Egyptians sue Netflix for ‘blackwashing’ Cleopatra in an upcoming documentary
For allegedly erasing the true identity of Cleopatra, queen of Egypt, in a soon-to-be-released documentary that portrays her as a person of black heritage, Egyptians have sued Netflix, a multi-billion dollar media business.
The “Queen Cleopatra” teaser from Netflix, which was posted eight days ago and presently has over two million views, has prompted a number of people to construct Twitter threads and TikToks to explain every problematic aspect they have found in it.
Following a widespread wave of abuse, Netflix has removed the comments beneath the video.
The teaser has a number of people speaking, including an elderly person of color who says, “I remember my grandmother telling me, I don’t care what they tell you in school, Cleopatra was black.”
Many people were particularly offended by this line and criticized Netflix for trying to present what a grandma stated as fact.
According to Indie Wire, Egyptian attorney Mahmoud al-Semary complained to Egypt’s public prosecutor over the promotion of “Afrocentric thinking,” which includes “slogans and writings aimed at distorting and erasing the Egyptian identity,” and asked that Netflix be banned in Egypt.
The late queen was discussed in-depth on the “Amuse” Twitter account, which stated that she was “European in appearance” and that she was a Macedonian Greek woman.
The American Jada Pinket Smith, whose daughter, Willow Smith, received backlash for her harsh depiction of Amazigh tribes in her fantasy novel “Black Shield Maiden” as “savages” and “dangerous on their best day,” is the producer of the Afrocentrist documentary.
A video on the ENDYMIONtv YouTube channel titled “How woke ideology transforms history” discussed reverse colorism, selective activism, and the portrayal of primarily white historical characters by black performers.
Netflix wants to provide the impression that this movie is based on facts and official historical records by calling it a documentary, yet doing so distorts public perceptions of Cleopatra’s past and origins and raises objections.
In response to Change withdrawing their petition, the petition’s creators, Maha Shehata and Aikk Yasser, jointly posted a statement on Instagram stating, “The outrage is NOT because they got a black actress, the outrage is because we know they’re trying to push the agenda of’modern-day Egyptians are colonizers.
The documentary series will debut on May 10; however, Change has yet to specify which community rules were broken.
In their 2021 series on Anne Boleyn, which starred Jodie Turner-Smith as the historical figure, Netflix earlier incited outrage by “blackwashing” the historical figure, who was born of two white European royals and served as Queen of England and Henry VIII’s wife.