*heavy sigh* I feel the fight that's about to happen coming on and I am already ready to scream.

Cuz some folks are gonna be like: but Cleopatra was Black this is whitewashing!

Others will be like: Cleo was Greek, so shut up!

And both camps will be both right and wrong. https://twitter.com/DEADLINE/status/1315315184693641221

And don't go thinking I'm contradicting @Blackamazon cuz you should note she called out how this will be White Cleo as a symbol of power and yep, that's what it's going to be.

A white Cleo is whitewashing cuz Greeks at the time of the Ptolemies would *not* have been considered white by white supremacist standards. (This echoes even into the now.) Whites love to claim Greek culture as part of their heritage/foundation of Western civ

Whites also like to pretend that their civilization began with Greek culture and that said culture sprung up out of nothing and was the best. Meanwhile, the Greeks learned pretty much everything worthwhile from the Egyptians (science, architecture, spirituality, philosophy, etc.)

And lest you think this is some Afrocentric fantasy, I will point to the ancient Greek historians who *said this themselves*. This is one of the reasons Alexander wanted to go to Egypt and take it over. Egypt was to the Greeks what ancient Greece is to Europe:

The mysterious magical fairyland where everything cool and smart emerged.

And once you get to the descendants of Ptolemy (Cleo was several generations down) you'll likely fix some mixing with native Egyptians, anyway.

Even if not, if your basic white supremacist met Cleopatra today he would find her too swarthy and too eastern to be considered white.

But wait, I hear the cry ride up: Gal Gadot is Israeli! And we've already been through this and she's not white! https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/culture/is-gal-gadot-white-or-a-person-of-color-1.5482145

If Gal Gadot wasn't a famous actress and you saw her on the street you'd peg her as white. She's white passing. She has white privilege. And the fine details of her background do not erase those facts. Therefore, the annoyance around her casting in this role is well-founded.

We have had far too many depictions on screen of Cleopatra as a European-style white woman. Connect that to how films set in ancient Egypt or AE-inspired fantasy settings have had all or mostly white casts (the only exception in the last 30 years is Remember the Time, I believe).

Here in the year 2020 it's just not acceptable for a white-passing actress to be cast in this role.

That doesn't mean there isn't room in cinema (or anywhere) for white-passing BIPOC. But we have GOT TO STOP acting like white-passing folks being given these major roles isn't >

< a way to sidestep meaningful representation and inclusion.

And if it's okay for a white or white-passing person to play Cleopatra, then it's okay for someone brown to play her. Or someone *actually from Macedonia or Greece*. They have actors there, too.

I say if we're going to be inaccurate, then let's be inaccurate on the other end of the spectrum. Cast Lupita as Cleopatra and be done with it.

(juts kidding. I like Lupita. She doesn't deserve the nonsense she'd get for playing that role.)

The number of people who have replied to this thread w/ "Cleopatra isn't Black!" would surprise me if I had a high opinion of most of these folks' reading comprehension skills. I've responded (several times) with:

Where did I say Cleopatra was Black? Cite it.

As yet, no answers