Netflix’s new docudrama series “Queen Cleopatra” has come under fire from a wide variety of publications, this one included, for its ahistorical depiction of the famed Egyptian monarch as dark-skinned. These sorts of race-blind castings are all the rage in Hollywood these days, from “Bridgerton” to “Hamilton.” Where “Queen Cleopatra” differs, however, is in its claims to historical truth. The series is presented as a docudrama, with interviews from purported scholars and historians who promote the idea that the last monarch of ancient Egypt was indeed black.
One such classicist Netflix relied on is Shelley Haley, a professor at Hamilton College who specializes in viewing classics through the lens of black feminism and critical race theory. She also leads the preeminent organization in the field, the Society for Classical Studies (SCS). The SCS has been at the forefront of the “history wars” — the leftist quest to revise history in line with the mandates of “equity.” It promotes “antiracist’ education” and “Queering the Past,” while foregrounding noxious DEI ideology in its mission statement and blog. This leftist program is meant to reforge the past to appease the woke in the present, the opposite of doing history.
Haley’s approach to defining Cleopatra as black slots into this broader agenda and was the subject of a New York Times piece titled “Fear of a Black Cleopatra.” Her anti-historical ideas are given favorable treatment by the authors, who defend not just Netflix’s casting choice, but the claim that Cleopatra was herself black, if
