re: “If you don’t like the casting, don’t watch the show” – Cleopatra

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It always bothers me when people say this. She was Ethnically Greek but her family had been in Africa for THREE HUNDRED YEARS when she was born. I think that would qualify her to say she was African

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Alexandria was culturally Greek. Citizenship was reserved for Greeks and Macedonians, Greek was the spoken and written language of the educated class, and it was governed by Greek law. Alexander the Great intended it to be the Hellenistic hub of the world, and it was for a few centuries.

Cleopatra was actually the first ruler of the Ptolemaic dynasty who learned to speak languages other than Greek, and that was primarily due to her political savvy. Saying she "qualifies" as African instead of Greek simply because the Ptolemies resided on the south coast of the Mediterranean is sort of disingenuous.

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Cleopatra was provably light skinned, practically white, and they just decided to make her black because why not. Almost feels like they're goading people at this point. On top of this being a Jada Pinkett production, this just feels like all bait that's going to perform poorly.

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This seems like a weird hill to die on. The little Mermaid I get cuz she was definitively white in the original cartoon but Cleopatra would at minimum have olive skin and who is to say it wasn't darker?

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Because there were so many white cultures running around the Middle East 2000 years ago, amirite?

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Almost all of the Middle East was part of the Byzantine Empire almost 2,000 years ago, so "yeah". Put down Jet magazine and open a history book.

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Alexandria was culturally Greek. Citizenship was reserved for Greeks and Macedonians, Greek was the spoken and written language of the educated class, and it was governed by Greek law. Alexander the Great intended it to be the Hellenistic hub of the world, and it was for a few centuries.

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Correct it was a Greek cultural city in Africa. And it’s slightly disingenuous to say Alexander intended it to be the Hellenistic Hub of the world, Ptolemy the Great should get credit for that.

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Cleopatra was actually the first ruler of the Ptolemaic dynasty who learned to speak languages other than Greek, and that was primarily due to her political savvy. Saying she "qualifies" as African instead of Greek simply because the Ptolemies resided on the south coast of the Mediterranean is sort of disingenuous.

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Also all very true but I don’t see how it’s disingenuous to say she’s from Africa when literally she was born in Africa and her family had lived there for centuries. My ancestors moved here from Germany 200 years ago, I don’t claim to be German.

I feel like you are the one who isn’t reading thoroughly. I’m not claiming that she is ethnically of African heritage, in fact I’ve already said a number of times that she was ethnically and culturally Macedonian Greek.

My whole point on her being “African”, is that she was LITERALLY FROM AFRICA, regardless of her ethnicity or culture she was born, raised, ruled, and died on the continent of AFRICA.

I didn’t say she was black, I didn’t say she is of African blood, I said she is LITERALLY FROM AFRICA, and I am correct.

I bet when the actress made this quote, she was hope to do just this. Trigger a bunch of white men on a message board and forcing them to argue history.

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Do you think she was also counting on a merry band of progressive white knights on that message board trying to distract people from her stupidity like you and a couple others are doing?

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You think what she said was stupid?

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She is being depicted by Netflix & JPS AS a BLACK warrior queen!! She’s Galadriel in blackface!!

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Another point I didn't really see mentioned in this thread is that she's also being portrayed as a warrior. This is supposed to be a docu-series and they've seemingly created an entirely fictional character.

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I feel like you are the one who isn’t reading thoroughly. I’m not claiming that she is ethnically of African heritage, in fact I’ve already said a number of times that she was ethnically and culturally Macedonian Greek.

My whole point on her being “African”, is that she was LITERALLY FROM AFRICA, regardless of her ethnicity or culture she was born, raised, ruled, and died on the continent of AFRICA.

I didn’t say she was black, I didn’t say she is of African blood, I said she is LITERALLY FROM AFRICA, and I am correct.

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You're the one who said it actually bothers you when people say she's Macedonian.

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It always bothers me when people say this.

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Artists depicted her as what she looked like. Had they not, they'd likely not have enjoyed the consequences.

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This tradition was continued well into the 20th century, as Stalin is known to have executed several painters whose portraits of him failed to meet his exacting standards.