A hilarious story of cultural re-appropriation.
Egyptians complain over Netflix depiction of Cleopatra as black
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”.
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.”
Adele James made the comment in a Twitter post featuring screengrabs of abusive comments that included racist slurs.
Cleopatra was born in the Egyptian city of Alexandria in 69 BC and became the last queen of a Greek-speaking dynasty founded by Alexander the Great’s Macedonian general Ptolemy.
She succeeded her father Ptolemy XII in 51 BC and ruled until her death in 30 BC. Afterwards, Egypt fell under Roman domination.
Macedonians being, y’know, Greeks, and Greeks being, y’know, decidedly not black. But hey, nig-nogs gotta nig-nog, amIright?
Jada Pinkett Smith, the American actress who was executive producer and narrator, was meanwhile quoted as saying: “We don’t often get to see or hear stories about black queens, and that was really important for me, as well as for my daughter, and just for my community to be able to know those stories because there are tons of them!”
Fuckin’ Jada Pinkett Smith. Groan. I mighta known. Poor old Will badly needs to get that saucy ho’ of his under some kind of control; she’s causing chaos and doing damage everywhere she goes.
But when the trailer was released last week many Egyptians condemned the depiction of Cleopatra.
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.
Okay, turnabout being fair play, then, I very much look forward to another upcoming release.
Ace says fans are calling it “the role Ryan Gosling was BORN to play,” and not even knowing who the hell Ryan Gosling might be, I surely can’t dispute that. In fact, I’d go so far as to say the same about whoever that melanin-challenged chick is that’s playing Moo’ch’elle in the trailer, also.
As for Will Smith, I’ll never forgive the punk-ass bitch for ruining Wild Wild West forever by hijacking Robert Conrad’s classic Jim West character, no good reason for the usurpation ever offered. I lovedlovedLOVED that show as a kid, and never missed a rerun for years afterward as an, um, alleged “adult.” So as far as I’m concerned, he and Pinkett Smith purely deserve each other, and may they have joy of their choice.
Update! Unrelated, yes, but it all put me in mind of another fine old Robert Conrad vehicle: namely, the mighty F4U Corsair.
Heh. What a great show that was. If Jada Pinkett Smith, or anybody else for that matter, ever decides to redo Pappy Boyington as a Nee-grow PoC (actually, COL Boyington was part Sioux Injun, but still), I’ma have a real problem with it.
- Entries
Blacksheep was a great show, love those Corsairs, badazz planes, if i had the dough id get me one o them
I still watch Blacksheep Squadron on the weekends. The local airport ,STS, has a Corsair that can be seen flying. Beautiful bird.
Is that Sonoma County airport, frankenwelder?
Nice to be able to see the old birds flying.
Yes. It is owned by Gary Heck.
Thanks for the info!
And it is beautiful – Featured in the EAA’s Warbirds magazine…
“What a great show that was.”
Ditto, Mike, ditto.
They wuz kangz an’ sheeyit.
But fair is fair: Egyptian producers should do Othello, and make him white.
But let’s get serious for a moment:
Black Sheep was a horrible show, except for the flying sequences.
And they kept getting spring-loaded to go off into the weeds, and go all soapy-dopey soap opera (because a paltry world war with shoestring outfits in a desperate fight against incredible early odds wasn’t enough riveting drama, apparently).
Stephen Cannell should have been kicked in the balls weekly starting about S1E6, until the show was finally, thankfully, permanently cancelled.
Finding an excuse to make a show about VMF-214, and drag half a dozen F4Us onto the screen every week: A+.
Screwing that pooch within weeks so hard it would never walk straight again: F.
The only slightly redeeming factor was that Cannell and Bellisario managed to work most of the lead actors into such Universal flagships as Magnum P.I. and Quantum Leap.
But Cannell still deserved the ball-kicking I mentioned for what he did to the legacy of a highly decorated unit. He could have given America Band Of Brothers thirty years early; what we got instead was drama the caliber of The A-Team beamed back 40 years into the past. Which just made me throw up into my mouth a little.
And FTR, I have a VMA-214 squadron patch I bought at the El Toro MCAS in the early 80s, from the annual air show which featured the Blue Angels, sold to me direct from the hand of a by-then 70ish Pappy Boyington himself.
And, it should be noted, he was then about 5-foot-nothing, still looking like a certifiable badass mean sonofabitch, and probably still ready and willing to kick anybody’s ass who sassed or offended him.
It remains one of my treasured possessions.
“Black Sheep was a horrible show, except for the flying sequences.”
Not sure I would call it “horrible”, but the the good part was the flying. The rest was just a made for TV soap opera like most shows.
I’m jealous you met Boyington. There were some pretty special men serving in WW2, Boyington being near the top of the list.
Sheeit, A-man, the flying sequences were the one and only reason I watched the show! Having seen them all a bazillion and one times, I still couldn’t tell you a single storyline, recite you a line of dialogue, or even name any of the other characters.
Cool Boyington recollection you got there, though. Talk about something to tell the grandkids about someday…! 😉
That “trailer” is hysterical.
It looks almost like the actors participated in the parody too. When was this made? The guy playing his “advisor” died a while ago now. So it had to be made when 0 Empty Suit was still President.
Oh and Wild, Wild West and Baa Baa Black Sheep were favorites of mine. In syndication of course.