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Why is “Queen Cleopatra” getting so much hate?

BY AANYA.K

Netflix has tried to rewrite history by changing the color of the famous greek, Cleopatra

Netflix has released a new show which is produced by Jada Pinkett Smith called Queen Cleopatra. This show is a docuseries about the life of Queen Cleopatra. But why is this new show receiving so much hate? This is because Netflix decided to cast a black actor (Adele James) to play Queen Cleopatra, as well as interviewing people who claimed that she was black. Here’s all the details you need to know.

Firstly, we need to talk about who's angry. The people of Egypt are, and they have shown it in a million different ways. An Egyptian lawyer, Mahmoud Al-Semary, has filed a case to shut down Netflix in Egypt. He stated that legal action must be taken against the creators of the show as well as blaming the Netflix team for allowing this “crime” to happen. Many Egyptians on youtube have been posting about Queen Cleopatra. I saw a youtube short of an egyptian lady saying “If you see this (pointing at the poster of TV show Queen cleopatra), scroll down because it is complete nonsense”.

Along with Egyptians, many Africans are mad as well. A youtuber named @anigerianperspectivewithfrankstephen, stated “You're trying to celebrate African history by erasing and replacing it with wishful thinking”. He also stated “And as an African I just find this very offensive, we don’t need lies to highlight our history. We have countless notable historical figures you are yet to explore”. Other Africans like @amalaekpunobiunapologetic and @sistasbonafide have also been against Cleopatra being black.

Queen Cleopatra has also been one of the worst rated TV shows. It got 1/10 in IMDB, 15% rotten tomatoes, 1.9/10 in Filmaffinity, and 3% of google users like the show. Queen Cleopatra got a lower score than VELMA, the other show which was criticized for swapping the race of characters (velma was indian, shaggy was black, and scooby-doo was a black girl).

Personally, I didn’t mind a black actor playing Queen Cleopatra. Of course having a Greek person or someone who looked Greek would have helped, but at the end of the day acting is acting. However, I did have a problem with what some of the people were saying in the interviews. One person stated “I remember my grandmother saying to me, I don’t care what they tell you at school, Cleopatra was black ”. Another person stated “I imagine her to have curly hair like me and a similar skin color”. This was wrong on their part. No one should have the authority to change the race and culture of a historical figure for no reason. As an Indian, I can also state that any African historical figure was Indian. It seems as if Netflix is trying to rewrite Egyptian history, which they should not have done. I don’t care if someone was turned white, black, brown, peach, yellow, etc- no one has the right to change any history that belongs to any race.