Egypt Might Sue Netflix Over ‘Black Cleopatra’

A fairly polarizing topic in entertainment these days is “race-swapping,” or intentionally changing the race of established characters.

Some notable and recent examples include “Velma” from Scooby-Doo, the Little Mermaid and a character from David Lowery’s “Peter Pan.”

I have no vested interest in these characters, but I get where the backlash is coming from…there are certain segments of society who cherish purist ideals and don’t like agendas being pushed on them.

However, a more recent trend has had filmmakers race-swapping actual historical figures. A notable example is Cleopatra from an upcoming Netflix series.

Cleopatra’s ancestry has been traced to the Macedonian Ptolemaic dynasty — these are people generally considered bronze, olive or honey-skinned. Don’t tell that to the creators of the Netflix series, when the trailer dropped last week for “Queen Cleopatra,” people noticed Cleopatra was a black woman (played by Adele James).

The film’s director defended her casting choice by saying it was very intentionally conceived:

“Why shouldn’t Cleopatra be a melanated sister? And why do some people need Cleopatra to be white? Her proximity to whiteness seems to give her value, and for some Egyptians it seems to really matter,” Gharavi told Variety.

“We need to have a conversation with ourselves about our colorism, and the internalized white supremacy that Hollywood has indoctrinated us with,” Gharavi added.

“It’s almost as if we don’t realize that misogynoir still has an effect on us today. We need to liberate our imaginations, and boldly create a world in which we can explore our historical figures without fearing the complexity that comes with their depiction,” she wrote.

Just to reiterate what was previously said, Cleopatra is neither white nor black. Gharavi doesn’t care because, by the sounds of it, she’s fighting racism with her decision to cast a black actress.

Regardless, Egypt has decided that they’ve had enough with the rewriting of their history. They might be suing.

According to Newsweek, top-dog Egyptian lawyer Mahmoud al-Semary is asking the country’s public prosecutor to sue Netflix and the makers of “Queen Cleopatra.”

“Most of what [the] Netflix platform displays [does] not conform to Islamic and societal values and principles, especially Egyptian ones,” al-Semary said.

Cleopatra was a source for pride for Egyptians and so of course they’re going to take offense when you decide to blackwash her.

The show advertises itself as a documentary, with fictional recreations, on “prominent and iconic African queens”. Then in the trailer itself, somebody is heard saying “I don’t care what they teach you in school: Cleopatra was black”.

That is the problem.

If it was a fictional character where race wasn’t important then race-swap as much as you want. But if you're going to base something on a historical figure you should probably stick with their actual race.