[Polybius]

The Egyptians were no less accomplished in painting than in portrait sculpture. In wall-paintings in Egyptian tombs and temples, the most minute details of daily life were rendered with a precision that still delights the eye today. One of the conventions of Egyptian art is that men were painted with reddish-brown skin, as if they spent most of their time outdoors. Women were painted with pale yellow skin, as if they spent most of their time indoors. .......... Foreigners of many nationalities make occasional appearances in Egyptian art--Hittites, Canaanites, Philistines, Greeks, Hottentots, and others. They are painstakingly depicted with their distinctive hairstyles, clothing, accoutrements, and skin color. Blacks, on the relatively rare occasions when they appear, are depicted with coalblack skin. Unmistakably Negroid hair and facial features are visible in many of these depictions. In addition, blacks are often shown wearing animal skins, whereas Egyptians are almost invariably dressed in white cotton. On the relatively rare occasions when blacks appear in egyptian art, they are commonly depicted as defeated enemies, mercenary soldiers, tribute bearers, or slaves. To argue that blacks played more than a peripheral role in the development of Egyptian civilization requires ignoring this massive record.

[Robert A Cook PE]

Sobering, but very, very persuasive.

But, of course, it is easier to claim racist politics NOW, rather than rely on the actual records of the people who were recording THEIR heritage at the time that history was (literally) being drawn.