The book also ignited a debate in the academic community. While some reviewers contend that studies of the origin of Greek civilization were tainted by a foundation of 19th century racism, many have criticized Bernal for what they perceive to be the speculative nature of his hypothesis, unsystematic and linguistically incompetent handling of etymologies and a naive handling of ancient myth and historiography. The claims made in "Black Athena" were heavily questioned "inter alia" in "Black Athena Revisited" (1996), a collection of essays edited by Mary Lefkowitz and her colleague Guy MacLean Rogers.