Netflix Cleopatra Review - Racism and Cultural Appropriation?

We take a look at Netflix's new 'documentary' about the Ancient Egyptian queen Cleopatra VII.
Normally I stay out of political/racial issues, but I felt this one would have me break that rule because of the misinformation people have been spreading.

All races in this world should be treated equally well! And no matter the color of your skin, whether you're black or brown or red or yellow or blue or beige or pink or as pale as a subway tile, you are beautiful, and you matter!

#cleopatra #queencleopatra #netflix #ancientegypt #egypt #history #ancienthistory #netflixcleopatra #queenofegypt #egyptianqueen

[Egypt_]

Quick correction here: In the video, I say you can fit two United States in the continent of Africa. According to the numbers, Africa is in fact THREE TIMES the size of the United States, with some room left over. The U.S. has a surface area of 3, 796, 742 square-miles, and the African continent has a surface area of 11, 730, 000 square-miles.

[maikamal]

As an Egyptian, I feel I need to clarify few points on how we feel about this show:
1.Egyptians in general have no problem with skin color in American depictions, we were depicted as white (Gods of Egypt), black (remember the time), non white (Scorpion king)..and we didn't we have any problem with any, simply because we know they are fictional and for entertainment, even if they're stereotypical. So it's not the "blackness" of Cleopatra that bothers us as the actress Adele stated.
2. For a while, there's been an afrocentric movement, one of its claims is that ancient Egyptians were subsaharan black, and denies modern Egyptians of any ancestry to ancient Egyptians simply because they are not black, and not "African" accordingly. They even call any ancient Egyptian artifact or monument that looks Mediterranean like any other Egyptian as "fake" if it doesn't fit their narrative.
3. Now imagine when Jada Smith (Afrocentrist) groups with Tina Gharavi (Woke) to make the so-called documentary Queen Cleopatra. The whole show is based on race-swapping, cultural appropriation at its best, and promoting how "black" and "African" Cleopatra was. They even had the audacity to call it a "documentary", and the nerve to call us "racists" just because we refuse to have such ideologies shoved down our throats as inarguable facts.

[Rafael-gzmw]

My mom always said "Cleopetra was chinese!!!" So the whole world is incorrect, she was CHINESE!!!

[erickelly]

My favorite "expert" was the one that said, "I always imagined that Cleopatra had curly hair like me". That's akin to saying "I imagine that Cleopatra trained in a Shaolin temple and had adventures in the 1800's west America" . Just because I can imagine it doesn't make it true.

[JimmySmith-duxz]

It's not "cultural appropriation." It's "cultural imperialism..."

[someinteresting]

And the woman with the is a professor in Classics? Good to know the quality of the academic staff at that university.

[IbnHeru]

"Not very informed. Egyptian looking stuff just to make it look egyptian."

That's what happens when you have a group that tries to claim to be the originators of every ethnic group on earth while simultaneously not caring about the actual rich historical complexities of those cultures. They simply care about black skin and nothing else.

[johna]

I don't care what that crazy lady's dementia suffering grandma says, MLK Jr was Japanese. Shaka Zulu was Cherokee. Rosa Parks was Pakistani. Nelson Mandela was Norwegian.

Oh, is that not how reality works? Maybe that "professor" needs to open a history book or 2.

[daedalron]

They worst to me is that they didn't blackwash just Cleopatra.
They also made all the Alexandria population black, including the scholars of the Library, which is funny considering it was a city built by the greeks, for the greeks, with a lot of greek population. Strabo even mention how the "alexandrian tribe" "were greeks by origin and mindful of the customs common to the greeks" (Geography, XVII.1.12)
The city depicted in the Netflix show looked more Nubia than Alexandria.

[hiabdelwahed]

As an Egyptian I followed the YouTube videos about the subject. This is by far the best review about the show. Simple, to the point, calm and informative

[johnsouth]

American educational culture must change!

[kostasastro]

When Julius Caesar said "I am all the Romans" and Cleo answered "I am all the Egyptians" and kicking him inside a bottomless pit yelling "Wakanda while twerking and finally saying "Yaasss Queen!!!" was an eye opening and truly emotional moment that made me shed a tear. This is what documentaries should be and not the lies we are fed from history books. 🤪🤪🤪

[Mike-ulxn]

Wait, let's not be too hasty with dismissing that old lady's assertions. How old was her grandma? Maybe she actually saw Cleopatra 2000 years ago lol.

[gregorygregson]

I asked my grandmother to read the hieroglyphics that you refer to as "gibberish, " and she told me it says that Isis is pointing the way to the handicapped accessible bathrooms, and Anubis is pointing the way to the merch store and cafeteria.

[hemaccabe]

I think it's a sign of hope for our society that this racist horseshit has been so universally rejected.

[Publicistvideos]

By ignoring cleopatra’s ancestry they are basically deleting the entire Hellenistic era which is an unforgivable crime for a “documentary”. For example, Hellenism had a huge impact on early Christianity. You can’t just delete an entire period of history.

[JoaoMariaNunes]

As a passionate about world history, my stomach could never withstand this pile of crap

[jeffreytroublefield]

My favorite African American is Elon Musk.

[DDanV]

Africa is huge, not all Africans are Subsaharan West Africans (basically from one of several ethnicities black Americans descend).

The Amazighen (berbers) have populated North Africa for at least 13 thousand years (there is evidence in the caves in Maghreb that place them there AT LEAST 13 thousand years ago), and between them and West Africa there’s a huge desert…

As for Egypt same thing, they were surrounded by what’s today Libya (that were berber) on one side, Canaan and the Middle East on the other, on the Southwest was desert and on the north Nubia (that although a black kingdom they don’t consider themselves remotely West Africans, they are Nubians). The ancient Egyptians are depicted in every shape and skin tone, and even a few pharaohs were Nubians.

But anyway, Cleopatra would have been Mediterranean looking at most. What grinds my gears isn’t even the black Cleopatra but the cultural appropriation of Ancient Egypt by black washing it, in complete disregard that it may have been one of the most inclusive Civilizations in history and the modern day Egyptians are the representation of that even thou black Americans keep trying to negate them that and calling them colonizers….

[Han-rwev]

Africans identify each other by nation and tribe.

African AMERICANS judge by skin colour.

That can be a problem for the locals when they drop by to visit..