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Demonstrators say King Tut exhibit depicts wrong skin color
http://www.centredaily.com ^ | Dec. 17, 2005 | MACOLLVIE JEAN-FRANCOIS

Posted on 12/18/2005 12:08:30 PM PST by Rebelbase

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - A "King Tut is back and he's still black" placard drew the gaze of visitors making their way to view the acclaimed exhibit at the Museum of Art in Fort Lauderdale Saturday.

Across from the entrance, about 25 demonstrators donning T-shirts marked with various pro-black slogans held up the placards. Waving the red, black and green African flag, at times moving to the beat of djembe drums on the sidewalk, they asked drivers in passing cars to honk in support of their goal: reminding people not to take the lighter-skinned portrait of King Tutankhamun on display as an accurate depiction.

"We're visual people, so whatever they throw at us, we're going to take it as a fact, when in reality it's just a theory," said demonstrator Asante Waa. "We're afraid of the implications that this recreation is going to have on kids, especially on black kids."

Particularly controversial in "Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs" are computer-generated busts of Tut with a skin tone that critics say make him look Caucasian.

"For the Image of the Living God (as Tutankhamun represents) to be replaced with anything else but a black man's is a slap in the face," said Alicia Milligen, a Lauderhill, Fla., nurse.

Demonstrators passed out fliers with information about the Boy King who reigned over Egypt more than 2,000 years ago. They hope to educate others about King Tut by visiting schools, churches and libraries, said demonstrator Evie Iles.

"It's our history," said Iles, who viewed the exhibit and thinks the lighter skin tone may be a marketing strategy. "We encourage people to go and see the authentic artifacts and to challenge what's inauthentic."

Mary Lefkowitz, a retired classics professor and author of "Not Out of Africa: How `Afrocentrism' Became an Excuse to Teach Myth as History," said Saturday that the demonstrators had a point.

"Ancient Egyptians from Memphis (Egypt) would have had to go to the back of the bus in Memphis, Tennessee, during the days of segregation," the Wellesley, Mass.-based author said in a telephone interview. "The Egyptians were kind of copper-colored."

Museum of Art officials say they are talking to historians with different viewpoints about planning a forum on the topic, but no date has been set.

"It's an interesting conversation that needs to be held," Lynn Mandeville, director of community affairs, said.

Museum visitors said they know the ancient Egyptians were not white, but the demonstration did put the race question at the forefront of some people's minds.

Danielle Dyer, a West Palm Beach, Fla., mother who brought her two biracial daughters along, said she found herself looking more at the shape of the eyes, nose and other features.

"You have to be reaching pretty far to find anything racial about it," Dyer said.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: 18thdynasty; africa; amarna; ancientautopsies; ancientegypt; blackathena; blackpharaoh; blackpharaohs; blacksparkwhitefire; cz; earlofcarnarvon; egypt; ggg; godsgravesglyphs; helixmakemineadouble; howardcarter; kingtut; museum; tut; tutankhamun
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To: Fintan; Lakeshark; phantomworker; Darksheare
Born in Arizona, moved to Babylonia, He was born in Arizona, got a condo made of stone-a, King Tut!

!!!!!

101 posted on 12/18/2005 6:30:20 PM PST by Borax Queen
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To: Borax Queen; Lakeshark

Is that a real song? It kinda rings a bell. Kinda like alley oop, oop, oop, oop...


102 posted on 12/18/2005 6:43:57 PM PST by phantomworker (We don't see things as they are, we see things as WE are.<==> Perception is everything.)
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To: Fintan; Lakeshark; phantomworker; Darksheare

Yes, I think it was Steve somebody who sang it. I'm blanking out - that comedian guy.


103 posted on 12/18/2005 6:54:23 PM PST by Borax Queen
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To: Borax Queen; Fintan; Lakeshark; Darksheare

http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=3813&

Steve Martin, of course!


104 posted on 12/18/2005 6:57:42 PM PST by phantomworker (We don't see things as they are, we see things as WE are.<==> Perception is everything.)
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To: Howlin; Phsstpok

I just remember LMAO. But I was only 14 or so.


105 posted on 12/18/2005 7:01:09 PM PST by Calvin Locke
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To: Borax Queen; restornu; Lakeshark

I saw the King Tut exhibit a long time ago when it was in NYC. Tut's living quarters were all laid out to walk around in. I remember feeling, wow, I found my roots. ROFL!!

Deja vu. Kind of eerie...


106 posted on 12/18/2005 7:02:04 PM PST by phantomworker (We don't see things as they are, we see things as WE are.<==> Perception is everything.)
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To: phantomworker

Yes!


107 posted on 12/18/2005 7:02:39 PM PST by Borax Queen
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To: phantomworker

Very eerie; I thought so too when I saw that.


108 posted on 12/18/2005 7:03:19 PM PST by Borax Queen
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To: phantomworker; Borax Queen
I was too young to know about this song.

You girls wimmin must be really old........

109 posted on 12/18/2005 7:04:34 PM PST by Lakeshark (Thank a member of the US armed forces for their sacrifice)
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To: Lakeshark; Borax Queen

A few thousand anyway.. You must be a neophyte.


110 posted on 12/18/2005 7:06:27 PM PST by phantomworker (We don't see things as they are, we see things as WE are.<==> Perception is everything.)
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To: phantomworker

I am only an egg........


111 posted on 12/18/2005 7:08:28 PM PST by Lakeshark (Thank a member of the US armed forces for their sacrifice)
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To: Lakeshark

half cracked


112 posted on 12/18/2005 7:09:58 PM PST by phantomworker (We don't see things as they are, we see things as WE are.<==> Perception is everything.)
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To: phantomworker

Says who?


113 posted on 12/18/2005 7:10:42 PM PST by Lakeshark (Thank a member of the US armed forces for their sacrifice)
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To: Borax Queen

Isn't that strange? Maybe we are ancient souls...

(A pre-school teacher once told me she thought my son was an ancient soul, and at that time I thought she was a little half-baked.. ) LOL!


114 posted on 12/18/2005 7:12:50 PM PST by phantomworker (We don't see things as they are, we see things as WE are.<==> Perception is everything.)
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To: Lakeshark

Just check it out: ever hear if "The crack in the cosmic egg"?


115 posted on 12/18/2005 7:14:16 PM PST by phantomworker (We don't see things as they are, we see things as WE are.<==> Perception is everything.)
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To: phantomworker; Borax Queen
Maybe we are ancient souls...

*rolling eyes*

116 posted on 12/18/2005 7:16:27 PM PST by Lakeshark (Thank a member of the US armed forces for their sacrifice)
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To: Lakeshark

Cracked neophyte


117 posted on 12/18/2005 7:17:32 PM PST by phantomworker (We don't see things as they are, we see things as WE are.<==> Perception is everything.)
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To: phantomworker
Sounds delicious......
118 posted on 12/18/2005 7:21:32 PM PST by Lakeshark (Thank a member of the US armed forces for their sacrifice)
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To: operation clinton cleanup

Good god..its the Nihilist from the Big Lebowski (musta been before Walter Sobcheck bit his ear off..)


119 posted on 12/18/2005 7:23:16 PM PST by Windsong (Jesus Saves, but Buddha makes incremental backups)
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To: Lakeshark

Like cracked pepper?


120 posted on 12/18/2005 7:25:11 PM PST by phantomworker (We don't see things as they are, we see things as WE are.<==> Perception is everything.)
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