Cleopatra And The Shield Of Racism

Netflix's docu-series about Queen Cleopatra has absolutely bombed and I can't stop laughing not only is the controversy surrounding it the Talk of the Town the best part of it all is that it's as good as Helen Keller performing the national anthem [Music] for the uninitiated the tremendous amount of dialogue surrounding the show has been about the decision to hire a black actress to play the role of Cleopatra Egyptian queen and who is not black as an incontrovertible truth but don't ask this lady I remember my grandmother saying to me I don't care what they tell you in school Cleopatra was black yeah that's right to hell with egyptologists I'm believing random granny she surely has it right coach let's make it right take a look and be there you go it's like this series was the bright idea of a smooth brain who thinks Africa is a country utilizing the same genius that would suggest since Elon Musk was born in South Africa the next Netflix documentary should look like this speaking of this poster I tweeted it out a couple weeks ago when someone responded with cries of racism followed by proof that Cleopatra was Black by showing me the mummified remains of someone else in case you were wondering how weak the defense of this Show's been the documentary itself being complete Doki dookie is Vindication and validation for its critics but it shouldn't have to come to that in order for it to be [ __ ] on this isn't a fictional Universe fictional tale or fictional character we're talking about this is supposed to be a documentary Series so finding someone who matches that person's physical characteristics in close capacity is pretty key hence the lame defense we've seen but that hasn't stopped the director and the lead actress from lashing out at people Adele James who plays Cleopatra has stated that any criticism of Cleopatra being black is fundamentally racist especially if we talk about black watching characters because black washing doesn't exist let me throw you an olive branch whitewashing characters exists it happened numerous times in cinema and is rightfully criticized so can we stop pretending that the ginger side of red-headed characters being played by black actors and actresses isn't happening hey yo what the [ __ ] she went on with a weird what about ISM asking why there was such controversy over her Casting while there was no outrage over Brendan Fraser being chased by The Mummy because the film set in a fictional World in a historical documentary are the exact same thing apparently I'm serious people the idiocy is self-evident but just hang with me because it gets even funnier not to be outdone the director decided to jump in by asking what's so wrong with casting a black actress to play Cleopatra it's a fascinating display of misdirection and finger pointing the show Cleopatra is hardly about the story of Cleopatra as much as it's about defining Cleopatra as black and a strong powerful female just like the casting of Adele James and her skin color the casting of other characters in their skin color were equally deliberate done to help portray Cleopatra as a strong black female that was powerful and intelligent until evil Whitey the antagonist of the docu-series are shocker white but guys we swear this isn't so much about skin color and empowering the modern cause of feminism it's totally about historical accuracy so these filmmakers employ the typical Hollywood defense poo-pooing and decrying anyone who rightfully points it out as racists because it's apparently tertiary while they themselves speak about it glowingly and often and make damn well sure the product itself puts it at the Forefront if you're ever in a relationship and you're wondering if it's toxic compared to how Hollywood handles criticism and if the tactics sounds similar get the [ __ ] out run we had the pleasure of baggage claim as a guest on the latest B sub live stream and she called this out and so she's like how come you guys have a problem with that but you didn't have a problem with the film mummy so that was her comparison what and wait what was the problem with this Egypt is concerned about historical accuracy I didn't hear you complaining with all the mummy movies came out and it was just this weird I hate using this word I genuinely hate it but it is this like weird gaslighting that happens in this situation that it's like we have historical facts and then people just want to spin it up with whatever ideology they're trying to cling to in that minute and then if you disagree with it then it's like oh it's it's because of your Imperial Imperial brainwashing that you're disagreeing with me did you think I was joking when I said that the show was created by people who must think Africa is a country like someone who might think African-American so the whole place only has black people with a light bulb above their head let me introduce you or for most of you reintroduce you to Jada Pinkett Smith the smooth brain and smooth domed cuck machine who decided to produce a series called African queens and on that list was Cleopatra because Egypt's in Africa so she must be black yeah that's how that works right you know who wears the pants in her relationship based on what kind of a lady Will Smith has become but use your imagination and picture the balls someone has to have to be an American woman telling Egyptians what the race of their ruler is that's [ __ ] Randy marshside stones stolen from Africa hilariously the Egyptian government is suing Netflix over this but remember you're racist if you have a problem with the casting choice no really sit back and think about this you have American filmmakers kicking back and using a documentary series to Pander to Modern American identity politics and using Egyptians as the suckers in this production and calling them racist that they don't agree with this very American modern political climate that has nothing to do with them besides them being Pawns in a four-hour United States virtue signal series that is [ __ ] crazy but that's what Hollywood does ever since it became trendy to Pander to whatever protected group is the IT thing of the moment Studios have pulled and gone complete cringe is in honor of George Floyd shout out to his family [Music] whether it's smashing racism or the patriarchy Hollywood goes Full Tilt on current thing the sad part of it all is it stems from good intentions but so does everything that turns awful getting accurate representation on screen has ultimately led to inaccuracy in the complete opposite direction it's over correction at its finest a pendulum swing that inevitably has to come back listen to Ernest Owens who wrote the book the Case for cancel culture if that's not a big enough red flag talk to bessem Youssef an Egyptian comedian speaking out against the Cleopatra documentary yeah I think that this is ridiculous I think people should remember that there was controversy when the late great Elizabeth Taylor played Cleopatra and people thought that it was inaccurate for a white woman like her to play the character and you didn't see as much backlash for Elizabeth Taylor playing so wait which is it was it controversial or was it not controversial since you can't help but contradict yourself within a 15 second time span let's ask Mr Youssef where do get the idea that we're happy that she played the role as a matter of fact 1961 Cleopatra movie was banned in Egypt and many Arab countries because of Elizabeth Taylor's tense so I don't know where does he get this information Yusef goes on to call out the shoehorning of American Social matters on the people around the world which is a fair argument to make it's not about white and black this is a very reductive way to talk about things this is the way that Americans talk about it I mean it shouldn't any act should be able to play any part actually and once you start making exceptions for that rule where do you stop yeah yeah well first of all this is not a work of fiction this is a documentary this is a huge difference this is not the little mermaid which is like a fictional character where you can anybody can play anything we as Egyptians are being called Intruders and Invaders in our own culture she is there there's all of these pseudoscience and sudo history has been going on and it has implications all this [ __ ] Owens can do is sit and make weird faces like that's a rebuttal zooming out this is far more than the Hollywood virtue signal it speaks to the writers and show Runners pushing their very American ideals onto the rest of the world as if everyone else is experiencing the same thing as we are here in the states in the exact same way at the exact same time which ironically couldn't be a more privileged position to take if I ever had to use that obnoxious word in a real sentence in this circumstance Egyptians are just Pawns in the Hollywood Machine churning out what they hoped would be a huge win for diversity by race swapping a historical figure in a documentary Youssef brought up the race swapping of The Little Mermaid which is a funny point because no it's not replacing a fictional character like that but that's where it started and that's how you get to the point where Hollywood thinks they can watch a historical figure out as long as it's the right color for the modern moment all it is is a new form of ridiculousness but that's just wrong think I've been told that's what you get when Hollywood is creatively bankrupt though leave the great storytelling to indie films because the major Studios rarely know [ __ ] nowadays or would rather not try at least that's why the idea of fan baiting has been proving to be not much of a conspiracy after all the easiest way to get people to talk about your film is to gender or race swap then cry foul and use the shield of misogyny or racism to block yourself from criticism and it's been pretty common knowledge for a while now that they've been using like studios in general have just been using ISM words as a shield to deflect actual criticism but it feels like this year it's been breaking down like you had Velma which is just like universally destroyed uh Peter Pan and Wendy and now this show too is uh are the walls like crumbling down around this stupid ass excuse for why your product sucks companies don't give a [ __ ] about anyone they care about shareholders and money that's it so if ridiculous casting under the guise of diversity is where they think the Treasure's hiding put a pirate hat on them and call them Jack Sparrow because that's where they're going here's an example when I lived in a hyper Progressive area major stores were required to sell reusable bags and there were no plastic or paperback to be found at checkout you either bought the reusable one or you carried your stuff out this wasn't State policy this was store policy and that didn't bother me but here's the follow-up I have since moved to a more conservative area in this exact same chain of stores have plastic bags Galore and no reusable bags to be purchased I actually prefer using the reusable ones myself but that's besides the point the same company will Pander to potentially appease their customers period and figure out a way to make an even bigger profit where they can because guess how often I'd forget my reusable bag and have to buy a new one ADHD says every time why would Netflix Disney or any of these major companies differ from any other in that regard if somehow culture flipped tomorrow and every American citizen was clamoring for Ryan Gosling to play Black Panther with a guarantee they'd buy a ticket to the movie guess who'd be cast at any cost hiring a diverse cast might also be a sadistic way to cut down costs too you can pay the actors less and virtue signal at the same time talk about a win-win to be the winner of the Triple Crown Studios know that we'll talk about it in this way and any publicity is good publicity new friend to the channel bagface made a great point on B sub just the other day when we were discussing Cleopatra I basically did a rant on how I have this theory that all the all the race swapping and like gender switching of roles is pretty much like like platoon was just saying it's kind of purposeful because it saves you a lot of money on marketing because a lot more people are going to talk about your [ __ ] than if you had just tried to Market it in the first place would any of us be talking about this show if it was cast with a Greek or like Persian or whatever good press basically exactly yeah things might be looking up though not that I won't miss it because pointing out this [ __ ] is hilarious to me but this year has proven different than the last much like using the word racist over and over again makes it lose its power when it's sprinkled liberally like [ __ ] Emerald Legacy baby when anyone breathes a breath constantly using the term to block shitty product from criticism is waning as well for a couple years people have been mortified to call out [ __ ] pandering but the tide is turning the showrunners of Velma tried to pull that dumb [ __ ] move when their show was slam basted and to no avail just the other week Peter Pan and Wendy suffered the same hilarious fate when the ultimate [ __ ] that is Disney tried to pull it and failed and now it's happening here remember last year when calling out Obi-Wan Kenobi for being [ __ ] and rings of power for being ass made you a racist then a few months later everyone admitted that both of those shows were reflections of Keanu Reeves taking a [ __ ] looks like a lot of people are skipping that cognitive dissonance part and admitting pandering is pandering bagface took it away again on the same episode of bees up right that's that's what's happening pull the racism card hold them back yeah my analogy was basically like it's it's essentially letting a slave into the house and kind of being like oh why aren't you why aren't you guys appease and I think a lot of black people are kind of picking up on the vibe of like hey I think they're just using us instead of like no [ __ ] trying to empower us then it I think that's what's kind of making it crumble is when you have people that are you know supposed to be that rep represented by your media and like the choices you're making coming out and being like this this is dumb and it's essentially like creating more racists I think yeah and it's kind of doing the opposite of what they think it's doing and it's kind of making a lot of white people be like I want to see another black person ever in a movie ever I kind of agree or that little mermaid got cast I lost my mind I was like God damn it like I just don't want to see another black lead in a Disney movie ever again I'm over it I'm done this style of Hollywood defense isn't over though no no I'd say far from it but that's okay because the overwhelmingly negative response to dumb [ __ ] like Cleopatra has given a cynical man like myself hope and that's all you can ask for right I think audiences are a lot smarter than Hollywood wants them to be I refuse to believe that most people are a good little sheeple following current thing and supporting cause of the moment a lot are sure but I can't help but notice a lot of folks wising up to the lunacy out there some buckle down some dig in but others wise up except that they've been duped and decide no more no matter what though I'll be laughing the whole time at the absurdity of it all ggs

Channel: The Movie Cynic

Views: 569,428

Keywords:

Id: zf71a95QHd8

Length: 14min 11sec (851 seconds)

Published: Wed May 17 2023