After decades of “whitewashing”, comes “blackwashing” — so claim outraged Egyptians, regarding the portrayal of Cleopatra as a Black African woman in the Netflix docudrama Queen Cleopatra. The casting of British actor Adele James has drawn accusations of historical distortion and “misrepresentation of Egyptian identity”, with a former minister for antiquities in Egypt stepping in to say that “in contemporary busts and portraits she is clearly depicted as being white”.
Given the slew of content, both movies and television series, that feature greater diversity, including among their leads — such as Bridgerton and its follow-up Queen Charlotte, both of which feature a mixed-race society in Regency-era Britain, Never Have I Ever, Ms Marvel, Beef — it might be tempting to think of the entertainment landscape as a post-racial one where the issue of representation is no longer as pressing as it was. However, the tone of the debate over Queen Cleopatra and insistence that the Ptolemaic queen was, in reality, lighter-skinned than she is on the new show underlines the continuing relevance of conversations about racism and colourism. Much celebrated as Bridgerton is for radically reimagining 19-century Britain, the first season was also criticised for giving the majority of the speaking roles to white actors and for the thin characterisation of those that were black.
