Reply to Bridgerton Season 4

Forum Index » Entertainment and Pop Culture

Reply to "Bridgerton Season 4"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Queen Charlotte WAS really black. 
[/quote]

Not by any meaningful modern standard.  The most that can be said is that she had an ancestor about 500 years back (15 generations ago) who may have been a Moor, which was a broad category that included both blacks and Arabs.  I am very white but a quarter Sicilian — there is a really high chance that if you go back 15 generations on my Sicilian side (and maybe even my Irish side), you would find a Moor.  But it would be super offensive to Black people if I were to announce that I was Black.

With 15 generations back, it’s pretty unlikely you’d find any genetic trace of it if you did a dna test on her.  (Although it might be really interesting if you did!). I don’t know enough about genetics to be sure, but if the line traced back directly matrilineal, then she would have a DNA trace of it though, because mitochondrial DNA is passed directly from mother to daughter so you can always trace a matrilineal line that way, absent mutation.

There are actually a lot of British that have an ancestor of moorish descent — 500 years ago thy didn’t think as much in racial terms and there were a lot of moors that went from Spain to England for various reasons (the reconquista, accompanying Catherine of Aragon etc), and so long as you converted to Christianity, you could intermarry with no problems.  I heard a really interesting podcast with someone that did a ton of research into 15th and 16th century English church records.  She then contacted the descendants who had no idea that their great grandfather times 25 was Moorish!

I could say more about the Queen charlotte debate but I know I’m already boring most of you with th history stuff. [/quote]

You are missing the directionality of that claim though. Also no one is talking about modern standards.

Queen Charlotte is dead. She is not walking around claiming she is black for street cred. Agree that if a current British royal started claiming "I'm black" based on ancient lineage, people would rightfully tell them to be quiet. Of course the current British royals are too busy trying to disown some family members who are actually black to make that claim. Just like if you, a white lady, tried to claim you were black.

Rather, the people who say "Queen Charlotte was black" tend to be trying to pierce the assumption that British royalty, or British culture, is purely anglo or even purely European. It's to make a point about what British, or English, heritage really is, and to too challenge engrained notions of white "purity" within British aristocracy.

Bridgerton, which has a black creator, has chosen to engage in that dialogue with a portrayal of Regency England where many people, including the Queen, do not merely have darker skin and hair and rumors of Moorish ancestry, but are visually black. It's unrealistic, of course, but it has also led to many people learning for the first time about how NOT pure most European bloodlines are, including royal ones. That's actually a useful development.[/quote]

Having seen portraits of Charlotte and her parents, what you're typing is wokery gibberish. Ok there may be a Moor (which isn't the black as we see it these days, sub saharan African) but North African, who may have been Charlotte's ancestor 500 years earlier (500!), maybe, somehow now she is mixed race? What? Who came up with this crap?

What I find ignorant is how Bridgeton creates a wildly unhistorical narrative because of how deeply racist people were at that time period. The Earls of Mansfield had a black ward who they treated as a family member as she was mixed race offspring of a relative, but when company came, she had to dine alone. And she never mixed in polite society. That's the reality. No amount of Bridgerton revisionism pandering to the silly sensibilities of modern woke people desperate to change the past can ever change the historical truth. Be honest, don't make up stuff because you have a chip on your shoulders. Funny no one is going around claiming some African chieftain was really white because of a slave from Europe sold by Arab traders to his ancestors 500 years ago. Because it doesn't fit the narrative (and there were European slaves captured by the Barbary pirates sent to North Africa). Make a show about that.
[/quote]

Bridgerton is not a documentary nor does anyone watching it think it's an accurate historical representation of the time period it portrays. They dance to modern pop songs at balls, the clothes and decor often incorporate modern anachronisms, and yes they play fast and loose with both racial and gender norms of the time.

YOU are more than welcome to make a show about how regency London actually handled race. I would watch it! But everyone understands Bridgerton is intentionally ahistorical. It's not meant to be taken seriously.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics