Egypt says Netflix's portrayal of Cleopatra
as a Black woman is a 'blatant historical fallacy'
NBC News,
by
Patrick Smith
&
Charlene Gubash
Original Article
Posted By: NorthernDog,
4/29/2023 8:58:46 AM
Egypt has accused Netflix of misrepresenting history by casting a Black woman to play Cleopatra, its most famous historical figure, in a new series. “Queen Cleopatra,” which is released May 10, features Adele James in the lead role, a casting decision that the streaming giant says is “a nod to the centuries-long conversation about the ruler’s race” but which officials in Cairo have dismissed as “blatant historical fallacy.” The government statement issued Thursday marked an escalation in a feud that has sparked demands for the show's cancellation, amid a broader debate over representation in popular culture. The eight-episode docu-drama is
Reply 1 - Posted by:
bpl40 4/29/2023 9:12:41 AM (No. 1459021)
Next on list - A black Queen Elizabeth I.
62 people like this.
Reply 2 - Posted by:
Ida Lou Pino 4/29/2023 9:17:09 AM (No. 1459022)
Cleopatra was 100% Greek.
When Alexander installed his general Ptolemy as the leader of Egypt - - the Ptolemy family was afraid of having Egyptians insinuate into their family - - so they only married incestuously - - brothers and sisters marrying each other. Cleopatra herself was technically married to her younger brother - - and she later had him murdered. Her nly children had Caesar and Mark Antony as their fathers. So - - there was not a drop of outside blood in the Ptolemy family. They were intentionally 100% Greek.
A black Cleopatra is utter nonsense.
101 people like this.
Reply 3 - Posted by:
David Key 4/29/2023 9:23:10 AM (No. 1459025)
Hollywood playing loose and free with history and historical figures is hardly new. I am always suspicious of hysterical responses to anything that pimps a product in the media. How many extra viewers have tuned in that otherwise would have ignored the show? The best punishment of a bad TV series or movie is for people to ignore it, don't like something, don't watch it or read it.
43 people like this.
Reply 4 - Posted by:
Ragman73 4/29/2023 9:29:41 AM (No. 1459030)
Black Cleopatra on the Nile, the dream. While daily life on the streets of Chicago, Philadelphia, NYC, St. Louis, Memphis, the reality... Much of the public will believe ANYTHING and ignore what is right before them.
52 people like this.
Reply 5 - Posted by:
BeatleJeff 4/29/2023 9:35:53 AM (No. 1459035)
The same virtue signalers who get their panties in a twist whenever a white actor is cast as an historically ethnic person have no problem when minorities are cast as historically white characters. Apparently cultural appropriation is OK in one direction but not the other. Hypocrisy on steroids.
72 people like this.
Reply 6 - Posted by:
ControlFreak 4/29/2023 9:39:34 AM (No. 1459037)
I don’t understand. Can’t she identify as black? I mean, isn’t that a thing now? /s
What next? She will probably identify as a man….according to Hollywood, anyway.
32 people like this.
Reply 7 - Posted by:
Ruhn 4/29/2023 9:42:04 AM (No. 1459039)
As mentioned by Poster #2, Cleopatra was a descendant of one of Alexander the Great’s generals, Ptolemy. Yep, he was Greek (read: white). Accordingly, to portray Cleopatra as black is a flat-out lie. Netflix, among others in media, seems to get a kick out casting black actors in stories or actual historical events where no blacks were present. Tolkien must be rolling in his grave with the thought of those pointy-eared elves of Middle Earth now have a black sub-culture.
42 people like this.
Reply 8 - Posted by:
Roscoelewis 4/29/2023 9:42:15 AM (No. 1459040)
...ever see a black mummy?
47 people like this.
Reply 9 - Posted by:
Quigley 4/29/2023 9:52:35 AM (No. 1459048)
Big Bidet needs to launch a war on Egypt now that they have proved they are racists.
But it can't start before 10AM.
The proof that Cleopatra was not black is much simpler- she didn't vote for Big Bidet.
37 people like this.
Reply 10 - Posted by:
TexaTucky 4/29/2023 9:52:46 AM (No. 1459049)
On the same dumbness level as the classic portrayal of the Jewish Jesus as a blonde-haired, blue-eyed, surfer-dude.
43 people like this.
Reply 11 - Posted by:
Califedup 4/29/2023 9:54:03 AM (No. 1459051)
Don't fret Egypt. No one is watching this woke racist crap anyway. Netflix is well down the road of Get Woke, Go Broke.
44 people like this.
Reply 12 - Posted by:
WV.Hillbilly 4/29/2023 9:54:51 AM (No. 1459052)
We wuz kangs.
45 people like this.
Reply 13 - Posted by:
Californian 4/29/2023 10:02:23 AM (No. 1459054)
Time to cancel the entire country of Egypt.
19 people like this.
Reply 14 - Posted by:
marbles 4/29/2023 10:04:18 AM (No. 1459056)
P.C. , woke, whatever...all of it pandering, all of it garbage.
26 people like this.
Reply 15 - Posted by:
zephyrgirl 4/29/2023 10:08:44 AM (No. 1459058)
So what's new? Netflix has been doing this for a while. Anyone who has watched the "Bridgerton" series on Netflix has seen the purported presence of a plethora of influential blacks in Regency England.
45 people like this.
Reply 16 - Posted by:
dbdiva 4/29/2023 10:11:37 AM (No. 1459060)
#1 - There was a movie made with an Ann Boleyn who was black so it follows that her daughter would be portrayed as mixed race at some future time s/
The YouTube channel "Liberal Hivemind" did a video on black Cleopatra and it was quite good. If you've never seen his channel, I do recommend it. It is one of the few to which I've subscribed. He gets a lot of views ....even more than some programs on CNN.
15 people like this.
Reply 17 - Posted by:
felixcat 4/29/2023 10:14:26 AM (No. 1459065)
Netflix can spin all they want about a black Cleopatra but sorry the blacks in America are not descendants of the Kings and Queens in Africa. Admit it - your fellow black and Muslim Africans sold your descendants to the slave trade hundreds of years ago. Losers then and losers now.
36 people like this.
Reply 18 - Posted by:
DVC 4/29/2023 10:20:49 AM (No. 1459073)
Cleopatra wasn't even an Egyptian, she was Greek, so DOUBLY not black. How sad that they feel the need to rewrite history.
Yes, of course, they do. Black Africa, basically sub-Saharan Africa has produced nothing in the way of any sort of a "great civilization". No significant technological developments. I have no particular ideas why that may be, but something in their culture or lifestyle, or something else, prevented any significant buildings, structures beyond grass huts or technology beyond the spear. They imported iron working from the middle east, so did have metals technology. But no great art, no great ancient structures, no water works, I don't think that they even had a written language, but that may not be correct.
And so today they, and those who would rewrite history with them, pretend that anther great civilization of ancient times was black. How sad for them to find it necessary to steal the history from others. What's next - will they claim that Carthage was peopled by blacks? It was not.
35 people like this.
Reply 19 - Posted by:
Rather Read 4/29/2023 10:21:29 AM (No. 1459074)
I am still waiting for the movie about Robert Smalls - a genuine bad ass slave who later became a congressman. Or how about Bass Reeves who was a US Marshall. There are interesting black Americans who need their stories told. No need to black face historical characters.
40 people like this.
Reply 20 - Posted by:
chagrined 4/29/2023 10:38:35 AM (No. 1459096)
As so many posters prior to this post have pointed out, leftists LOVE to rewrite history in TV series and movies. The thing is that's just the tip of the iceberg since leftists just LOVE to rewrite pretty much all of history to fit their maniacal, depraved, notions.
20 people like this.
Reply 21 - Posted by:
JHHolliday 4/29/2023 10:58:03 AM (No. 1459113)
Re #20. The reason leftists want to rewrite history is because real history doesn’t fit their narratives. The real facts don’t support their propaganda.
32 people like this.
Reply 22 - Posted by:
Kate318 4/29/2023 11:49:54 AM (No. 1459166)
I have mentioned my black French professor before, on this site. Another of his statements was that Egyptians were black because they were in Africa. He stated that the Western world needed to come up with something to counter the African connection, so they made up a special name for the Egyptian people—the name of which now escapes me. However, one can clearly see in artwork, statuary and the mummification process that they are their own phenotype without typically African characteristics.
17 people like this.
Reply 23 - Posted by:
bigfatslob 4/29/2023 12:56:36 PM (No. 1459226)
Blacks are always looking for a heritage while rejecting real leaders and idolizing losers. It's the reason years ago they promoted Ebonics as a second nonsensical language. In the early '90s an elementary school white teacher friend of mine showed me a small paper passed out in the school during Black History Month of the accomplishments of blacks in history. On the front was a black Egyptian, In the pamphlet were the acknowledgement that blacks invented math, build pyramids and buildings throughout Africa. Viewing the black today I would say they missed school and lost history all together. Queen Cleopatra is no more black than Michelle Obama is a female.
26 people like this.
Reply 24 - Posted by:
chagrined 4/29/2023 1:09:19 PM (No. 1459239)
Right there with ya, poster #21. "leftists just LOVE to rewrite pretty much all of history to fit their maniacal, depraved, notions."
14 people like this.
Reply 25 - Posted by:
Zeek Wolfe 4/29/2023 2:26:10 PM (No. 1459298)
Cleopatra was a Greek.
11 people like this.
Reply 26 - Posted by:
Subsuburban 4/29/2023 4:06:32 PM (No. 1459339)
Whoa! Look out Egypt, you're gonna get cancelled. Don't you now that it is verboten to criticize anyone or anything "black"? It's so RACISSSS! WE WUZ KANGS, I TELL YA, KANGS AND QUEENS!
11 people like this.
Reply 27 - Posted by:
anniebc 4/29/2023 4:17:01 PM (No. 1459345)
I partially agree with poster #10 (minus the surfer dude). Many African descendants in America are also European descendants, thanks to their European American ancestors; we don't call them white though, do we? There were a ton of poor, non royal, nobody Europeans who came to America; they have many descendants. All white people aren't descended from kings and queens either, but maybe a lot of white people act like they are.
8 people like this.
Reply 28 - Posted by:
thomthomp 4/29/2023 4:43:56 PM (No. 1459356)
Stay tuned for the next Civil War drama where Lincoln, Grant and ALL the Union soldiers are black.
13 people like this.
Oops! I thought they were talking about a remake of Cleopatra Jones, that sassy black '70's detective.
13 people like this.
Reply 30 - Posted by:
SweetPea3 4/30/2023 7:43:04 AM (No. 1459550)
Not so fast. There are letters from contemporaries of Christ Jesus describing Him. This, from a letter by Pontius Pilate, who DID see Him face to face, to Tiberius Caesar: "One day, I observed a young man who was leaning against a tree, calmly addressing the multitude. I was told it was Jesus. This I could have easily suspected so great was the difference between Him and those who were listening to him. His golden colored hair and beard gave to His appearance a celestial aspect. He appeared to be about 30 years of age. Never have I seen a sweeter or more serene countenance. What a contrast between Him and His hearers with their black beards and tawny complexions..."
And this description of Jesus reportedly written by Publius Lentrelius (sp?) who lived in Judea during the reign of Tiberius Caesar, to the monarch in Rome. "...He is a tall man, well shaped and of an amiable and reverend aspect; His hair of a color that can hardly be matched, falling into graceful curls, waving about and very agreeable crouching upon His shoulder, parted on the crown of the head, running as a stream to the front after the fashion of the nazarites. His forehead high, large and imposing; His cheeks without spot or wrinkle, beautiful with lovely red; His nose and mouth formed with exquisite symmetry; His beard, and of a color suitable to his hair reaching below His chin and parted in the middle like a fork; His eyes bright blue, clear and most perfect, and captivating; His arms and hands delectable to behold..." This first appeared in the writings of Saint Anselm of Canterbury in the 11th century.
Other descriptions of Christ describe Him as "ruddy complected" which means "to show blood in the face."
In addition, it is not unusual to find mummies which have light brown or blondish hair. This was an area with high volume of trade with many coming and going(i.e. Greeks, like the light complected Cleopatra) To assume everyone was dark with black hair is often used to shape narratives that fit one's agenda, as I suspect is the case here.
9 people like this.
Reply 31 - Posted by:
Rumblehog 4/30/2023 8:20:56 AM (No. 1459564)
I keep waiting for "King" the musical to hit Broadway with a white man playing the role of Martin Luther King Jr.
s/o
7 people like this.
Reply 32 - Posted by:
Red Jeep 4/30/2023 8:28:31 AM (No. 1459567)
Casting Cleopatra as Black makes as much sense as the musical 1776 with an all Black cast.
6 people like this.
Reply 33 - Posted by:
Strike3 4/30/2023 9:06:36 AM (No. 1459604)
Eight episodes? That's a lot of money to lose but Netflix has already proven that they don't mind losing money. Harry/Markle and the Obamas come to mind.
Yes, #8 but none of them are married :)
6 people like this.
Reply 34 - Posted by:
Lawsy0 4/30/2023 9:38:55 AM (No. 1459626)
If Hollywood didn't play loose and free with history and historical figures, there would be no audience of Lo-Fo's to start a good game of Gossip. Ditto, Netflix. Every wannabe tough guy in every high school is always called ''Hollywood.''
5 people like this.
Reply 35 - Posted by:
Trapper 4/30/2023 9:58:21 AM (No. 1459642)
Don't look too closely, because most of Black History is fabulous fairy tales and outright lies. With no real sub-Saharan African history of accomplishments or contributions to wider civilization, people simply make stuff up. My personal favorite was the "Beethoven was Black" concoction they were bandying about a few years ago.
6 people like this.
Reply 36 - Posted by:
Hermoine 4/30/2023 11:05:09 AM (No. 1459718)
A few years back, I started watching the movie, Mary Queen of Scots, and got about 15 minutes into and was introduced to a black man playing Lord Randolph and an Asian woman - who looked Japanese or Chinese - playing Mary Seton, one of the main attendants to Mary Queen of Scots. It was so blantantly historically inaccurate that I stopped watching it. If they can't accurately cast correctly, there's no way I was going to believe the "historical" story they were portraying of Mary Queen of Scots. Also, for those Yellowstone fans out there, do NOT waste your time on the prequel, 1883. One of the worst portrayals of the West that I've ever seen. Worse than a Harlequin romance novel.
6 people like this.
Reply 37 - Posted by:
DVC 4/30/2023 11:08:48 AM (No. 1459724)
Serious question: Did any sub-Saharan African culture have any sort of a written language? Are there any great ancient structures south of the Sahara, like there are all through Central and South America? ANY at all?
Sub-Saharan Africans had access to ALL the technology of the middle east, not easily, but they could walk or sail there, and learn, bring back ideas and use them.
But, no horses, no organized agriculture, did they even have the iron plow or only digging sticks? Very dysfunctional, no technological development. It appears that the only technology that they brought back was rudimentary iron working for spear and arrow heads, perhaps ax heads and maybe knives.
Cultures who do not advance over millenia are steamrolled by cultures who do advance.
8 people like this.
Reply 38 - Posted by:
Zigrid 4/30/2023 11:32:05 AM (No. 1459752)
Isn't obama on the board at Netflix ....I seem to remember reading that....this inaccurate portrayal of Cleopatra fits his line of thinking that everything has to be black connected...part of his self/worth issues growing up as an abandoned child by his father and mother and left to rot by his grandparents...his anger at his growing up world of drugs and steam room escapades is surfacing as he runs America into the ground as crooked biden's puppeteer.....
6 people like this.
Well they already did a black Anne Boleyn so rewriting the white Greek Cleopatra as a black is no surprise. Producer Jada Pinkett Smith is beyond wretched in her morality and very liberal. Cleopatra is only the first historical Queen lined up for this treatment. I have not seen who the others are. Maybe a black Helen of Troy??
1 person likes this.
Reply 40 - Posted by:
Italiano 4/30/2023 7:50:45 PM (No. 1460019)
Pretty pathetic when you have to distort historical events in order to pretend that you were part of them.
Incapable of embarrassment, but we knew that.
0 people like this.
Reply 41 - Posted by:
NeonVortex 4/30/2023 8:10:32 PM (No. 1460029)
But her grandmother told her that Cleopatra was absolutely black. That's all you need to know.
0 people like this.
Cleo wasn't black?!!? But, but, but, but that doesn't fit the narrative.
0 people like this.
Reply 43 - Posted by:
Ashley Brenton 4/30/2023 8:41:28 PM (No. 1460045)
While I agree, I suspect that Egypt would prefer everyone think Cleopatra was more Arab in appearance.
0 people like this.
Reply 44 - Posted by:
Miceal 4/30/2023 8:42:23 PM (No. 1460047)
Greek, right?
0 people like this.
Comments:
Egypt assume that Hollywood would promote historical accuracy. Instead they promote phony Wokeism and race-baiting.