While we meekly took it on the chin with a black Anne Boleyn, the Egyptians are less inclined to put up with such blackwashing.
A Netflix docudrama series that depicts Queen Cleopatra VII as a black African has sparked controversy in Egypt.
A lawyer has filed a complaint that accuses African Queens: Queen Cleopatra of violating media laws and aiming to “erase the Egyptian identity”.
A top archaeologist insisted Cleopatra was “light-skinned, not black”.
She was a Ptolemy, descended from Alexander’s general, which means that her heritage was Macedonian Greek, so yes, she would have been light skinned. I’m all for the Egyptians taking this robust stance against blackwashing. Good for them. However, she wasn’t an Egyptian – indeed, modern Egyptians aren’t exactly Egyptian either, they are the descendants of Arab invaders, but meh…
But the producer said “her heritage is highly debated” and the actress playing her told critics: “If you don’t like the casting, don’t watch the show.”
It is not highly debated, she was a Ptolemy and the Ptolemys were Macedonian Greeks, so European, not black. Nothing to debate here. However, I took that advice with the blackwashing of Tudor history here – I refused to watch. Indeed, I refuse to watch anything where they race or gender swap characters or historical figures because I’m heartily sick of it.
The identity of Cleopatra’s mother is not known, and historians say it is possible that she, or any other female ancestor, was an indigenous Egyptian or from elsewhere in Africa.
Yeah, possible, if, maybe, might have, blah, blah, blah – that ‘possibly’ is doing some serious heavy lifting there, helped in no small part by a hefty dose of wishful thinking. There is no evidence that she was black.
Netflix’s companion website Tudum reported in February that the choice to cast Adele James, who is of mixed race, as Cleopatra in its new documentary series was “a nod to the centuries-long conversation about the ruler’s race”.
No, it’s a nod to something else, something rather modern in nature, something very sinister and dark – anti-white racism.
Zahi Hawass, a prominent Egyptologist and former antiquities minister, told the al-Masry al-Youm newspaper: “This is completely fake. Cleopatra was Greek, meaning that she was light-skinned, not black.”
Mr Hawass said the only rulers of Egypt known to have been black were the Kushite kings of the 25th Dynasty (747-656 BC).
“Netflix is trying to provoke confusion by spreading false and deceptive facts that the origin of the Egyptian civilisation is black,” he added and called on Egyptians to take a stand against the streaming giant.
I’m with Zahi on this one. I suspect that the Egyptians will be somewhat more robust than we were with our black Anne Boleyn.
On Sunday, lawyer Mahmoud al-Semary filed a complaint with the public prosecutor demanding that he take “the necessary legal measures” and block access to Netflix’s services in Egypt.
He alleged that the series included visual material and content that violated Egypt’s media laws and accused Netflix of trying to “promote the Afrocentric thinking… which includes slogans and writings aimed at distorting and erasing the Egyptian identity”.
Popcorn time…
The Arabs who were the premier slave traders don’t have the problem with blacks like the west, because they castrated the males. Note there isn’t a large black problem in arab countries The Arabs might be bastards but they certainly made the right decision in this case.
“If you don’t like the casting, don’t watch the show“
Fair enough. But then please don’t complain about a lack of black people on TV, or that only those with the lived experience can play certain roles etc. cos if you don’t like it, just don’t watch it.
Ah, logic and reason. Unfortunately, it’s lost on these people. If they didn’t have double standards, they would have none at all.
Cleopatra (the eighth Cleopatra, actually) had a son by Julius Gaius Caesar who had blond hair. You would not get that result from the genetic background of the mother if she was of Negroid ancestry.
Perhaps we should also consider boycotting products that are advertised using mixed race couples? I’ve no problem with mixed race couples but judging from the adverts they are now the default. According to the 2021 census mixed race couples make up 2.9% of the population.
That’s why McCarthy and Stone get airbrushed out, DJ!
I humbly apologise if I’ve posted something like this before, but I’ve recently become Rowan Atkinson’s Diversity Agent and I’m desperately trying to convince the BBC that he’d make a perfect 21st Century actor to play the part of Martin Luther King.
I can’t reproduce here the directions I’ve been given as to how to leave the premises.
It makes you just want to stamp your foot really hard…
I wrote a fantastic, erudite, hilarious script for the good man, Grist, but his agent said that anything like Blackadder was a dead duck these days, more’s the pity!
I think he’d make a great Cassius Clay too, and even Sir Leary Constantine, but you’re probably younger than me and may not know he was a former black man…
“If you don’t like the casting, don’t watch the show“
So we can call you all racist when it flops
The best Cleopatra was in Carry On Cleo. She’s never been topped
Amanda Barrie?
Yes
Dear Bucko
Feast your eyes (and ears):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKsnFs3uawA
DP
Thank you, DJ: “mixed race couples make up 2.9% of the population” maybe they’re ALL advert actors . . .
The most recent version of “Darling Buds of May” lost me when I realised just into the first episode that it had been woked with a total disregard for its time setting. The girlies carried on watching further episodes as I grumbled in the corner and it got worse.
Too right, The J!
Utterly ridiculous to change the nationalities of such an enigmatic classic as H.E’Bates’ stories!
I live just a few miles from where the great man lived, and nowhere would any of these liberal fantasies have been reality in the fifties!
Beeboids have this built-in desire to trash recent history, so that’s why the programme crashed!
To be fair, it’s easy to see how uneducated dimwits (i.e., the vast majority) might think Cleopatra was black. ‘Cos she’s, like, a African, innit?* There’s no conceivable excuse for Anne Boleyn.
*And they call us racists.
It only goes one way. The latest upset is over casting for the live action version of the animated feature Lilo and Stitch, set in Hawaii. The actress chosen for one of the main roles is Hawaiian, of ‘British-Irish with Hawaiian and Filipino ancestry.’ But….her skin tone is lighter than her character in the animated version. Quelle horreur.
I read somewhere that Jada Pinkett-Smith is a producer of this bullshit. Somehow, that doesn’t surprise me. It’s not the only lawsuit that Netflix is facing either. They currently have a movie on the site, whose name I’ve forgotten. It’s based on an even from about 20 years ago, where a French freediving couple, the rockstars of that community apparently, suffered a tragedy. The wife made a deep dive but the mechanism to bring her back to the surface failed and she died.
It was proved after an investigation that it was nothing more than a tragic accident. Yet Netflix has seen fit to “sex it up” and instead imply that the husband sabotaged the mechanism and murdered her, because he was the jealous, controlling type. Netflix are trying to get out of the defamation trap by claiming it’s only loosely based on the case.
Have you seen the new Doctor Who – ha, ha, ha. There was silly me thinking they might choose a white man !!!
Black and gay, so a double win. I stopped watching years ago.
Wow 2 boxes LR. If he was in a wheelchair it would tick 3 boxes ! I thought the black population was abt 5% of the population. Seems i was wrong – it’s 50 % according to what i see on TV.