news Egyptian lawyer sues Netflix for Cleopatra depiction

[Mikeymoonshine]

23 hours ago, Luckitty said:

 

except this is promoted as a documentary and as historical facts not fiction 

 

a woman literally says in the "documentary": "I don't care what they tell you in school, cleopatra was black" which shows netflix or who ever is behind this "documentary" is purposefully trying to falsify history

Ah OK i assumed it was a movie. There's no evidence Cleopatra was black. I also have no idea why someone would want to push that narrative. Her family invaded Egypt. They could have focused on someone like Nefertiti instead who would have been at least darker than cleopatra probably. 

[ProudLBS]

#NotMyCleopatra

 

[mystery]

The director spoke out in this VARIETY article.

Why shouldn’t Cleopatra be a melanated sister?

Amir in his bedroom in Cairo wrote to me to earnestly appeal that “Cleopatra was Greek!” Oh, Lawd! Why would that be a good thing to you, Amir? You’re Egyptian.

"Melanated sister? Oh lawd?" Mind you she is from Iran, is not black and is using black people as political ammunition and for controversy, not because she actually cares about their struggles.
 

[Leptine]

4 hours ago, Archetype said:

My main question is why Americans want to significantly change Cleopatra's race so badly.  Do people just hate Greeks?  Allergic to Greek food?  What is it?

It's because a lot don't know the difference between Cleopatra and Nefertiti.

Everytime there is like a casting news about a 'Cleopatra' movie, I punctually caught people in the comments posting photos of Nefertiti

[Into The Void]

On 4/20/2023 at 9:19 AM, Badgalbriel said:

Ok but my question here is :

Was she black or white after all? If she was white, why does woke Twitter want her to be black? 

If she was black, why is this guy suing Netflix? 

She was Macedonian Greek so she was Caucasian 

[CaptainMusic]

On 4/20/2023 at 7:43 PM, satellites.™ said:

Unless they're animated.

 

Umm Mario is Italian and Italians are…white  

[Bloodflowers.]

Cleopatra was Latina

[Tropez]

3 hours ago, Bloodflowers. said:

Cleopatra was Latina

She wasn’t. Because she died before the Roman Empire annexed Egypt. But she did speak Latin. But speaking Latin doesn’t make you Latina. 

[MadonnasBoyfriend]

That time cleopatra did a performance..

 

 

[Sergi91]

Cleopatra was LatinX 

[jorjapuss]

I think it’s funny how black Twitter has been outraged about Lilo and stitch casting because the actors are half white not Hawaiian enough or dark enough to their liking but yet ignorantly blind to this. 

[jorjapuss]

16 hours ago, Archetype said:

My main question is why Americans want to significantly change Cleopatra's race so badly.  Do people just hate Greeks?  Allergic to Greek food?  What is it?

It's only the black Americans, they also claimed Native Americans are actually black. Black Americans need to embrace their ancestors from Africa and their culture not try to steal other people's history and cultures. 

[A.R.L]

Things could have gone worse if cleopatra had been black and painted her white. But to sue? Well, sure, he's got a lot more issues in egypt to care about better than what a flop netflix project will tell, people don’t learn about ancient egypt's history from netflix 

[GoodGuyGoneGhetto]

On 4/20/2023 at 3:11 PM, Trent W said:

I’ve seen so many Egyptians complaining about this documentary online

 

I never understood the obsession of making Cleopatra black honestly

 

 

Cleaopatra wasn’t Egyptian either.

 

The fact that I have literally seen a handful of Egyptians, who are clearly of Arab descent, complaining about this is hilarious.

 

She didn’t look like them either. 

 

There is this one particular Egyptian politician, who is rather deep brown in complexion, scrutinising this on his Facebook page, essentially saying that “Afrocentrism is awful” and he literally looks like he’s from Kenya or Ethiopia. 
 

 

The discourse itself is very strange. 
 

It doesn’t even appear to be that controversial to the Greeks themselves.

[GoodGuyGoneGhetto]

1 hour ago, jorjapuss said:

It's only the black Americans, they also claimed Native Americans are actually black. Black Americans need to embrace their ancestors from Africa and their culture not try to steal other people's history and cultures. 

You clearly appear to have an issue with Black people and Black Americans in particular going by your comment history. 

 

What is your problem, and is there something more direct you would like to say? 

 

 

Not only is comment drenched in racist undertones, but it’s also false. 
 

Where exactly is the average African-American claiming that Native Americans are/were Black and when has this ever been a mainstream conversation, if at all? Moreover, in what dimension are African-Americans not claiming their African ancestry and where exactly are they trying to steal from other peoples cultures?

 

Are you f*cking serious?

 

 

[Thinking Of You]

1 hour ago, jorjapuss said:

It's only the black Americans, they also claimed Native Americans are actually black. Black Americans need to embrace their ancestors from Africa and their culture not try to steal other people's history and cultures. 

You’re clearly mistaken. The Black community as a consensus has never claimed this. It doesn’t even make sense quite frankly. 
 

The slave ship went on a tour. It went to the Caribbean first and dropped a chunk of people off there. It then went to South America and that’s where most slaves were dropped off. That is why you see so many darker skinned people in Latin countries and in Brazil, Guyana, etc. The USA was the last stop, and it had the least slaves. People were already there. They wouldn’t have dropped them off in the middle of nowhere. 

[Cain]

We will never know for sure but based on the statue made of her and the fact she was Greek she most likely wasn’t black

[Cain]

However as long as Jesus is portrayed as some Northern European guy all over the world I don’t really care 

 

I wonder how many people would still praise him if he was portrayed as an actual Arab 

[boneyard]

1 hour ago, GoodGuyGoneGhetto said:

Cleaopatra wasn’t Egyptian either.

 

The fact that I have literally seen a handful of Egyptians, who are clearly of Arab descent, complaining about this is hilarious.

 

She didn’t look like them either. 

 

There is this one particular Egyptian politician, who is rather deep brown in complexion, scrutinising this on his Facebook page, essentially saying that “Afrocentrism is awful” and he literally looks like he’s from Kenya or Ethiopia. 
 

 

The discourse itself is very strange. 
 

It doesn’t even appear to be that controversial to the Greeks themselves.

She would be Egyptian in terms of "nationality" as she was a ruler of Egypt and one of her key features was that she was one of the first rulers to actually learn the Egyptian language hence tying her more to the culture than other leaders, although trying to proscribe a modern-day ethnicity or "race" to her in a time where borders nor race existed is a folly play. I also hope I need to clarify to you that nationality =/= ethnicity. 

 

There are actual "black" Egyptians or black-looking Egyptians such as ones near the border of Sudan, yet Netflix decided to not cast one and just went for an actress of sub-saharan African descent, which isn't accurate to the background they claim for Cleopatra and is still a form of history revision nor is the actress actually from Egypt. There is zero evidence of Cleopatra "being" or "looking" black for anyone to make the claim that the current actress for her resembles her in any way. Historical evidence does not align with the narrative. It also doesn't matter if Cleopatra looks like the average modern-day Egyptian either. She was of the ruling class, obviously she wouldn't have the same ancestry as them, and that applied generally around the world including even in Europe, not just Africa. 

 

Also are you really trying to sit here and claim that your anecdotal experience of the few Egyptians you've seen gives you some sort of authority about the population? Knowing a little bit about Egypt lets you know the diversity amongst Egyptians and not all are Arab in terms of ancestry let alone culture, such as Coptic Egyptians. Fair skinned Egyptians aren't unheard of either; Rami Malek is an example. I also hope you are aware that diaspora communities abroad are almost never reflective of the general population in the target country. Like if I was to judge the demographics of Panama based off of Panamanian-Americans I would think the country was as black as Jamaica when the average Panamanian in Panama looks "Mexican" and is predominately of European and Indigenous ancestry, not mostly African

 

 

Edited April 22, 2023 by boneyard

[igninton]

3 hours ago, jorjapuss said:

I think it’s funny how black Twitter has been outraged about Lilo and stitch casting because the actors are half white not Hawaiian enough or dark enough to their liking but yet ignorantly blind to this. 

/thread

[ProudLBS]

1 hour ago, Cain said:

However as long as Jesus is portrayed as some Northern European guy all over the world I don’t really care 

 

I wonder how many people would still praise him if he was portrayed as an actual Arab 

since when was Jesus an Arab?  Arabs didn't even invade the region until like 600 years after his death

[Cain]

Just now, ProudLBS said:

since when was Jesus an Arab?  Arabs didn't even invade the region until like 600 years after his death

Jesus wasn't Arab but his appearance probably resembled them more than how he is depicted now
Also are you talking about Islam? Because Arabs were around during Jesus' life

[ProudLBS]

2 hours ago, Cain said:

Jesus wasn't Arab but his appearance probably resembled them more than how he is depicted now

Picking an Arab to play Jesus would be one thing, but to portray him “as an actual Arab” would be pure revisionism lol

 

And Jesus’ depictions throughout the centuries were a product of what people thought he looked like. Traveling outside of your village wasn’t as common.

 

Look at Chinesus:

 

 

To know what he really looked like one just has to look at the average Jew or Samaritan.

 

2 hours ago, Cain said:

Also are you talking about Islam? Because Arabs were around during Jesus' life

There was a kingdom in Jordan and the Negev and some nomadic tribes, but they didn’t become a significant percentage of the population of Judea until the invasions.

[Aethereal]

6 hours ago, GoodGuyGoneGhetto said:

Cleaopatra wasn’t Egyptian either.

 

The fact that I have literally seen a handful of Egyptians, who are clearly of Arab descent, complaining about this is hilarious.

 

She didn’t look like them either. 

 

There is this one particular Egyptian politician, who is rather deep brown in complexion, scrutinising this on his Facebook page, essentially saying that “Afrocentrism is awful” and he literally looks like he’s from Kenya or Ethiopia. 
 

 

The discourse itself is very strange. 
 

It doesn’t even appear to be that controversial to the Greeks themselves.

Girl, Kenyans have very Afro-Centric features. Lupita is Kenyan. I doubt the person you're taking about looked like an Kenyan.  Ethiopians are another story. 

 

6 hours ago, Cain said:

However as long as Jesus is portrayed as some Northern European guy all over the world I don’t really care 

 

I wonder how many people would still praise him if he was portrayed as an actual Arab 

Jesus was Levantine. Modern Lebanese are 90% identical to ancient Levantines.  He was not that exotic. 

 

 

[boneyard]

16 hours ago, Tropez said:

She wasn’t. Because she died before the Roman Empire annexed Egypt. But she did speak Latin. But speaking Latin doesn’t make you Latina. 

That's kind of not true. Latin America is called that because almost all the countries are Spanish speaking (and Portuguese speaking) nations deriving from Latin. It's also why countries like Guyana and Suriname are always consistently excluded but also why nations like Haiti, Québec, etc. are included in the definition of Latin America and subsequently the demonym for the inhabitants/descendants of people in that region.