Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

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
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 41-6061-8081-100 ... 141-151 next last
To: Rebelbase
"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."


61 posted on 12/18/2005 2:06:07 PM PST by Moonman62 (Federal creed: If it moves tax it. If it keeps moving regulate it. If it stops moving subsidize it)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Rebelbase
""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.""

Doesn't this one sentence contain a contradiction? She states that "when in reality it's just a theory" and then go on to say that she's afraid of the implication on black kids? In other words, it's not a theory to her, but a fact that Tut was black. This would seem to contradict her words about it being a theory.

The left just seems to contradict itself whenever it opens its mouth these days.
62 posted on 12/18/2005 2:10:02 PM PST by MissouriConservative (I would love to change the world, but they won't give me the source code)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Rebelbase

They think they're Arabs.


63 posted on 12/18/2005 2:12:44 PM PST by Eric in the Ozarks
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: GOPPachyderm

Lets put this in the proper light. I am not suggesting that white is more evolved than black. What I was and am asking is what happened. The Egyptions built the Pyramids they had boats that sailed all over the known world at the time. If they were black what happened in a thousand years that they stopped progressing and regressed?


64 posted on 12/18/2005 2:22:29 PM PST by sgtbono2002
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 59 | View Replies]

To: socal_parrot

That is astounding.

Great catch parrot!


65 posted on 12/18/2005 2:25:41 PM PST by freedumb2003 (American troops cannot be defeated. American Politicians can.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]

To: Rebelbase
Demonstrators say King Tut exhibit depicts wrong skin color

Oh for the good old days...
...when a US tour by King Tut spawned a ladies T-shirt with two profiles
of King Tut and the caption:
"Keep Your Hands Off My Tuts"

But now we have the hyper-civility of political correctness.
And a lot less humor.
66 posted on 12/18/2005 2:28:58 PM PST by VOA
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Rebelbase

Ramses II had red hair.

67 posted on 12/18/2005 2:30:05 PM PST by FreedomCalls (It's the "Statue of Liberty," not the "Statue of Security.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Prime Choice
"No! And you're a racist!" is their only reply.

Wasn't thee a big flack a while ago when a white person born in South Africa insisted on being identified as African-American?

68 posted on 12/18/2005 2:31:05 PM PST by freedumb2003 (American troops cannot be defeated. American Politicians can.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 46 | View Replies]

To: Rebelbase

Tut, like most Egyptians today is mediteranean descent. The black color of the skin is due to the oils and spices applied during mummification. There were black rulers of ancient Egypt -- the Nubians. The Nubian empire conquered Egypt and ruled it for about 200 years and there are certainly people of black descent in Egypt today. For all of their politically correct wishful thinking Tut is not black and black Egyptians did not have wings and fly around the pyramids. Get a grip you twits out there. A large part of indigenous africans are white/olive skinned mediteraneans like the Egyptians, Moroccans, Algerians, Lybians whose ancestors have ALWAYS lived there.


69 posted on 12/18/2005 2:31:11 PM PST by RJS1950 (The rats are the "enemies foreign and domestic" cited in the federal oath)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Rebelbase

Didn't we go through this nonsense a year or two ago?


70 posted on 12/18/2005 2:31:51 PM PST by toddlintown (Lennon takes six bullets to the chest, Yoko is standing right next to him and not one f'ing bullet?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Brilliant
"Who the heck (except them) cares what color Tut's skin was?"

Well, I for one like things to be historically accurate to the greatest extent possible. Of course, if the racist PC elitists have their way, any access the population has to truth will purely accidental.

71 posted on 12/18/2005 2:34:12 PM PST by sweetliberty (Stupidity should make you sterile.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: socal_parrot

Stunning likeness.


72 posted on 12/18/2005 2:35:20 PM PST by sweetliberty (Stupidity should make you sterile.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]

To: freedumb2003
Wasn't thee a big flack a while ago when a white person born in South Africa insisted on being identified as African-American?

Yup. And if memory serves, the final response on the matter was that they weren't "African" because their ancestry was Dutch.

73 posted on 12/18/2005 2:38:31 PM PST by Prime Choice (We are RepubliCANs, not RepubliCAN'Ts.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 68 | View Replies]

To: surely_you_jest
Ask and ye shall receive...(sorry!)

Actually, ol' Tuttie is much cuter than Babs...dontcha think???

(make note to save barf animation for later...:)

74 posted on 12/18/2005 2:39:01 PM PST by rlmorel ("Innocence seldom utters outraged shrieks. Guilt does." Whittaker Chambers)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 24 | View Replies]

To: Rebelbase; All

He was from Egypt.

He wasn't black you stupid idiots.

He was brown.


75 posted on 12/18/2005 2:39:13 PM PST by rwfromkansas (http://www.xanga.com/rwfromkansas)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Rebelbase
"Ancient Egyptians from Memphis (Egypt) would have had to go to the back of the bus in Memphis, Tennessee, during the days of segregation,"

Well sure. They'd have to do that today too though I'd wager you'd ship em underneath in baggage. I mean you rarely, even today, ride dead passengers on the bus especially with the living customers.
76 posted on 12/18/2005 2:42:38 PM PST by festus (The constitution may be flawed but its a whole lot better than what we have now.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: sgtbono2002

Oh. Sorry for misunderstanding your post.


77 posted on 12/18/2005 2:45:28 PM PST by GOPPachyderm
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 64 | View Replies]

To: Rebelbase
OK, KT was black. The Sphinx was obviously a white guy of European origin.


78 posted on 12/18/2005 2:51:29 PM PST by operation clinton cleanup
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Rebelbase

Those people are idiots.


79 posted on 12/18/2005 2:53:06 PM PST by BigCinBigD (Merry Christmas!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Rebelbase

The Copts were fair skinned. This is silly.


80 posted on 12/18/2005 2:53:40 PM PST by American in Israel (A wise man's heart directs him to the right, but the foolish mans heart directs him toward the left.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 41-6061-8081-100 ... 141-151 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson