Historical figures wrongly portrayed in popular culture

The blonde swift-footed Greek hero of the Trojan War — Achilles of Phthia.

In the Iliad he was a prominent Greek prince from Thessaly, born in the ancient city of Phthia. But somehow in the Netflix TV-series “Troy: Fall of a City” he was portrayed by David Gyasi, a British actor of Ghanian origin.

https://qph.fs.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-5167df9bddc608d93dec7930a8aa7143
Yes! Let me begin by saying that I know that most of what Achilles is in Greek literature is most likely legend. But, he is still a Greek prince from Thessaly in these legends and epics.

And let me say this as well. I have nothing against David Gyasi on a personal level nor his acting. This post is not about him, nor about black actors in general, or about Africa and its diverse and beautiful people.

No. This has to do with all the race-baiting and unnecessary racial and cultural changes in historical and fictional characters to fit a modern “inclusive” Hollywood cast.

Why was Achilles, the main Greek hero of the Iliad, portrayed by an actor of Ghanian descent? People may say “the actor is great”, and that’s fine. Look, he could be the greatest actor in this world. But he’s still not fit to play Achilles however good he is. Because he clearly does not look ethnically Greek from Thessaly in any way shape or form. And yes, that matters. That matters in this very much.

https://qph.fs.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-8ade4a7d90d52ed22e6abb6491acdcc4
Achilles bandages the arm of Patroclus, his most loyal companion

It’s like if I—an ethnic Persian—was to play Martin Luther King or Malcolm X in a historical film… Okay, maybe not me. I may fill in some weird politically correct “quota” somehow, because of the fact that I’m “Middle Eastern”, and the world needs to “pity” me.

Hmm. Well… Let’s instead assume some northern European actor plays a specific African historical or a legendary character with detailed African homeland, culture, traditions and city of birth. How would that play out on social media, amongst celebrities and the general sensitive outraged public, I wonder?

Where did this double standard come from? What are all these unnecessary quotas doing in arts, literature and cinema? This unprovoked race-baiting is honestly disgusting and has turned many people away from many TV-series, films and even books nowadays.

We could have Hollywood making great films, historical, drama, sci-fi, comedies, etc., in African settings and with characters of African culture and descent. But why take already existing characters and turn them something they are not? Especially when it’s only one-sided.

And no, don’t come at me with all that “Cleopatra was black, Hollywood is whitewashing African history”. No, Cleopatra was actually also of Greek descent. People need to brush up on their history. The same goes for Jesus Christ in film, Jesus of Nazareth was an ethnic Jew from the Roman province Syria Palestina who spoke Aramaic, he was not of African descent nor was his mother.

Africa as a continent is very diverse and magnificent in so many ways, with so many great cultures and countries, why not pick a great film idea from Africa instead of rewriting history. You have so much to choose from. Africa has plenty of untold stories that can be told and already-told stories that be dramatized on screen. There are plenty of good legends, myths and heroes in Africa, one can just pick one those and do it epically.

So why steal and change what needs not be reshaped? Hollywood is doing no one a favor, not actors and not the viewers. All these “outrages” taking place… I mean, it’s just comical at this point. I hope people wake up back to sanity again and we can all just be normal like we always been.

Hiyo picha ya Achilles ni chafu

Niliona wazungu wamecatch kwa comment section ya YouTube juu ya hii series.

Cleopatra and Jesus were black African people

Jesus must have occasionally dined with Eros at Nairobi

How about you enjoy the fucking movie and stop bitching…

Now I do not even want to see it…nkt!

Actually it’s highly unlikely that Cleopatra was black. The Pharaohs of Egypt had a tradition of incest. She was a descendant of Ptolemy Soter l, a Macedonian Greek general who took over Egypt from Alexander. In order to ingratiate themselves with the local population, the Ptolemaic dynasty adopted local Egyptian traditions which included brother sister marriage.

Cleopatra greek!!

Who was Eros?

Hey, lets check DNA. Tutenkamen y haplotype is black.

Maasais

It’s also the same Hollywood that potrays ancient Egyptians as caucasians, yet nobody complains.

Someone should tell the story of Hannibal of Carthage. An authentic black african hero of ancient times, who beat the roman empire while it was at its peak.

Yep

But when ancient Egyptians are portrayed as white with blonde hair and blue eyes and we complain that they were brown people from North Africa we are told to shut the fck up. When Jesus christ is portrayed as a blonde haired blue-eyed human and we say that Jews are a brown people and blonde hair is very uncommon in Israel then we are told to shut the fck up. They say anybody can act as Jesus. Okay then we say let a black person act as Jesus. They say f*ck you Jesus can’t be black. Then we say “i thought you just said anyone can act as Jesus or is that true only when white people are acting as Jesus?”

:D:D:D:D:D:D:D You just want to piss off @Tony254 for the 3rd day running in the new year?!

Wacha leo nisaidie Wakandans.

In all fairness the author of this article is seriously racist. And he is hiding behind nice English to cover his outright bias and racism.

Why did he choose African actors in particular?! Hio tayari ni sign number one of his intentions.

There are hundreds upon hundreds of major TV shows and films produced every single year and yet black people or Africans for that matter barely get even 1% of the acting roles. It’s probably less than 1%.

Hollywood is so whitewashed it’s ridiculous.

And if we go back in time all the black roles in the 1920s through to the 1960s were often played by white guys in black face.

For example in 1965 English actor Sir Laurence Olivier below played the role of Othello while in black face :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F96DlM3N5KQ

And he was nominated for an Oscar for that role.

Native American, Mexican and Arab roles were also played by white guys in some brown paint with wigs and bushy eye brows.

Rock Hudson a mzungu plays a native American below :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WxZNTjvUqU

Even Chinese roles were played by mzungus in buck teeth e.g Mickey Rooney in Breakfast at Tiffany’s.

In short the list is endless. You even have fellows like Keanu Reeves today playing a Japanese role in the Matrix. And Christian Bale played the role of Moses recently.

White Hollywood stole Kung Fu and martial arts from China… the likes of Steven Seagal, Chuck Norris, Van Damme, Cynthia Rothrock quickly replaced Bruce Lee.

They even renamed Kung Fu to martial arts to steal the art form.

So today for an African to play a mythic Greek hero mimi naonelea hio ni maendeleo kamili. Hollywood giving a half hearted, belated apology to minorities.

Everyone was black. Sujui Mungu aliamua aje siku moja.

And what’s with the infatuation with this lady Cleopatra? Don’t black people have other far better heroines?

Man’s quest to be whiter and fairer has always been there. Even today it is still there. From MJ to local Kenyans who bleach the crap out of their skins to the billion dollar hair weave/extension beauty industry.

It appears that no one wants to be darker. Not even @Tony254 . :D:D:D:D

Such is life.

Samali on this achirris of pthtwa?

Why does it matter

the things people get worked up with these days?