Woke anti-Semites upset that their comically bad history isn't given a hearing.

[All Along The Watchtower]

Plans for a new movie about Cleopatra have sparked a controversy before filming has even started.

The role of the famed ancient Egyptian ruler is to be played by Israeli actress Gal Gadot, best known for her Hollywood depictions of Wonder Woman.

The announcement has led to a row on social media with some alleging "cultural whitewashing", where white actors portray people of colour.

Some have said the role should instead go to an Arab or African actress.

Cleopatra was descended from an Ancient Greek family of rulers - the Ptolemy dynasty. She was born in Egypt in 69BC and ruled the Nile kingdom when it was a client state of Rome.

Gadot herself reportedly commissioned the film and will co-produce it.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-54529836

Bolding mine.

[NewYorkExpress]

Yeah, Whitewashing is bad, but this isn't quite it.

That said, Gadot should have at least looked for a Greek actress who can speak English to portray Cleopatra (surely one exists somewhere, right).

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

To be absolutely fair, the idea that Ancient Egypt was a primarily-black society goes back way further among certain types of antiimperialist and postcolonial historians than does woke antisemitism as we know it today. The idea that the Ptolemaic dynasty was black is, however, absolutely absurd.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Obviously the Greeks were black too! /s

[Silent Hunter]

In the next world, millions of Jews are laughing that they've become white.

[Saruku]

I sure hope that anyone who thinks the treatment Gal Gadot gets because of her nationality is a result of bigotry thinks the same think with regard to Yifei Liu. After all, the crusaders against "new antisemitism" are supposed to be all about fighting double standards, right?

[lfromnj]

The Ptolemies are actually closer to rural Alabama.

[NewYorkExpress]

In the next world, millions of Jews are laughing that they've become white.

Judaism is a religion, not a race. It's very possible to have a Jew who is White, Black, Hispanic, Asian, whatever other race you can think of.

[Middle-aged Europe]

Well, if we want to split the hair that thin...

Wikipedia says Gal Gadot's family is of Ashkenazi Jewish descent.


And the article on "Genetic studies on Jews" states:

"A 2007 study by Bauchet et al. found that Ashkenazi Jews were most closely clustered with Arabic North African populations when compared to the global population of that study. In the European structure analysis, they share genetic similarities with Greeks and Sicilians, reflecting their east Mediterranean origins.[79]"


Eh, close enough.

[parochial boy]

More importantly, who's playing Asterix?

[Zinneke]

There was similar controversy about the casting of Jasmine.

[Frodo]

To be absolutely fair, the idea that Ancient Egypt was a primarily-black society goes back way further among certain types of antiimperialist and postcolonial historians than does woke antisemitism as we know it today. The idea that the Ptolemaic dynasty was black is, however, absolutely absurd.

As far as the population of ancient Egypt (especially lower Egypt near the Nile Delta) was concerned, there is genetic evidence to suggest that they were more Mediterranean in appearance than modern Egyptians:

DNA discovery reveals genetic history of ancient Egyptians

Ancient Egyptians and their modern counterparts share less in common than you might think. That is, at least genetically, a team of scientists have found.

Researchers from the University of Tuebingen and the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History in Jena, both in Germany, have decoded the genome of ancient Egyptians for the first time, with unexpected results.

Publishing its findings in Nature Communications, the study concluded that preserved remains found in Abusir-el Meleq, Middle Egypt, were closest genetic relatives of Neolithic and Bronze Age populations from the Near East, Anatolia and Eastern Mediterranean Europeans.

Upper Egypt would have been much more African by comparison, which would make sense given their proximity to the Kingdom of Kush in ancient Nubia.  

[Stand With Israel. Crush Hamas]

There was similar controversy about the casting of Jasmine.

That one was...weird just because they were casting a princess of a fictional nation that took influence in its aesthetic from all of Arabian culture, Iran/Persia, and India.

[Stand With Israel. Crush Hamas]

Anyway, a combination of stunning lack of historical awareness and the base antisemitism that Gal Gadot encounters any time she breathes. News at 11.

[Frodo]

And I agree that the controversy over the casting for Cleopatra is ridiculous.  The Ptolemies, being Macedonians, were quite strict in keeping their royal blood-line pure from indigenous 'contamination', going so far as to endorse incestuous marriages between brother and sister.

They were real-life Targaryens.  

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Interestingly enough, we do actually know what Cleopatra looked like. Roman sculpture in the late Republican period was relentlessly realist, and there are authenticated contemporary depictions of Cleopatra in good condition, the most famous of which is:



There's no particular reason to treat this depiction with any greater scepticism than you might display towards a Holbein drawing of a member of the court of Henry VIII. Incidentally it seems fairly likely that she dyed her hair red, which was the fashionable hair colour amongst ruling elites at the time.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

To be absolutely fair, the idea that Ancient Egypt was a primarily-black society goes back way further among certain types of antiimperialist and postcolonial historians than does woke antisemitism as we know it today. The idea that the Ptolemaic dynasty was black is, however, absolutely absurd.

It does, though I have to admit to finding it strange and distasteful; the projection of a very particular and very singular fantasy of Africa based entirely on American racial pathologies on to a real Egyptian past. I do know some Egyptians and I'm never quite sure if they'd find the concept hilarious or offensive.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Obviously the Greeks were black too! /s

You joke, but Black Athena is a book that actually exists. Somehow it hasn't had much exposure in recent years (despite the increasingly... er... um... well... despite the present climate in certain sections of American academia), but it's probably only a matter of time.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

There was similar controversy about the casting of Jasmine.

That one was...weird just because they were casting a princess of a fictional nation that took influence in its aesthetic from all of Arabian culture, Iran/Persia, and India.

You know what? That's the issue here exactly. Most of the idiots making fools of themselves over this have no sense of History as a real thing. To them, Cleopatra was no more real than 'Jasmine'.

[PSOL]

Is it that hard to find a Northern African Actress for this role?

[Antonio the Sixth]

Is it that hard to find a Northern African Actress for this role?

whoosh

[CumbrianLefty]

As any fule in the UK especially knos, Cleopatra looked like the young Amanda Barrie

[warandwar]

Well, if we want to split the hair that thin...

Wikipedia says Gal Gadot's family is of Ashkenazi Jewish descent.


And the article on "Genetic studies on Jews" states:

"A 2007 study by Bauchet et al. found that Ashkenazi Jews were most closely clustered with Arabic North African populations when compared to the global population of that study. In the European structure analysis, they share genetic similarities with Greeks and Sicilians, reflecting their east Mediterranean origins.[79]"


Eh, close enough.

As we all know, casting agents do DNA swabs of all applicants at the audition.
I mean who cares, this movie won't be good, but don't act like it's some duty to defend the casting of Gal Gadot.

[Silent Hunter]

Well, it's because she's a good looking Gal.

[warandwar]

Well, it's because she's a good looking Gal.

Cocaine body. Not my type.