Customer: Excuse me, but can you tell me why your Classics collection only includes a handful of women writers and, like, 3 writers who aren't white?
Bookstore employee: Oh, you
mean, the DAWGs?
Well the short answer is that almost-all male writers were prioritized for publication over
female or non-white writers over the past
300 years. This is changing. But the "Classics" label is still sticking around. So...for the near future, at least, we're all stuck with the Dead Ass White Guys being the first take on "Classical Literature."