America's few Black classics professors have overcome contempt and criticism to contribute a unique perspective to the study of the ancient world. Dr. Patrice Rankine, an associate professor from Purdue University, has grown used to the irony. As one of the few Black classicists teaching at an American university, he has drawn plenty of skepticism from those taking his Latin and Greek courses. He and his peers say that minorities' cultural aversions to the field, coupled with societal doubts about whether people of color can fully appreciate tales from Greek and Roman antiquity, make their jobs tougher. Latin, Greek, and courses about long-extinct civilizations, carry a stigma. Critics blast the subjects as time-wasting pursuits and brush off statistics that show classics majors topping the charts on the graduate school entrance exam. Meanwhile, advocates argue that a classics degree, like others in the liberal arts, provides students with a broad understanding of politics, law, economics, and history, subjects that can be applied to graduate school in any discipline. Although only a few historically Black colleges and universities offer courses in the classics, some minority classicists have initiated groundbreaking research on topics such as the similarities between ancient life and 1960s civil rights activism; the role of Africans in the Greco-Roman empire; and the influence of classical literature on contemporary writers.