Regarding Netflix's Black Cleopatra

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https://www.facebook.com/watch?v=557498493188321

Well, the Egyptians were probably more Middle Eastern despite being in Africa since they intermingled and probably intermarried with immigrants from other parts of the world. Cleaopatra actually had a Greek lineage though. Other than that, I'm not sure what the debate is about.

[opinion=mine]

It seems likely that no one would have even noticed yet another lame-o pseudo-historical drama if the title character had not been cast as the "wrong" color / culture / race / whatever.

[/opinion]

When will Broadway / Disney / Hollywood / Netflix / whatever deliver something new and original?  When will they stop remaking remakes of remakes?

They're silly.

It's actually a big deal that Cleopatra is black. There's a huge group of people out there who want to reframe Egyptians as black so that Africa as a whole looks better historically since not much technical innovation has come out of there.

I think this is silly. Egypt belongs to the Mediterranean and the mid-eastern world surrounded by it. This struggle, between racists who want to paint Africa in a poor light, and those who think its a good idea to fight back against it by overhyping Africa, is a conversation I have little interest in lol, I find it goofy and something silly to argue about.

when nostalgia ends, which I doubt it ever will

Cleopatra being black in a drama: fine, who cares?

Cleopatra being black in a "docu-drama": stupid, if you're claiming to be factual then you should be accurate and cast someone from the Med region.

There is no shortage of original programming. In fact, this story is about original programming! It is part of a series examining various African Queens - a group of which Cleopatra is by far the most famous.

We have a thread about this already in Current events.

Seems to be a battle between American Blacks, and Egyptians in Egypt. White Americans are kinda on the sidelines.
The bickering parties have different agendas. And none of the parties seems to have historic accuracy as any part of their agenda! Lol!

The sad thing is both sides are mistaken in making Cleopatra into the face of "Indigenous Egyptian-ness" because she was descended from European conquerors.

American Black pride (mixed with feminism) vs Egyptian "identity". Egyptians seemed to more prejudiced against dark skin than White American movie goers. Or atleast dark skin on either their ancient or modern rulers. They raised a stink about Anwar Sadat being played by an actor who was too dark (or thats what i heard).

The Egyptian people are mix of peoples from various origins.

The Egypt of the Pharoahs lasted for almost three thousand years. During that long time there were quite a number of kings and queens whom we are fairly certain looked like American Black or biracial actors. But sorry ...Cleopatra was probably NOT one of them.

She was of a foreign invading dynasty and was of south European ancestry. And from sculptures and coins we know she looked like a rather nerdy looking Arab or Jewish American lady. You wouldnt cast Nicole Kidman to play her. But not a Black either if you're going for accuracy.

So the bad news...dont hang your Black pride on Cleopatra.

But the good news is that there are plenty of other ancient Egyptian royals who did have west African DNA that you can pick from to portray as "Black". Even Ramses "the Great" was shown to have a genetic marker associated with the spread of the Bantu tribes across subsaharan Africa (from DNA analysis of his mummy's DNA).

Is there anyone complaining that Brendan Frazier isn't really morbidly obese? Couldn't they have found someone who was authentically fat for the lead in The Whale ?

Havent seen the movie, but... I assume that his character triumphs over it and...stops being obese.

So for that reason they wouldnt be able to cast a real person of the morbidly obese persuasion to play the character.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIt5xTvpNtI

Just addressing the OP's FB video

Bassem Youssef (formerly a doctor from Egypt) has been a standup comedian since 2015 in the US. His main topic at shows he delivers to American audiences is "The Arab Experience in America". Frankly I don't think he's invested very much on his Egyptian identity and was only interviewed by Piers Morgan in order to use weaponise his background to discredit Netflix.

Bassem is a highly intelligent individual and his commentary (on the surface) seems reasonable but opens up some questions I have about Arabic racism. Why would the identity of a Greek/Macedonian queen planted in Egypt as a colonizer compromise islamic values?? The answer is it doesn't. I think (the irony) is that Arabic Egyptians have culturally appropriated a non-Arab, non-Egyptian and non-muslim personality as one of their own.

This would be the equivalent of casting a black woman to portray Queen Victoria and for people from India to object because Queen Victoria was the "empress of India" Or for Hindus in India to object to a Mughal emperor of India being portrayed by a black man because he once ruled India (despite being ethnical, religiously and linguistically a foreigner)

Oh it just get's worse



I really wish Egyptians learn their own history and stop trying to claim historical figures who happen to be ruling in Egypt as "them"

With all due respect, you seem to have a much broader opinion than I of what constitutes original programming.

[opinion=mine]

Never-before seen characters and plots would be a good place to start.

Besides, I get enough of the same old same-o by going to church every Sunday.

[/opinion]

So because Shakespeare did a Cleopatra story, nobody else can?

It’s impossible to be truly original. A character has a desire, seeks to fulfil it, and changes during the process? We’ve seen it all before!

For me, if it isn’t a sequel, an adaptation, or a remake, that’s “original”. You’re not using existing intellectual property.

Not only do we not know what the “plot” of this docu-drama is going to be, we don’t even know which African queens are going to feature in the rest of the series. Chances are that they’re people I haven’t heard of… but they are almost certainly people about whom there is plenty of folklore. If your aim is to showcase real people, it is impossible to use people whose stories haven’t been told, because otherwise you wouldn’t know they exist unless you know them personally.

Isn't this what postmodernism is all about?
The facts are irrelevant?