The argument isn't great -Classics is about studying Western Civ, which precludes it from being diverse in the relevant way, regardless of the color of Augustine's skin. But this alone doesn't make the discipline political.
https://twitter.com/RichardHanania/status/1402333446815371264
Also required is the current debate about whether Western Civilization exists, should exist, or is worth existing. There is no politicization to having a Chinese Classics class, nor is there politics in having a curriculum studying East African pre-colonial history.
Those disciplines might, indeed, be political -but their mere existence is not. And the reason lies in that no one is denying Chinese classical culture existed, nor that African cultures existed pre-European colonization. But people do deny Western culture exists.
The honest justification for classics is either that it is one primeval culture, worthy of study for that reason alone, and perhaps especially in the West given that it is primeval to *our* culture. (Insert Tom Holland's Dominion argument here.)
And the problem becomes evident: in our decadent estate, no one actually wants to study the origins of our own culture because no one wants to hear about it. Instead, we want novelty (look! Africans!) Or leisure (look! This machine can do my job for me!)
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