Get me rewrite!
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.
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