Woke streaming giant Netflix continued entertainment media’s obsession with race-swapping characters and is now facing the entire legal apparatus of the country of Egypt as a consequence.
As background, for the upcoming release of its Cleopatra biopic the Silicon Valley content streaming service cast a black woman to portray the historical Middle Eastern queen. In terms of production, it’s sadly barely even newsworthy. Disney has pretty much made every princess a black retread at this point, Marvel has replaced most of its Avengers with black alternatives, and plenty of northern European series featuring Vikings or British royalty commonly feature black characters.
Didn’t you know those ancient white societies, whom we are told practiced evil patriarchal mischief and advanced white supremacy, also allowed black females to lead them?
In any event, the Arab Republic of Egypt, unlike its left-leaning, morally-bankrupt European counterparts, isn’t having it. A black Cleopatra? Not on their watch.
“Netflix has been sued by The Arab Republic of Egypt for attempting to erase the cultural identity of Cleopatra. The streamer is falsely depicting Cleopatra as a black woman – she was Macedonian Greek woman – and not Black,” the Twitter handle amuse wrote.
Netflix has been sued by The Arab Republic of Egypt for attempting to erase the cultural identity of Cleopatra. The streamer is falsely depicting Cleopatra as a black woman – she was Macedonian Greek woman – and not Black.https://t.co/F4BQ9TsDpk pic.twitter.com/J0ySolCqhd
— @amuse (@amuse) April 20, 2023
Washington Engager, paraphrasing a report from The People’s Voice, wrote that Netflix is facing a new lawsuit from the country as it seeks to put an end to this woke race-swapping madness, wrote:
The streaming giant has angered a lot of people by portraying the famous Queen of the Nile as a black woman. The problem with that is Cleopatra was not black… and Egypt is pissed and now, they’re suing Netflix.
The People’s Voice reported that Netflix is desperate to find new black heroes for its woke content, and “Queen Cleopatra,” produced by Jada Pinkett Smith, wife of Will Smith, chose to cast Casualty actress Adele James as the iconic Egyptian monarch. However, in reality, Cleopatra VII, the last pharaoh of ancient Egypt, was a member of the Ptolemaic dynasty, which descended from Ptolemy I, a Macedonian Greek general who served under Alexander the Great.
“In order to preserve the Egyptian national and cultural identity among Egyptians all over the world there must be pride in the makings of such work,” an attorney for the Republic was reported to have said, as relayed by Washington Engager, adding that Netflix’s woke productions “do not conform to Islamic and societal values and principles, especially Egyptian ones.”
Boom to that. Although it’s hard to see how this suit prevails, considering Netflix will likely argue that art doesn’t need to conform to reality (when it’s convenient for them, obviously), this is nevertheless a nice reminder that most of the world rejects what is happening in the West.
As some other comments on Twitter pointed out, the idea that artistic representation is malleable was not unnoticed. Still, most said that while there is liberty in casting, it only goes so far before it enters the realm of the absurd.
“To be fair, Liz Taylor wasn’t Greek either. The sad thing is that there are real African queens and very interesting civilizational and historical flashpoints of black African nations and those stories are rarely told,” one said.
“It’s an interesting debate. With art, you should be able to dream up anything. In Shakespearean times, women were played by men. But it’s not an accurate portrayal, like casting a white person to portray Frederick Douglass, it doesn’t make sense in the historical context,” another wrote.
Indeed, race- and gender-swapping only ever go one way, and that’s why this is such an obnoxious problem. As memes on the internet have suggested, if a George Floyd biopic were made and a white male were cast as the lead, it seems safe to say most theaters in America would be burned to the ground by mobs of violent thugs.
It also points to the creative morass in which leftists live. There are doubtless endless stories that have been created or have since emerged from Africa; it’d be really easy to start from there. But the left cannot create, it can only destroy.
So while stories of black heroes exist – or could be newly written – the intellectually vapid Hollywood cadre of writers instead choose to appropriate existent stories to meet their own dastardly ends.
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