Anthroposophy and Race

Everett's Story

This is not the first time that our Urphänomen group has discussed the issue of racist statements appearing in Steiner's work (see this blog post to get caught up). Everett, an anthroposophist and professor of Black Studies, found these earlier dialogues and reached out to ask if he might share his story. He will join us live to discuss what he shared in the video above in a few days, a conversation we will also share here.

Everett's story is an important contribution, in our view, toward imagining the future of anthroposophia on Earth. He mentions the work of Peter Staudenmaier, perhaps the most widely known critic of Rudolf Steiner and anthroposophy. You can read some of his work at this link.

Following Everett’s recording above, our Urphänomen group met for a dialogue, which you can watch here:

In our opinion, the biggest obstacle in the way of the future of anthroposophy (with a small a) is the worship of Steiner as unerring. We do a great disservice to the stream he was attempting to further, and commit a kind of treason against our own spirit and individual capacities as thinkers/feelers/willers, if we do not put his claims to the test in our own experience. When we (Ashton and Matt) do so, it is not difficult at all for us to acknowledge that he was wrong about the effects of skin color on the consciousness of present day humanity. Whether or not blood was more significant in the past, it is clear in our present pluralistic planetary context that humanity simply has no future if it chooses to continue along the divisive path of racial identitarianism. Steiner's conflicting statements over decades about the relative importance of race vs. the I suggest to me an inner struggle that he, unfortunately, could not work out for us. Those who find value in many of his writings and lectures must undertake this task for themselves. For our part, we find it essential both for Steiner's legacy and for the ongoing work of anthroposophia that we unambiguously reject the degenerate idea of racial determinism (whether biological or spiritual) in all its guises. There can be no such thing as the spirit of humanity unless we do so.

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Below is a letter written by Andrew Sullivan, a Waldorf teacher and anthroposophist that was originally published in Being Human. We appreciate the spirit of renewal he is inviting into the Great Work of all those called to participate with Anthroposophia.