For years we’ve been assured that racism is no longer an American problem. Sure, slavery was bad, unless you read the modified Smithsonian history, but we’re good now.
Systemic racism? Liberal fake news. White privilege? America has evolved. In fact, according to MAGA media, Whites might be eligible for reparations for enduring such hardships over the last few decades.
“I’m colorblind, I don’t notice race.” Or, “I have a black friend.” The implication is, “I’m not racist; I once had my black friend over for a barbecue at my house.”
Then, a new movie gets released and colorblindness is cured. The Odyssey hit theatres earlier this month.
Some of TV’s conservative commentators hated the movie without seeing it. It was enough that Christopher Nolan cast Lupita Nyong’o as Helen of Troy, the most beautiful woman in the world. In case you haven’t heard, Nyong’o is black. Some folks saw color.
Social media exploded. Hollywood has “gone woke.” Civilization is threatened because a mythical queen wasn’t portrayed by the “correct” ethnicity.
Daily Wire commentator Matt Walsh, an apparent expert on beauty, declared: “Not one person on the planet actually thinks that Lupita Nyong’o is ‘the most beautiful woman in the world.’ But Christopher Nolan knows that he would be called racist if he gave ‘the most beautiful woman’ role to a white woman. Nolan is technically talented but a coward.”
Elon Musk felt compelled to weigh in on that post with, “True.” Musk later suggested Nolan cast Nyong’o because, “He wants the awards,” not really explaining why that would lead to awards. Musk saw color, too. Right-wing media attacked and left-wing media jumped to the defense.
Do we really need to fight over a MOVIE? We fight about so many other things, let’s leave this one alone. See the movie or don’t see the movie. You have that choice.
American leaders have determined that race is unimportant in hiring, college admissions, voting rights, housing, policing, or any other area where conservatives regularly assure anyone that will listen that America is colorblind. But a black actress cast as a fictional character in a three-thousand-year-old Greek epic gets social media humming. As is so often the case, the irony is lost on these critics.
Some of these “news” people claim that Nolan has breached some kind of historical accuracy by casting a black woman. However, as they argue that point, they seem to miss that they aren’t talking about a real historical figure. Helen of Troy is a mythological character, written about by a guy (Homer) 700-800 years before Christ. These self-righteous critics are demanding historical accuracy for a figure that never existed.
In fact, as the story goes, Helen was not even born. According to Greek mythology, Zeus transformed himself into a swan, seduced, or assaulted, Leda, who was NOT his wife. Leda then laid eggs and one of them produced Helen. Maybe if Nolan had recruited a cygnet (that’s a baby swan) for the role, critics would have considered it more historically accurate.
To review, the woman at the center of this great debate about “historical accuracy” was born from an egg after her father disguised himself to seduce a large waterfowl.
We accept Zeus’s disguise. We are OK with beautiful women hatching from eggs. A one-eyed Cyclops raises no historical accuracy questions. There is no debate about sirens that sing songs no man can resist, or sea monsters dissimilar to anything in the current oceans. We accept a hollow wooden horse where an entire army hid. But a black actress is a bridge too far.
A couple of weeks ago, some of these critics probably couldn’t have named the author of this epic. Today, you expect to hear them introduce the next criticism after citing their expertise, “As someone who has spent decades studying Homer…”
Of course, these critics insist that the criticism has nothing to do with race; it’s about authenticity. Really?
Were they equally upset that the actors all speak English and don’t sound like ancient Greeks? Did anyone notice that Matt Damon looked suspiciously like Matt Damon? Hollywood has been rewriting history, and mythology, for a long, long time without provoking constitutional crises.
You can pick apart the story: did an entire city really look at a giant wooden horse and collectively decide, “What the heck? That’s a pretty cool horse; let’s roll it inside.” You may not like the special effects or the runtime, but “historical accuracy” seems like an odd complaint about a myth involving shape-shifting gods and one-eyed cyclops.
But to those who have evaluated the Odyssey, citing historical inaccuracies as your critique, let’s remember this is all based upon a 3000-year-old mythological epic, not history. So, if your first, and most troubling, concern is the complexion of one actress, after claiming “I don’t see color” it appears the line actually is “I see absolutely nothing else.”
Curt MacRae is a resident of Coldwater, MI and publishes opinion columns regularly.
To be notified by email when a column is published, or to offer feedback: rantsbymac@gmail.com
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