The New Black

I thought I was done with the "Black Cleopatra" kerfuffle when I put my thoughts down in Colorizing Cleopatra a couple weeks ago. But, as with Michael Corleone in the execrable Godfather III, just when I thought I was out, they pulled me back in.

Seems that our Best-and-Brightest, in this case Gwen Nally (associate professor of philosophy at the University of Missouri) and and Mary Hamil Gilbert (assistant professor of classics at Mississippi State University), were granted affirmation by the arbiter of all things Best-and-Brightest, the New York Times, with column inches sufficient to contain a thousand word apologetic that informs us that Cleopatra VII Thea Philopator was "culturally black."

Netflix’s casting was informed by the views of Shelley Haley, a renowned classicist and Cleopatra expert, who claims that, although evidence of her ancestry and physical attributes are inconclusive, Cleopatra was culturally Black.

How's that now?

First, no, "evidence of her ancestry and physical attributes" is not inconclusive. That some have decided in recent times to co-opt her is just cultural appropriation with selfish intent, and nothing more.

Second, "culturally Black" is just word salad, brought to you by the same societal segment that slanderized “oreo” and acked up “multiracial whiteness.”

If you're wondering what “culturally Black” means, here's how it's explained by Dr. Haley:

When we say, in general, that the ancient Egyptians were Black and, more specifically, that Cleopatra was Black, we claim them as part of a culture and history that has known oppression and triumph, exploitation and survival.

Got it?

In context, I suppose the narrative is that Cleopatra ruled over a land oppressed by the Romans, and “triumphed” via her shrewd machinations and relationships. But Egypt's history spans four thousand years before the (27 year) Macedonian period, then nearly three centuries of Ptolemaic Dynasty before the Romans showed up. Not exactly a historically oppressed land or people. The famous Cleopatra is Cleopatra VII, the last of the Ptolemaics.

Now, ponder the breadth of human history. Show me a culture that hasn't "known oppression and triumph, exploitation and survival." It is the totality of human existence, and it is only the past couple hundred years (see: the Enlightenment) that broke from that mold.

If being "culturally Black" means there is oppression in your past, then Jews (see: the Book of Exodus) are "culturally Black." Greeks, Russians, Ukrainians, Italians, Hungarians, and Romanians (see: the Ottoman Empire) are "culturally Black." Native Americans (see: the Aztec empire and "each other") are "culturally Black." Tibetans and Uyghurs (see: China) are "culturally Black." Eastern Chinese (see: Japan 1937-1945) are "culturally Black." Indians (see: the Raj) are "culturally Black." Pasty-skinned Irish and Scots (see: England) are "culturally Black." The Saxons (see: the Normans) are "culturally Black." Heck, all those of the British Isles (see: the Romans) are "culturally Black." Women in Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Egypt, Iran, Turkey, Algeria, Sudan, Iraq, Afghanistan, Morocco, Uzbekistan, and Saudi Arabia (see: Islamic law) are "culturally Black."

Which brings us to "women." Since for most of human civilization's six millennia women were subordinate to men, all women are "culturally Black."

I know what you're thinking, but Nally and Gilbert made sure to inform us that Rachel Dolezal and Jessica Krug are in no way vindicated by this, because they "claimed a cultural identity that was not theirs."

So, all but two.

Therein lies the farcicality of all this.

The cultural identity they refer to is, properly judged, a recent construct born of post-modern relativism, race essentialism (a fancy way of saying "appropriate racism"), and an ever-more-delusional reimagining of history. When truths are relative, actual history no longer matters.

Yes, Cleopatra was a powerful and successful woman who overcame bigotries in a male-dominated era. So was Queen Elizabeth I. So was Catherine The Great. So were Catherine de'Medici, Mary Queen of Scots, Eleanor of Aquitaine, Marie Antoinette, Isabella, Mary Tudor, and many other "women of pallor.” Are they now "culturally Black?"

Sub-Saharan Africa has a rich history (and dozens of women monarchs) that could certainly be given the documentary treatment. So, why shoehorn Cleopatra into the "black" category when the great mass of historical knowledge contradicts?

It's a twisted, divisive, and ultimately destructive 'philosophy' being pursued by people who, in my opinion, have spent so much time in their academic cocoons that they've lost any sense of reality.

Again, no, Cleopatra was not black. Or Black. Culturally, genealogically, or pigmentially. She doesn't need to be for her tale to be told, and "Black" doesn't need her added to the folio in order to tell its history. Blacks have plenty of heritage to celebrate (as well as a variety of them - “Black” is a too-facile agglomeration of hundreds or thousands of different and disparate cultures), and the (often white) Best-and-Brightest don’t need to appropriate from other cultures. Just knock it off, already.