DWEM vs Modern academia

John L. Hancock says it’s The Left and the Distortion of History. The example is one of a statue of King Alfred.

“At the heart of the controversy was the newly-installed statue of King Alfred, the medieval English monarch after whom the town and school was named. Ten years prior, when the monument was commissioned, no one could foresee the controversy it would eventually cause. Yet, its placement offended the sensibilities of the university’s history professors.

By the strong and negative reaction one would think that Alfred must have been a tyrant, an oppressor of his people, a man deserving of the title Alfred the Terrible. Surprisingly, it is the opposite that that is true.”
…
“Linda Mitchell, who specializes in Medieval history, was one of the protesting professors. As she explained in a New York Times interview, Alfred “is not a good logo to promote a modern university because virtually any historical figure who had any social or political influence is undoubtedly going to be a D.W.E.M. — dead white European male,” she said, “it would be foolish to choose a symbol so exclusive and effective in emphasizing the straight white male power structure of history.”

For Alfred, being a DWEM (Dead White European Male) means that his great achievements are to be ignored because they do not fit into the ideologically-driven, anti-Western civilization, revisionist history that is currently being taught in schools.”

Then there’s the anthropologist who tried to figure out why his field and history seemed at odds. It seems something happened in the 1950 to 1970 period where history departments in academia changed their values and chose only one particular DWEM to honor, Karl Marx. That has grown to be a source of conflict in the Common Core debate and a concern in other areas as well.