Race row erupts over casting of Angelina Jolie as Cleopatra

One Last Time : Cleopatra Was Not Black

18 June 2010 - She hasn’t even been officially confirmed as having the role, but Angelina Jolie is already receiving criticism over her possible portrayal of the legendary Queen of the Nile.

Jolie, who turned 35 last week, is caught up in a racially charged debate over whether the role should have been played by a black woman…

The new film’s producer, Scott Rudin, previously told USA Today the role is being developed with Angelina in mind as she has ‘the perfect look’.

But this statement has angered members of the African American community.

An Essence Magazine online story asks, ‘Another White Actress to Play Cleopatra?’

‘Honestly, I don’t care how full Angelina Jolie’s lips are, how many African children she adopts, or how bronzed her skin will become for the film, I firmly believe this role should have gone to a black woman.’ …

‘Were Vanessa Williams, Halle Berry and Thandie Newton unavailable for auditions that day?’ the writer continued.

‘Why does Hollywood think it’s even slightly plausible to cast white women in roles that would be more sensible to cast a black actress for? Especially when that role is an African queen.’

Of course normally we do not post such show business nonsense, but it is almost the weekend. More importantly, the preposterous claim that Cleopatra was a black African has gone on long enough.

As anyone with even a smidgeon of historical knowledge should know, Cleopatra VII was ethnically Greek. He name was actually Cleopatra VII Philopator, or even more precisely, Κλεοπάτρα Φιλοπάτωρ. (Philopator in Greek means ‘father loving.’)

She was a direct descendent of Ptolemy, who was one of Alexander The Great’s Greek bodyguards.

Indeed, Egypt’s Ptolemaic dynasty was so notoriously in-bred that was very little chance of Cleopatra being anything but 100% Greek. And, of course, the time of their rule is also referred to as Egypt’s ‘Hellenistic Period.’

In fact, Cleopatra was the first in her long line to even make a pretense of learning Egyptian. She and the rest of her ancestors spoke Greek as their native language.

Furthermore, we are not talking about unrecorded history here. No contemporary authors and no contemporary artists ever portrayed or described her as having African features.

These claims of Cleopatra’s ‘blackness’ are just laughable ignorance and racism parading as history.

[link to www.articlesafari.com]