Netflix is coming out with a new show–Queen Cleopatra. But in the way of Netflix, they made her black, not Greek.
Surprisingly enough, they are getting some backlash, including an Egyptian lawyer bringing a lawsuit over ‘blackwashing’ history.
Zahi Hawass, the former Egyptian Antiquities Minister was beside himself.
Hawass commented on the movie, which sparked public criticism in Egypt for portraying the Ptolemaic Queen as black-skinned, saying: “This is completely fake.
Cleopatra was Greek, meaning that she was blonde, not black.”
Hawass added that in recent years a trend emerged, led by black Americans and blacks in South America, claiming that the Egyptian civilization is of black origin.
He stressed that such claims were completely false.
The black civilization has no connection with the Egyptian civilization, Hawass said, pointing out that the black civilization did not rule Egypt except in the twenty-fifth dynasty during the era of the Kingdom of Kush, i.e. at the end of the ancient Egyptian civilization.
As the author at The American Thinker noted:
Incidentally, in order to get beyond the obvious objection — If modern-day Egyptians are not Black, how could their ancestors have been? — the cultural appropriators have long insisted that modern-day Egyptians “lightened up” following the seventh-century Arab conquest and comingling of Egypt.
In reality, according to recent DNA tests, it appears that, if anything, the opposite is true — ancient Egyptians were lighter, not darker, than their modern-day descendants. Apparently the ancients looked more like Levantine peoples, Syrians, Lebanese, etc.
Change.org took down a petition with 80,000 signatures requesting that Netflix cancel the series due to ‘community guidelines’.
I think I’ll take a pass. I was and still am a fan of Egyptian history. Netflix is either pandering, is ignorant, or both.
Midwest Chick's Place 
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