As an 80s kid I remember my “Faces of Death” phase. Hearing about it in hushed whispers. Finding a rental store that had it. Then finding a rental story that had it and also had no ethical issue with renting it to a preteen. Then watched it late at night during a sleep over and finding it mostly boring.  

Nothing against this cast, but I am not surprised by this. National Treasure was not popular because it was “good” or a highly sought after concept. It was popular because of Nick Cage’s energy and general “Nick Cagey-ness”, and his bouncing off of his co-stars.

“Faces of Death was one of the first viral video tapes”

At this point Arabs have been in Egypt far longer then white Europeans in North America so boy is that lenses troubling. 

And there were legitimate Sub-Saharb African cultures that people can look back at and be proud of- the Kingdom of Mali was once the richest kingdom on Earth. King Mansa Musa took so much gold with him on his pilgrimage to Mecca that he destroyed economies on the way by giving it out in huge amounts and causing…

Yeah, the more she talks, the more the whole prpject feels like a hagiography, not a documentary.

We are the descendants of powerful kings and queens.” Kings and queens suck.

The answer to the question of “should we ban Nazis?” is always yes. Glad I could help.

I think the key is to understand that the modern American concept of “black” as shorthand for “Africans” would seriously puzzle ancient Egyptians. The continent has hosted a multitude of ethnicities and cultures and civilizations, yet your average American thinks there is a clear, distinct race called “black” that…

Thank god. Cleopatra was the inbred descendant of colonizers that very likely murdered her brother, lived in unimaginable luxury while her people were largely in misery and was directly responsible for leading her country into a war in which thousands died. Why the hell does anyone see that resume and *want* to…

A lot of the tendencies of Afrocentric history really bug me. I can completely understand why a group that has always been told “You are a group of savages, with basically no culture,” will come back with, “We come from cultures just as sophisticated as any other, with their own histories,” but I wish there wasn’t so…

I feel like this is missing the underlying issue here. Is it okay to portray Cleopatra as black? YES. Are many people expressing concern about historical accuracy here actually by motivated by racism? ALSO YES. But is it okay to suggest she was actually black in a documentary that’s intended on a subliminal level to…

“To ask whether someone was ‘Black’ or ‘white’ is anachronistic and says more about modern political investments than attempting to understand antiquity on its own terms,” she says, arguing that “we continue to have the same conversations decade after decade instead of actually learning more about how the ancient…

So, unless Amir is ethnically Greek but just happens to have been born and raised in Egypt, he’s as ethnically and genetically distant from Cleopatra as almost any random person you’d find in the Levant.

I realize the manufacturers can’t do anything do stop it

Just to point out the very obvious thing that this article completely sidesteps:

Egypt has a long history of rule by people who aren’t always Egyptian. Ptlomy and Helenic Egypt was in some ways like the Nubian rules of generations past.  

I’m confused as to why Amir messaging from his bedroom is an issue. Would his words be more credible if they were sent from his office?

^^^^^^^^^^Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding!

“Amir in his bedroom in Cairo wrote to me to earnestly appeal that ‘Cleopatra was Greek!’ Oh, Lawd! Why would that be a good thing to you, Amir? You’re Egyptian.”