In higher education, there is a virtual cottage industry of academics declaring everything from math to meritocracy to be forms of white supremacy and racism. Now, it appears romance will be added to the list. University of California Santa Barbara Black Studies Professor Sabrina Strings has written how romance promotes white supremacy and “global pigmentocracy.” In The End of Love: Racism, Sexism, and the Death of Romance, Strings recounts having “endured” her own bad relationships and maintains that “Romance is an old white cultural institution that began in the Middle Ages.” In an interview with The Current, Strings explains that “I am only one of the millions of Gen X-to-Gen Z women who have endured a seemingly endless array of miserable relationships with men.”
In viewing romance through her own lens, Strings comes up with distinctly different views of literature and famous relationships. For example, many people have read the story of Lancelot and Guinevere, a story of forbidden love that introduced disharmony and disaster to King Arthur’s Round Table. It is a story of love and eventual betrayal. It is both irresistible and irrational. Many accounts show Lancelot rescuing Guinevere and, torn by their mutual loyalty to King Arthur, the couple finally succumbs to the inexorable pull of love to each other. It is a tragedy of love and loyalty that leaves everyone in ruin. Arthur would die of wounds in the later battles, Guinevere would die in a convent, and Lancelot would, according to some accounts, die as a hermit. It is a powerful tale of how love can overwhelm all other considerations and shatter every other bond.
That is not exactly how Professor Strings sees it. She says that the tale is really about how a man of lower status is trying to secure greater power and prestige by seducing a higher class European Christian woman: “Love is very much about generosity but romance is very much about what you can get from somebody, especially if you’re a man who is social climbing.”
Professor Strings zeros in on the beauty and whiteness of Guinevere. She notes that the queen was viewed as irresistibly attractive and pale in complexion:
“We can easily recognize these features today as those representing the apex of whiteness, even though race did not exist at the time of Troyes’s writing. Nevertheless, to the extent that some of these representations occurred before the seventeenth century dawn of race science, they have what historians have called a ‘proto-racist’ bent. Indeed, scholars have shown that the preference for light skin, hair, and eyes existed prior to the advent of racism, and that these characteristics were co-opted by it and enlisted for the purpose of installing a global pigmentocracy.”
The “whitenesss” could also simply reflect the racial makeup of the historical characters as opposed to any “global pigmentocracy.” Yet, according to Professor Strings, romance is about “women who are not peak white or are ‘insufficiently white’ are subject deservedly to deceit, manipulation, assault and rape.”
Professor Strings previously wrote a 2019 book about how “fatphobia” is rooted in racism.
In today’s academic environment, there often seems a rush to racialize common practices, customs, or terminology. Publications clamor for such articles and discovering another hidden racist element in society can bring academic accolades. However, others have already staked out many areas such as mathematics, astrophysics, statistics, meritocracy, climate change, dieting, tipping, skiing, chess, and organized pantries. Most recently, the American Psychological Association declared that merit-based hiring may be racist. Even robots are now declared to be part of the supremacist menace because they are often made of white plastic.
No wonder tuition is outrageously expensive.
Is there some reason Whites are denied their culture?
My contribution to the topic of romantic love, while recent, somehow appears halfway down.
So it would seem according to Strings’ Theory, during the Edo Period of Japan the isolationist policy of the time did not allow whitey to force racism onto vulnerable women and girls and thus for two hundred and sixty years there was no romance in Japan. But then Commodore Perry forced open the ports with his Love Boat Diplomacy and a platoon of smooth talking, Don Juan sailors seduced and swooned women around Edo Bay, promising unyielding love and chivalry to every geisha in the prefecture. Fearing competition with from these foreign casanovas, Japan opened its hearts to romance, and racism became rampant in Japan.
Darren Smith — I think that your description is lacking, to put it mildly, and the Japanese prejudice against foreigners began long before Commodore Perry. Don’t be misled by ‘Madame Butterfly’, which is a fine opera but a work of fiction.
David, you beat me to it. I was going to mention Madame Butterfly too. It happened I listened to Un Bel Di yesterday afternoon and she was already on my mind.
OT Best soprano singing the Butterfly role IMO is Victoria de los Angeles.
@Darren
Indeed, that culture had its own problems, beginning with its own colonization of the territory (talk to the Ainu). I do not say this to be woke, quite the opposite; there is no culture on earth that claim a white as snow history, and that is precisely the point. Edo japan had its own complications, just as any other culture on earth at the time, and the ancient histry may be fascinating go us; but in 2024 more is required. It was not until the birth of the WWW that that changed, and it is still something many are struggling like heck to wrap their heads around, not everyone was a nerd circa 1995. i appreciate you very much Darren, but you are showing your age.
‘Lone Wolf and Cub’ or Yoshitoshi are a far cry from the comfort women, and I honestly don’t believe that level of insularity is even a possibility anymore. ALL of us have to do better. We need better than intellectual regurgitation. The peril there is, we need history too. history and dogma are separate concepts, and we need to keep them that way.
And on a lunch break, typos are fast and furious. I appreciate all of you on this blog, but our thinking and resultant acting has to go farther. They were no better in Edo than anyone in our own Middle Ages in terms of stratification, and anyone honest in Japan would tell you so, particularly if they are female. 🤷🏻♂️
“ In higher education, there is a virtual cottage industry of academics declaring everything from math to meritocracy to be forms of white supremacy and racism. ”
This column seems to be a critical view of Professor String’s theory regarding the source of romance. Professor Turley is always concerned about the importance of viewpoint diversity and protecting it no matter how controversial it is.
Professor String made her views on what she believes is the source of romance and it seems there are others who agree. Cool. Of course everyone here is going to criticize and ridicule her theory and views. That’s all fine and dandy, it’s all part of beauty of free speech and viewpoint diversity. It let‘s students experience a different perspective, it’s what you do when you go to college or university.
The tone of the professor’s column seems to be that this kind of view or idea is a problem in universities and colleges because they are views and ideas that are…extreme or very out there. So are some conservative ideas and views.
This column seems to have been written to give Turley’s readers something to gripe about and show how much the left is “contaminating” academia with these kinds of ideas and crazy views. But that’s the whole point of viewpoint diversity. It lets students who may be interested to explore a unique perspective just like CRT or the idea of systemic racism.
Free speech has consequences. I’ll all for CRT, Keynesian economics and other failed theories
being part of the academic dialogue. Mandating such foolishness, however, helps no one.
Yes, the courtly love in medieval Europe
https://library.missouri.edu/specialcollections/exhibits/show/science-of-love/courtly-love-in-medieval-roman
is not to be found previously in Latin or Ancient Greek writings, although perhaps Catullus is close.
The modern notion of romance has little relationship, usually, to the medieval notion.
Here is a modern attempt at an explanation, or rather, several:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romance_(love)
Hadrian and Antinous in Roman times approaches it for intensity but they were both male,
Male, by Young.
‘That’ not ‘Male’ by Young.
Apparently, within the year of the adoption of the Constitution and Bill of Rights, America fundamental immigration law was in vogue:
Naturalization Act of 1790
United States Congress, “An act to establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization,” March 26, 1790
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, That any Alien being a free white person, who shall have resided within the limits and under the jurisdiction of the United States for the term of two years, may be admitted to become a citizen thereof….
You don’t suppose the American Founders, Framers, Congressmen, Senators and Citizens were “white supremacists,” do you?
You don’t suppose the American immigration law was eminently constitutional, do you?
Exactly, whose and what country is this?
Academic liberals are quite possibly the most depressing people alive. Seriously. Leave the classroom; go touch grass.
I agree!! All I could think of while reading this article was what a sad, miserable way to look at the world. Maybe her relationships were miserable was because she’s miserable. No one wants to be around such negativity. Pretty sure every culture has and does experience romance.
Black man arrested for plotting mass murder in a white community.
He tells us why:
“I want to cause mayhem on the white community. The reason i specifically want to target white people is because as a black male, they will NEVER understand my struggles. Same way I will never understand their struggles, but I don’t care to. I want to erase them. All of them really, but in this case as many as I possibly can.”
There is quite a lot of this thinking in the black community these days. In South Africa it is near to being national policy, though they will still accept free aid created by white and Asian people.
Young said: “Black man arrested for plotting mass murder in a white community.”
What makes that even scarier is that this was an ex-Marine. Althougfh the report I read did not give details on how he left the service.
Number 6. Yes, it is scary that with training as a Marine he knows how to kill. Even scarier is what has happened to our military in the way of indoctrination. Did this guy learn to hate whites in the Marines? Maybe. The changes have been noticed and young men are declining to join and there is a recruitment crisis. Perhaps it is no longer patriotic to join a military that has become woke and almost seems to prefer the black national anthem and marching behind a Pride flag to pride in country and service. The days of Audie Murphy, ‘Pappy’ Boyington and Ira Hayes seem to have slipped away.
Prof. Strings has the choice between destroying and creating.
She appears to have chosen to destroy what people over many centuries have decides was of value.
Rather than to create something new with that enduring appeal.
No one is stopping her from creating what she believes is missing
@John Say,
She has chosen to express a radically different view. Every university or college has these kinds of courses and professors exploring a different perspective.
The professor is always supportive of viewpoint diversity and freedom to express them. He can criticize and disagree, that’s fine and dandy. It seems there are some that agree with her view and are supportive of the idea.
I expected to see a few veiled racist comments and I was not disappointed. Once her race and gender are known, all kinds of assumptions and racist or bigoted views surface here. To be clear there’s nothing wrong with that, but it does show us ignorance, racism, and bigotry are still well entrenched in the American psyche.
Adam and Eve
Helen of Troy
Cleopatra
The Song of Solomon.
These are all stories of love and romance that predate the middle ages by millennia.
Radha and Krishna
Taj Mahal
The Butterfly lovers
The legend of the white snake
The legend of Orihime and Hikoboshi
The story of Osiris and Isis
Not one of these is Western or white.
If Prof. String wishes to create a new Genre or expand the old to include stories of queer relations.
She is free to do so
And she will be rewarded in proportion to the extent her stories appeal to people.
Successful and enduring stories are so because of the strong appeal they have to large numbers of people.
“Ladies and Gentlemen, Abraham Lincoln would like to say a few words.”
“Go ahead, Abe.”
“Thank you.”
“Ahem,”
“There is a natural disgust in the minds of nearly all white people to the idea of indiscriminate amalgamation of the white and black races … A separation of the races is the only perfect preventive of amalgamation, but as an immediate separation is impossible, the next best thing is to keep them apart where they are not already together.”
“[Racial separation] must be effected by colonization of the country’s blacks to a foreign land.”
“The enterprise is a difficult one, but ‘where there is a will there is a way’ and what colonization needs most is a hearty will.”
“Let us be brought to believe it is…favorable to transfer the African to his native clime, and we shall find a way to do it, however great the task may be.”
– Abraham Lincoln, Springfield, Illinois, June 26, 1857
This is not a story of “romance” but one of betrayal and adultery. Guinevere is queen with children and a husband and she has duties. She betrays all of them to run off with Lancelot.
That this this tale is considered “romance” by moderns exposes their decadence and contempt for family.
Let’s talk about ” don’t know who the baby daddy is ” culture and look at Chicago for cultural examples of romance..
Jonathan: Ah, “Romance”. At least in the European historical literature it’s about the fair-haired, fair-skinned White damsel in distress who is recued by the White Knight in shining armor. It’s a familiar tale that Holly wood turned into a cottage industry. It’s in the DNA of white culture.
So now comes your column that mocks Professor Sabrina Strings and her book “The End of Love”. Not surprising. Why? Because College Fix had a similar article (5/15) mocking Strings’ book. CF is not a neutral observer. It is a right-wing media outlet that frequently deals in biased stereotypes of Black people. If you read your column and the CF article they track each other. Mere coincidence? I don’t think so. Your job is to repeat the frequent complaint on the right that Black academics are not qualified to discuss White cultural figures.
Whether intended or not your column provides fodder for those of your loyal followers who also engage in racist stereotypes. Those racist instincts are reflected in the comment of “ZZDoc” who attributes Strings’ theories “in the African cultures which are certainly her roots” and she “has given fat Black women something to blame for their inadequacies” (5/19@9:18). Then we have “Anonymous” who adds his own echo chamber: “Given her relationship history, another bitter, fat, reactionary”. Is Strings actually “fat”. Nope. A look at the website for “Yoga International” shows a photo of Strings–who is also a Yoga instructor. The photo shows a lean and trim Strings in a Yoga position. You wouldn’t see DJT in such a position because he’s actually way overweight, i.e., “fat”!
At least Sabrina Strings admits that Europeans were white rather than the now-trendy practice in academia of claiming they were black; but of course Strings has to adopt the other trendy practice of denouncing all things white and dragging racist accusations into the medieval aristocratic admiration for extremely pale skin. Strings has no idea that they admired paleness simply because suntanned skin was associated with peasants since peasants spent so much time outside in the fields whereas aristocrats usually sat in the manor most of the time. Pale skin therefore was seen as a trait of the aristocracy, so of course aristocrats would hype pale skin. And Strings’ idea that romance was invented in the medieval period is silly.
I’m beginning to think that “Black Studies” is code for “How to Hate Whitey”…
For Sabrina Strings to have such an unfulfilled life so that she has to blame another entire race for her problems is just pathetic.
She is an excellent example of the toxicity of racism.
Cindy: “I’m beginning to think that “Black Studies” is code for “How to Hate Whitey”…”
+++
That is exactly what it is. I recall when black studies programs were first being proposed and I thought it was a wonderful idea. Having great, unbiased and honest minds turning to the problems in America’s black communities was past due. I was, of course, thinking of analysis along the lines of Senator Moynihan.
That, of course, is not what we got. Instead we got intellectual frauds who scarcely had the IQ to do an hour’s naval gazing only to come to the conclusion that everything wrong is the fault of somebody else…usually whites [easier to guilt] then Asians and then Hispanics. But never riotous, lawless, blacks reared without parents or education.
As for white, Western guilt for slavery, history is upended. We didn’t invent slavery, we inherited it. From earliest times, Uruk and Eridu, the first civilized cities, older by far than Babylon, where writing was invented, it was used to mention the slaves in those cities. Slavery existed from the beginning and lasted for at least 7,000 years unchallenged until finally the Western, white, world decided it must end. We deserve praise, not guilt. In the meantime we are expected to tear down laws and law enforcement and civilization itself until we are at the levels before civilization.
Young….Thank you! Good to see you here, and great comment. You’re right in line with this Peter Bauer quote:
“Arabs and Africans do not seem to feel guilty about slavery; but Western Europeans and Americans often do and are made to do so. And yet it was due to their efforts that these practices were largely eliminated. Guilt is a prerogative of the West”. — Peter Bauer
Great quote! And so very true. Thank you!
She’s not a real professor, she’s been anointed, i.e. an Affirmative Action “professor”.
“’An Old White Cultural Institution’: Professor Denounces Romance as a Creation of White Supremacy”
– Professor Turley
_____________________
The “fake” affirmative action professor’s denunciation is moot.
White supremacy is physically axiomatic and needs no support from “romance.”
“Black Studies” is an oxymoronic contradiction in terms and a complete waste of time and money.
California State University and the University of California systems are unconstitutional “land grant” universities derived from the wholly unconstitutional Morrill Act of 1862, passed as but one of the many unconstitutional acts of Abraham Lincoln. Congress has the power to tax for debt, defense, and general Welfare, and Congress has no power to grant, donate, or provide charity or favor per Article 1, Section 8.
For the uninitiated, California is an anti-American, anti-Constitution, invaded, and subjugated communist state under the “dictatorship of the proletariat,” where the communist party holds dominion and severely limited government, absolute private property, freedom, free enterprise, and free markets do not exist.
That Chat GBT is really something!
My pillows and underwear are also racist.