Though critics blame everyone for being “unfair” because doing so helps them sleep at night instead of working to change the world, they fall short in their complaints against Dark Academia.

Dark Academia, the yin to Light Academia’s yang, stretches as wide as academia itself or as narrow as our understanding of it.

Criticizing Westerners (a.k.a. native English speakers) for beginning their journey into Dark Academia in England sounds as absurd as criticizing the Japanese for exploring their own versions of “Dark Academia” in their language and through the lense of their culture.

Oh those racist Japanese. How dare they study the literature of their forefathers without also learning English and studying ours at the same time.

The same critics who decry the racism inherent in the English version of Dark Academia style, likely scream “cultural misapropriation” when a white person adopts anything deemed “not white enough for their skin color.”

In their criticism of Dark Academia, a critique that parrots itself across every article on the topic, the author of Bookish Brews writes:

“…it’s exceptionally white and Eurocentric.”

Sorry, Plato, Greek founder of the world’s first Dark Academia University – The Academy – circa 387 BC, the Americans think you’re too white. You’re cancelled.

Can someone tell the Arabs who invented MATH, or Fatima al-Fihri, the wealthy woman, who started the world’s second university, University of Al Quaraouiyine in Fez, Morocco that the American’s called to say life’s not fair?

They continue… “the majority of dark academia media does not foster an inclusive space for people of the global majority and you can see it in books or on screen.”

Netflix alone offers Dark Academia in every language AND COLOR. In fact, if that’s how you to see the world, you can get your Dark Academia in varied shades of Iranian, Turkish, or Tunisian brown.

Pro Tip for Old White Guys sick of being blamed for everything in America: if you get your media in any language but a white one, the villains will be Old Other Colored Guys.

In cultures of every “color”, anyone considered “different” or “other” gets treated poorly – often for no reason at all. Stop complaining. Start fixing.

Nevertheless, by pointing out the true pitfalls of the past – mainly in women’s access to education and domestic help when they wanted work outside of the home – Dark Academia as a culture seeks to inspire future generations to embrace learning as a way out and a way to realize the consequences of their actions before they reach an age that grants them wisdom.