Do people just forget that Greece is a boat ride across the Mediterranean from Africa? Why is it the craziest thing to imagine black people living in Ancient Greece? If anything, I could imagine the Greeks viewing a person with very dark skin like Lupita as being the height of beauty. (Not the Greeks but) there’s a reason Marc Antony cheated on Octavia with Cleopatra and caused a civil war that shattered an empire. African women have been making European men act up for thousands of years.
I could imagine the Greeks viewing a person with very dark skin like Lupita as being the height of beauty.
Use your imagination then to write your own tales! 👍🏻
Homer describes her as having white arms and fair haired.
This took place 3200 years ago. We do have Mycenaean DNA analyzed and guess what!
They looked like modern Greeks.
This is tale is paramount to our culture and is essentially our ethnogenesis tale.
Somethings should be respected.
I wish Hollywood would leave us alone and your societal angst kept for yourselves.
I’m sorry the movie where the main character fights a cyclops, goes to the Underworld, and travels via the sentient manifestation of wind isn’t historically accurate enough for you 🤷
True, though I don’t know how accurate that was 2-3 thousand years ago. And tbf, most of Africa is sub Saharan. All I’m saying is that it’s certainly not outside the realm of possibilities that at least a few dark skinned Africans made their way North across the Mediterranean during the times of Ancient Greece and were likely thought of as exceptionally beautiful for their unique features.
They would definitely be extraordinarily rare. The Sahara is a vast barrier that split the African continent pretty much until the Portuguese decided to spread some of that lovely civilisation down south. Most of the citystates along the North African coast were built by the Phoenicians and they didn't have any contact with people living on the other side of the desert. Egypt probably did have some contact but most likely it was the exterminatory kind of contact. After the late bronze age collapse it became very isolationist.
In any case. The odds of a Spartan princess looking like Lupita are certainly zero. But it's a movie so whatever. The Americans always fuck up the casting of historical or mythological movies. Fucking Obi-Wan playing an Arabian prince in Lawrence of Arabia wat????
It's hard to deny that casting Lupita feels very forced though. Pretty much the entire cast is white and then there's one black person playing a role that pretty much everyone on the planet expects to not be black. They could easily have made up a bunch of roles played by black people that also made sense and have more of them so it's not just one. I do wonder what black people think about this. If they want inclusivity and what they get is only a single black character who is only there because the movie has to have one. The epitome of tokenism.
I mean, if anything you’re the one doing the tokenizing by assuming she’s a token. I get that the original text explicitly states she’s white, but it also says she is one of the most beautiful and cunning women on earth. Lupita may not be the former, but she is certainly the latter. Maybe she was cast because she’s a great fit for the character? I honestly think it’s a tad racist to just assume she got the role because they wanted a black woman to play her when we haven’t even seen her performance yet. A decision like this could have been made completely off style and acting choices with zero thought to race and you’d have no idea, so you’re arbitrarily deciding this was a forced decision. The full cast list hasn’t even been released. We don’t even know the roles of all the big name celebs, how can you say there aren’t other black actors in the movie? It just seems like people are naming a problem that they don’t even know exists which makes no sense to me.
I get that the original text explicitly states she’s white, but it also says she is one of the most beautiful and cunning women on earth. Lupita may not be the former, but she is certainly the latter.
No idea who she is. It's a pretty big claim to say she's the most cunning woman on the planet. I would probably throw that title to Carol Greider and Lizzy Blackburn, or maybe someone like Sanna Marin or AOC.
I mean, if anything you’re the one doing the tokenizing by assuming she’s a token.
Yes that's why I said it feels like tokenism. Whenever there is only one black person or one gay person or whatever other diversity class it really feels like they were cast only to tick a box. Instead of having a truly diverse cast, nearly every movie or TV-show from Hollywood is like 90% cis white hetero. Look at a show like The Expanse. It's absolutely brimming with people from all over the world. It's still mostly white people, but a lot more diverse than pretty much anything else I can think of in the middle of the night as I'm typing this.
Also sidenote, where are the native americans in Hollywood? Other than in wild west movies the only native character I can think of is fucking Jacob from Twilight. Again, middle of the night, I'm sure there are others.
A decision like this could have been made completely off style and acting choices with zero thought to race and you’d have no idea
No, this is a big budget movie. They take everything into account when casting roles.
I honestly think it’s a tad racist to just assume she got the role because they wanted a black woman to play her when we haven’t even seen her performance yet.
Yeah I don't think it went down that way. Most likely they auditioned a bunch of black people for different role and chose one that fit the best.
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u/ajc1120 13d ago
Do people just forget that Greece is a boat ride across the Mediterranean from Africa? Why is it the craziest thing to imagine black people living in Ancient Greece? If anything, I could imagine the Greeks viewing a person with very dark skin like Lupita as being the height of beauty. (Not the Greeks but) there’s a reason Marc Antony cheated on Octavia with Cleopatra and caused a civil war that shattered an empire. African women have been making European men act up for thousands of years.