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.
"Isn't that odd. When the black people insist that they're "African-American," I ask them if Americans of Egyptian, Moroccan and Libyan descent should also be called "African-Americans" because their countries of origin are clearly in Africa."
How about this. My fiancee is a premed student, and one of her friends in school is a black woman from South Africa. She's not just black -she's blue-black. She also earned US citizenship. Even though she's African and is now an American, she isn't considered African-American for the purpose of "affirmative action." Needless to say, she thinks the whole thing is a scam.
its all george bush's fault.
Excuse me? "Rightwing" racial supremacist fantasies?
The fascisti in Italy were led by a Socialist who often stated "Everything within the state, nothing against the state, nothing outside the state."
The fascists in Germany were NATIONAL SOCIALISTS.
The racial supremacists in these countries were leftists. In Japan they were reactionary monarchists--not that Japan's belief in Nipponese racial supremacy has changed since then, but now they're at least nominally democratic.
Don't buy the PC 'rightwing' = 'racist' BS. And stop spreading it.
Sorry, but I don't buy the JBS libertarian-to-totalitarian spectrum any more than I buy the liberal spectrum. And I refuse to classify a country or movement as left or rightwing because of its beliefs about the state or how big or small the government should be.
Communists were originally anarchists, and anti-Communists, especially in the Old World, were traditionally statist. Besides, the whole point of my post (which you have ignored) is that at a certain point all these mystical racial-nationalists sort of blend together.
Direct linking to a photo is just wrong!
FReepmail me if you want instructions.
Was Sicily ever a Nubian penal colony?
From one Paul to another, I don't know how to post a photo without shutting down a thread. Feel free to freepmail me the instructions!
ROFLMAO! I just spit soup all over my monitor! Damnit.
LOL....me, too. I'm still laffin'
| King Tut (King Tut) Now when he was a young man, He never thought he'd see People stand in line to see the boy king. (King Tut) How'd you get so funky? (funky Tut) Did you do the monkey? Born in Arizona, Moved to Babylonia (king Tut). (king Tut) Now, if I'd known they'd line up just to see him, I'd trade in all my money And bought me a museum. (king Tut) Buried with a donkey (funky Tut) He's my favorite honkey!* Born in Arizona, Moved to Babylonia (king Tut) Dancin' by the Nile, (Disco Tut) The ladies love his style, (boss Tut) Rockin' for a mile (rockin' Tut) He ate a crocodile. He gave his life for tourism. Golden idol! He's an Egyptian They're sellin' you. Now, when I die, now don't think I'm a nut, don't want no fancy funeral, Just one like ole king Tut. (king Tut) He coulda won a Grammy, Buried in his Jammies, Born in Arizona, moved to Babylonia, He was born in Arizona, got a condo made of stone-a, King Tut! |
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*Case closed. |
And I thin it WAS limericks.
And you're so right; it's just not the same.
And, damnit, I miss Tom Snyder!
You have mail.
So then you're just classifying racism as rightwing because...you prefer to call it that. Not because of any connection to the reality of governmental political organization or affiliation with any actual discrimination. Good to know. Maybe you should point that out in your posts right at the start, so that we all know where you're coming from before we bother replying to you. And I appreciate the implication that I'm a John Bircher. Thanks!
"Communists were originally anarchists, and anti-Communists, especially in the Old World, were traditionally statist. Besides, the whole point of my post (which you have ignored) is that at a certain point all these mystical racial-nationalists sort of blend together."
Aside from the facts that Communists AND anarchists are not the same thing in today's world, both are almost universally utopian socialist fringe groups today, and neither group is at all advocating the same thing as anti-statists, which is what you seem to spuriously imply (are you REALLY claiming the few anarchist communists nutjobs around are anti-statist, even today?), you said:
"The Left must certainly consider the African-descended peoples of the world too pathetic to act on these rightwing racial supremacist "we invented civilization" fantasies, or else it wouldn't give them its blessing. The fascist movements of the last century did not arise among the leading nations but in nations long divided (Germany, Italy) or isolated from the rest of the world (Japan) and thus reacting against an inferiority complex. One can't help but wonder if the Left would continue to impute "honorary leftism" to such otherwise rightwing attitudes if a genuine fascist pan-African movement were to arise."
While you might be intending to make the point that "at a certain point all these mystical racial-nationalists sort of blend together," you do so by associating where you mention them, the right wing with racism, as if the two are in some natural grouping. You certainly don't seem put the effort into prioritizing your 'blend' point as much as you do ensuring rightwing and racism get associated.
I will take advantage of your advice.
You are a very nice guy!! Merry Christmas!!!
You are a very nice girl! Happy Merry Christmas to you!
Actually, that is a picture of Persis Khambatta on the right, the bald chick from Star Trek: The Motion Picture. (No, I'm not a trekkie--I go out with girls.)
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