This parallel 18th-century Britain contains many wealthy Black people, such as the young Lady Danbury and her older, buffoonish, darker-skinned husband (who some have condemned as a racial caricature). The Bridgerton extended universe has always taken a curious approach to race, but in Queen Charlotte it reaches bizarre levels. This prequel chronicles Charlotte’s arranged marriage to George III in 1761, which blossoms into real love and ushers in a new era of racial unity in Britain – just like Harry and Meghan didn’t. There turn out to be quite a lot of liberties. Queen Charlotte begins with the disclaimer that it is “fiction inspired by fact” and that “all liberties taken by the author are quite intentional”. “The idea that that would make her their first Black royal was very interesting to me.” “I know there are a lot of people who believe it’s absolutely fact that she’s from Black Portuguese royalty,” said the show’s creator, Shonda Rhimes. Thus, young Charlotte is portrayed by British actor India Amarteifio, who has Ghanaian and German ancestry. Queen Charlotte, the latest Bridgerton instalment, hangs on a similar scrap of historical speculation: the theory that German-born Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz had African ancestry. “And why do some people need Cleopatra to be white? Her proximity to whiteness seems to give her value, and for some Egyptians it seems to really matter.” “Why shouldn’t Cleopatra be a melanated sister?” asked Tina Gharavi, the show’s director. But, the show’s makers argue, the dynasty may have intermarried with local Egyptians over the preceding 250 years, at a time when no one was classified as “black” or “white” anyway. Photograph: NetflixĬleopatra’s precise pigmentation is up for debate: she was descended from the Greek-Macedonian Ptolemaic dynasty. ‘Why shouldn’t Cleopatra be a melanated sister?’ … Adele James as Queen Cleopatra.
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