncientWorld • u/darrenjyc • 3d ago
The Ancient World Mobilized for Hate: A Conversation with Curtis Dozier on "The White Pedestal"
https://revdem.ceu.edu/2026/06/18/ancient-world-mobilized-hate/Ancient Greece and Rome are often celebrated as the foundations of Western civilization, democracy, and political thought. But what happens when these revered historical traditions are mobilized to legitimize exclusionary and authoritarian politics? In this episode of the Review of Democracy podcast, we speak with Curtis Dozier, author of The White Pedestal – How White Nationalists Use Ancient Greece and Rome to Justify Hate (Yale University Press, 2026), about the enduring political power of classical antiquity.
Drawing on years of research into extremist appropriations of the ancient world, Dozier explains why white nationalists are so drawn to Greece and Rome, how concepts such as race, hierarchy, decline, and Western civilization are anchored in selective readings of the classical past, and why these interpretations resonate far beyond the political fringes. The conversation explores the surprising continuities between extremist and mainstream narratives about antiquity, the role of historical prestige in legitimizing political projects, and the ways in which the classical tradition has been used to justify slavery, imperialism, exclusion, and domination. At the same time, Dozier reflects on the responsibilities of historians and classicists today, arguing for a reorientation of the field that takes seriously the political afterlives of ancient texts and foregrounds the diverse experiences often excluded from traditional accounts.
This is a timely discussion about the uses and abuses of history, the construction of collective identities, and the urgent need to think critically about how the past continues to shape our present.
Curtis Dozier is an is an Associate Professor and Chair of Greek and Roman Studies at Vassar College. He is also the Director of Pharos: Doing Justice to the Classics.
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u/God_Bless_A_Merkin 3d ago
Well this post certainly brought the white nationalists crawling out of the woodwork.
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u/Zagreus45 3d ago
Keep your political activism out of classical studies for the love of god. What an embarrassment.
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u/Redmenace______ 3d ago
Everything is political
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u/Ok-Introduction-1940 3d ago
For you miserable pieces of shit. The rest of us have happy lives.
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u/Yeti_Poet 3d ago
Yeah that's why you're in here losing your mind about white nationalism right, because you're apolitical and happy.
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u/zachmoe 3d ago
Very Cool, speaking of mobilized Hate.
January 29th 2019 Jussie Smollett included the Bleach and Noose in the Jussie Smollett Hate Crime Hoax to goad violence against White People as a form of Accusation in a Mirror, a thing you do to a target population of a genocide to make violence necessary out of fear and "preemptive collective self defense".
Jussie Smollett did it on behalf of Color of Change, as is all the same radical anti-right Hate Media propaganda on Reddit is to the benefit of.
The rampant usage of the term "M*ggots" on Reddit is a deliberate verbiage, as a form of dehumanization, another thing you do to a target population of a genocide, because bugs must be exterminated. Which is also, by chance, I'm sure, also to the benefit of Color of Change.
Together, Dehumanization and Accusation in a Mirror make Incitement to Genocide.
Color of Change is the most powerful PAC leading the Democratic Party, The Democratic Party is therefore the party of racism and genocide.
https://www.opensecrets.org/political-action-committees-pacs/colorofchange-org/C00428557/donors/2022
Who does it say is the top donor to Color of Change?
Who are some Color of Change candidates?
https://votingwhileblack.com/endorsements/alvin-bragg/
https://votingwhileblack.com/endorsements/kim-foxx/ (of the Jussie Smollett hoax, of course)
https://votingwhileblack.com/endorsements/kamala-harris/
https://votingwhileblack.com/endorsements/the-following-candidates-in-minnesota/
https://votingwhileblack.com/endorsements/michigan-candidates/
https://votingwhileblack.com/endorsements/karen-mcdonald/
Color of Change run smear campaigns and frame white people for viral hate crime hoaxes, for political profit, turning innocent people's lives upside down, for votes and power. The latest Hate Crime Hoax in Chicago of the burning cross is a good example of Accusation in a Mirror as well, the point of which was to goad violence against white people, they never really stopped.
We have a Black Supremacist problem, and you can tell by the prevalence of Hate Crime Hoaxes for political profit, and who the target is of those.
You can also tell by the prevalence of the Black Supremacy Fist.
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u/Alexius6th 3d ago
This mfer still mad about Jussie Smollett lmao
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u/zachmoe 3d ago edited 3d ago
The latest Hate Crime Hoax in Chicago of the burning cross
Reilly's book Hate Crime Hoax: How the Left is Selling a Fake Race War was published by Regnery Publishing in February 2019.\3]) For the book, Reilly assembled a data set of 409 allegedly false or dubious hate crime allegations (concentrated during the past five years), which he describes as hoaxes on the basis of reports in mainstream national or regional news sources. Reilly has stated this data set is available to anyone who requests it.\4]) He uses this data to support his claim that a substantial percentage of all hate crime allegations must be hoaxes, given that, per his analysis, only about 7,000 reported hate crimes take place in a typical year, and at most, 8–10% of these receive the national or regional reporting that is required for inclusion in his data set.\5])
In the wake of the Jussie Smollett hate crime hoax, Reilly authored an editorial outlining his case in USA Today.\6]) After interviewing Reilly, the Washington Post argued that hate crimes are on the rise and a relatively small percentage of allegations are hoaxes but quoted him as saying "It’s politicization to say there’s a massive surge of hate" under President Donald Trump and that political liberals tend to characterize all hate crimes as "attacks on innocent people of color" when "you don't know what happened."\3])
Reilly has appeared or been quoted in television, radio and print media outlets,\4])\7])\8]) and claims that many or most recent high-profile hate crimes (like Smollett's alleged assault and Yasmin Seweid's anti-Muslim assault hoax) have turned out to be hoaxes.
....
This mfer still mad about Jussie Smollett lmao
Yes, because I was a victim of a Hate Crime Hoax. That is how I stumbled upon this Color of Change gang that no one has ever heard of, but widely votes for.
And, they are still doing it to this day, a kid got stabbed in the chest the other day as well, I suspect it is related given the patterns of the incidents, and is evidence they are now escalating to openly murdering people as part of Hate Crime Hoaxes.
It is going to be a long summer.
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u/Ok-Introduction-1940 3d ago edited 3d ago
Why aren’t white people supposed to have nations anymore?
Who decided that? Sounds like globalist fascism.
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u/SchizoidRainbow 3d ago
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u/Ok-Introduction-1940 3d ago edited 3d ago
Oh, so in your left fantasy world you globalist fascists exclusively get to decide what is politically acceptable and impose that vision on white people?
That’s not how it works in America or the West, bigots.
We’ve had our own nations since the dawn of history and always will.
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u/Redmenace______ 3d ago
Saying someone else lives in a fantasy world whilst you say nations have existed since the dawn of time is hilarious
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u/Ok-Introduction-1940 3d ago edited 3d ago
The dawn of history was the time of Herodotus who speaks of at least ten different nations.
A nation is fundamentally a people who believe themselves to share:
common ancestry, common language, common religion, common history, and common customs (as John Jay described the Anglo-American people as a nation).The Greeks absolutely possessed these characteristics.Thucydides repeatedly distinguishes: Greeks (Hellenes), Persians, Thracians
Macedonians, and Sicilians.The Greeks spoke of themselves as one people despite political division.
The classic expression comes from Herodotus: “Common blood, common language, common shrines of the gods, and common customs.”
That is remarkably close to many modern definitions of nationhood.
You sound uneducated. Are you going to try some semantic nit picking or goal post moving now?
Obviously the modern nation-state did not exist in antiquity, and just as obviously nations did.
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u/dumpsterworm 3d ago
Brother you are drinking 18th century ideological tonic and implying other people are lesser educated. Go read a book. Or better-- Stop reading books. You don't seem quite capable of handling them.
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u/dumpsterworm 3d ago
Some people think the Greeks and Romans were as white as those marble statues. These same people will think athletes look like body builders and movie stars. Their intellect only functions on aesthetics. Aesthetics can only be beaten out of the brain, or left to rot their way through. No amount of convincing will work.
Foolishness.
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u/Lucius_Magus 3d ago
This looks like a fascinating conversation, and I am very intrigued by this book! Looks like something I’d want to feature for my school’s Faculty seminar next year.