Dark academia and decolonisation

[shiningcuckoo]

I have realised that I have been interested in what is now being termed the dark academia aesthetic for probably 35 years. I went to uni in Scotland because I fell in love with the architecture and have a huge collection of vintage jewellery and old books. As for my house - well one of my friends calls it my emporium. It's interesting to see what young people are doing with the aesthetic. I recently came across a young American girl talking about how it needs to be decolonised, given that it is just too white and too British. How on earth would you even think about doing that? The aesthetic is a relic of colonisation and is a cultural reflection of that time. And is the way I have dressed for years and the things I have liked for years- are they essentially racist? I don't know if I can give them up. They are part of me now. Does this make me inherently racist by virtue of what I wear and how I drink my tea and the books I read and the art I look at and the musical instruments I play? ( this is lighthearted - kind of. I'm a bit old for new tastes now)

I just googled the term as I never heard of it and it doesn't seem to require colonial British Empire related stuff? As far as I understand it's a kind of old academic/literature/style with (I read) suggestions to follow Greek and Roman styles?

Seems too complex to unpick here without visiting your home and seeing specifics but tbh it seems to be a social media concept (not a place for discussing the complexities of colonialism IMO) and the young girl in question might not understand any of it herself, really.

Did you go to Glasgow? The university has a Historic Slavery Initiative that is ground breaking. The history is complex, there was a lot of money gifted to the University by people who made their money in the tobacco, cotton and sugar industries but the university was also a place where abolitionists could gather and organise and there were ex-slaves from America who came to the University to get degrees when it was not possible for them to access high education in the US. Unless your asthetic includes having lots of gollywogs and wearing blackamoor brooches and other clear stereotypical imagery of black people then liking a bit of gothic architecture is not offensive.

I am Indian (from India, not a British Indian) living in the UK. I love gothic architecture because there’s loads of it in Madhya Pradesh . It’s a style that predates gothic architecture here as far as I know.

Sorry to point out the obvious but Ancient Greeks and Romans are not British. In fact, when they were busy colonising and enslaving the British, they had a very low opinion of them. The re-invention of Classical History whereby Britain and the Classics are synonymous is a Victorian invention that centred the British because it suited their agenda in developing their Empire interests.