King Tut exhibition 'racist' [no mention of Africa & suggests ancient Egyptian king was white]

new24 ^ | 5-21-2007 | Staff Writer

[bedolido]

Philadelphia - A travelling exhibition on King Tutankhamun drew about 50 protesters in Philadelphia who denounced the popular display as racist.

Molefi Asante, a professor of African-American studies at Temple University, led the demonstration on Sunday outside the Franklin Institute, claiming the exhibit has no mention of Africa and that it suggests the ancient Egyptian king was white.

[PUGACHEV]

The Egyptians didn't always use true colors when depicting a person, especially if that person was the subject of the painting. Usually, the Egyptians followed a simple stylistic convention of rendering a male in a reddish hue and a woman with a yellow skin tone. But if they wanted to, the Egyptian artist might color a mythic figure blue or black to show their connection with the sky or the night. Sometimes, as an example, you'll see pharaohs rendered in green, the color of lush crops, to show his life-giving attributes.

But so far as I've seen, when the Egyptians wanted to make a point about a subject's race, they knew what colors to use. Normally, you find this in paintings depicting the pharaoh or his troops crushing the Nubians or the Hittites, or some other race they warred with. In depicting blacks, the Egyptians were almost comical in exaggerating negroid features: rounded heads, curly hair, triangular faces. Follow the link below to a picture of Tut smiting the Nubians, taken from small box found in his tomb. Clearly the Egyptian artist knew how to distinguish King Tut from the Africans.

http://www.hp.uab.edu/image_archive/um/painting01.jpg

[Disambiguator]

FR doesn’t have an Ebonics spellchecker, so I just used the misspelled (as it is mis-pronunciated*) version of the word “ask”.

*intentional misspelling, okay? Sheesh.

[lilylangtree]

Uncanny resemblance to Angelina Jolie especially in the lips.

[Tamar1973]

Can a blonde hair blue eyed South African select "African American?"

My hubby had a South African co-worker over 10 years ago who actually did that and the interviewers got the shock of their lives when she walked in the door.

[mnehring]

I think the issue here with some of these comments, and with the protest by Mr. Asante is the believe that Africa isn’t diverse in it’s racial make-up. Not all African’s are ‘black’ African. My point was that, while not ‘white’ as some argue, or even what we call black African, Egyptians were also African, not matter what racial ‘shade’ people want to label them as.

[mnehring]

Bingo, that was what I was trying to say.. Africa is a very diverse continent.

[Tamar1973]

No, you're all wrong! He wasn't white or black. He was Korean! LOL!

[ishabibble]

Even better!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molefi_Asante

Arthur Lee Smith, Jr. Valdosta GA. I just love those “truthy” people!

[Fiddlstix]

Good Grief! It sounds to me like a bunch of goons with way too much time on their hands.

[Alouette]

it suggests the ancient Egyptian king was white.

The guy who played the Egyptian Pharoah in "Night in the Museum" was white.

[Captain Rhino]

Remember, during the 2004 Presidential Election Campaign, when the Kerry campaign tried (with her cooperation, I might add) to pass of Teresa Heinz Kerry as African because she had been born and raised in Mozambique (or was it Angola)? Certainly fooled U.S. African Americans, all right. NOT!

Yeah, that was another in a long series of self-inflicted wounds for the Kerry campaign. They deserved every one of them.

[Captain Rhino]

Remember, during the 2004 Presidential Election Campaign, when the Kerry campaign tried (with her cooperation, I might add) to pass of Teresa Heinz Kerry as African because she had been born and raised in Mozambique (or was it Angola)? Certainly fooled U.S. African Americans, all right. NOT!

Yeah, that was another in a long series of self-inflicted wounds for the Kerry campaign. They deserved every one of them.

[Captain Rhino]

Sorry for the double post.

[Fresh Wind]

Unfortunately, the death mask isn’t in the exhibition. The Egyptians won’t let it out of the country.

[Tamar1973]

Remember, during the 2004 Presidential Election Campaign, when the Kerry campaign tried (with her cooperation, I might add) to pass of Teresa Heinz Kerry as African because she had been born and raised in Mozambique (or was it Angola)?

The irony is that culturally, Mrs. Kerry probably was/is more African than most African-Americans because she actually born and raised there.

[litehaus]

*intentional misspelling, okay? Sheesh.

jew meen entenshunul?...;^)

[SauronOfMordor]

If the colors have stayed true over the year, they seem very representative of most North African nations we see now.

And other paintings plainly depict Black, sub-Saharran Africans (but as servants, not as part of the ruling class)

[Teacher317]

A high school student (in KS, IIRC) applied for a school scholarship for African-Americans. He was born in Africa, and was a naturalized American citizen. His skin lacking the melanin content of most urban youth, he was suspended from school because a high-melanin-content girl was “offended”.