Earlier this year comedian Kevin Hart’s show in Egypt was canceled after he said ancient Egyptians were Black. Hart was set to perform in Cairo, Egypt, on Tuesday. The company said it was working with the Ticketmaster’s team to refund customers “in the shortest possible time”. Hart faced a flood of criticism in the Arab world’s most populous country for promoting Afrocentrism.
This week Netflix was forced to shut off the comments on the trailer for Jada Pinkett-Smith’s new Cleopatra biopic because the Egyptian Queen is portrayed as a Black woman.
The Daily Mail reports:
Netflix has been forced to turn off comments for the official trailer of new docu-series Queen Cleopatra – after heated backlash and claims of ‘blackwashing’.
In the show, which is due to air on May 10, Cleopatra is depicted as black, despite historical records showing she was of Macedonian Greek heritage.
The four-part series is produced by Jada Pinkett-Smith and stars actress Adele James, 37, as the titular character.
Queen Cleopatra will explore the legacy, intellect and life of Cleopatra VII, the Greek Queen of Egypt from 51 to 30 BC.
The trailer notes that Cleopatra belonged to the Ptolemaic dynasty but then goes on to dispute her heritage.
‘It’s possible she was an Egyptian’ says one expert, while another adds: ‘I remember my grandmother saying to me “I don’t care what they tell you in school, Cleopatra was black.”‘
The two-minute official Trailer uploaded on April 12 has already amassed over 1.9 million views on YouTube.
Meanwhile, Netflix has been forced to turn comments off on the official trailer, after it was met with controversy.
A Change.org petition to cancel the show has amassed over 3,000 signatures. A previous petition – which was taken down – had over 62,000 signatures.
Watch the trailer below, thoughts?
