King Tut's skin color a topic of controversy

LA Life ^ | Wednesday, June 15, 2005 | Evan Henerson

[Rytwyng]

Why don't they just concede he was black and get this over with?

Because truth matters.

[Darnright]

>"Those images are so critical for our children," says Legrand Clegg, Compton city attorney and a spokesman for the protesters. "We want them to focus not just on rappers, athletes and entertainers but on figures who are high achievers.<

Like Secretaries of State Condoleeza Rice and Colin Powell, and Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas?

Can you say, Hypocrite? I knew you could.

[Hatteras]

I know, I know... Jesus Christ was black, King Tut was black, Michael Jackson was black... Yeah...right.

[Junior]

"Little is known about this beautiful wooden sculpture of the boy king, Tutankhamun. It was found discarded in the passage by excavators under the rubble. The tomb robbers could obviously could see no value in it.

"The piece depicts the young king's head emerging out of a lotus flower, representing the birth of the sun- god.

"This statue can be seen in Cairo museum."

[StolarStorm]

Oh, they have plenty of great role models. The problem for the race baiters is that they are conservative role models, like Condi.

[TommyDale]

Is Condi Rice black? I never would have known, at least from reading all the news articles.

[Wuli]

The beginning of this whole trend began many years ago with a book by an African-American "scholar" called "Black Athena". He not only claimed all of Egyptian heritage for Black Africans, he credited Black Africans for the intellectual foundations (through Egypt) of ancient Greece (Athena), and thus to Rome and to all of western culture.

This book was a great sensation when first published but other scholars of many races uncovered its errors and debunked most of its claims. In spite of that, the book continues to be published and some African-Americans in need of ancient justification latch onto Black Athena, in whole or in part.

It is the source of alot of intellectual wasteland among a small segment of African-Americans - not, thankfully, most.

[kstewskis]

activists from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the Committee for the Elimination of Media Offensive to African People, and the Association for the Study of Classical African Civilizations plan to protest the Tut exhibition, which opens today at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

You know, I don't recall these guys raising a stink when Tut last came through L.A. in the mid 70's. Does anyone?

[Red Badger]

Farrakahn and the Nation of Islam's loony fringe is becoming mainstream and along with it their loonier histories.....

[lexington minuteman 1775]

Using Democrat logic, Elizabeth Taylor played Cleopatra, Elizabeth Taylor is white, therefore King Tut has to be white as well. Holywierd has spoken to this issue and we all know that Hollywood celibrities are experts in all areas that concern us. /sarcasm on.

[AnAmericanMother]

You are correct.

Almost all of those who were captured and sold as slaves in the Western Hemisphere originated in a relatively small area bordering the Gulf of Guinea (now the Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, and Gabon). There was some trade (mostly in salt) and there was a trade route between the Islamic Kingdom of Mali and Egypt in the 13th century, but that doesn't make the local residents Egyptians . . .

[taxed2death]

I think I'll file this one in my "who cares"? folder.

[Charles Martel]

God Bless Victor Borge. He made them do the Bat Dance.

Victor Buono, by contract, only did a comedy schtick wherein he falls off a piano bench. ;-)

[Bernard Marx]

For anyone not familiar with this stuff I suggest Googling: Portland African-American Baseline Essays. It's -- literally! -- a textbook example of how American schools are being used to teach pseudoscience and a racist fictional "history."

"He who controls the past controls the future." George Orwell

[Charles Martel]

Ugh. Contract=contrast. There, better.

[Mike Darancette]

Please educate me to the base of knowledge of humankind that they have contributed

Your original post cited a lack of culture and history now you ask me to cite discoveries.

OK, Fire.

[TheForceOfOne]

I did hear him refered to as "Funky Tut" once on SLN.

[SunkenCiv]

That would make me happy. :') Thanks Val for the ping, and then some. ;')

Please FREEPMAIL me if you want on, off, or alter the "Gods, Graves, Glyphs" PING list --
Archaeology/Anthropology/Ancient Cultures/Artifacts/Antiquities, etc.
The GGG Digest -- Gods, Graves, Glyphs (alpha order)

[Servant of the 9]

We have a full color original bust of his mother, Nefertiti, and she is white, in fact, paler than most mediteranean caucasians. Since her husband was her brother Ankhnaten, we can be sure he was white as well.

Unless we are dealing with a Michael Jackson situation, the kid, Tut, is gonna be the same race as the parents.

SO9

[Tallguy]

Egypt, from ancient times, was a cosmopolitan nation, like the U.S. is today, where people came from and were a mixture of people all around the Middle East. But Egypt did have a dominant stock, and it was not negroid.

The reading that I've done on the subject of race & genetics suggests that skin color can not be definitively discerned from a parsing of the genes. Plus, as you stated, Egyptian society has always been 'cosmopolitan'. I expect that the Pharohs will therefore have genetic markers from several populations. Studying the genes may provide some useful insights, but probably is a waste of time from a skin-color perspective.

I'll go with how the Egyptians portrayed themselves in their art -- unless somebody can show me a good reason to believe that the Egyptians were misrepresenting their own appearance.