Nope...sorry afrocentrists.

**Carpathian Wolf** · September 19, 2009, 03:13 AM

I posted some afro centrist videos a while ago and we all had a good laugh at it. This is a nice end to that non sense. They usually post some out of context Egyptian art, usually a few shades darker than what it really is and talk about how Egyptians were black, before moving onto the black greeks, romans and chinese...

**Lysimachus** · September 19, 2009, 03:20 AM

Uh...and the Egyptians portrayed themselves as Africans when exactly?

**Carpathian Wolf** · September 19, 2009, 03:24 AM

Originally Posted by Lysimachus

Uh...and the Egyptians portrayed themselves as Africans when exactly?

Exactly never!

That's some nice music

90 percent of the reason I put this up.

**boofhead** · September 19, 2009, 08:33 AM

Originally Posted by Carpathian Wolf

90 percent of the reason I put this up.

Worked for me. Thanks

**Pious Agnost** · September 19, 2009, 03:21 AM

That's some nice music

**conon394** · September 19, 2009, 08:27 AM

Still the funniest thing really is if you resurrected a panel of Ancient leaders say from Rome or Egypt or Persia or Athens they would likely be baffled by recent debates about skin color.

**Romano-Dacis** · September 19, 2009, 08:44 AM

Originally Posted by conon394

Still the funniest thing really is if you resurrected a panel of Ancient leaders say from Rome or Egypt or Persia or Athens they would likely be baffled by recent debates about skin color.

I thought the ancient Greeks and Romans preferred darker shades of skin and hair because they associated the lighter shades with Northern barbarians.

I can't imagine why else Xenophanes would write that the Thracians all had "blue eyes and red hair" though genetic studies have proven Xenophanes wrong.

**Bwaho** · September 19, 2009, 01:29 PM

I thought the ancient Greeks and Romans preferred darker shades of skin and hair because they associated the lighter shades with Northern barbarians

It was actually popular among roman women to dye their hair blonde. They thought the "northern barbarians" looked pretty.

Still the funniest thing really is if you resurrected a panel of Ancient leaders say from Rome or Egypt or Persia or Athens they would likely be baffled by recent debates about skin color.

what do you mean? would they be baffled because the color of their skin is questioned? or do you believe there was no racism back then?

**Romano-Dacis** · September 19, 2009, 02:23 PM

Originally Posted by Bwaho

It was actually popular among roman women to dye their hair blonde. They thought the "northern barbarians" looked pretty.

That or the Romans had some fetish for xeno-eroticism.

**Lysimachus** · September 19, 2009, 01:33 PM

what do you mean? would they be baffled because the color of their skin is questioned? or do you believe there was no racism back then?

I always thought the Romans were prejudiced against the Gauls, Germans, Iberians and Britons (i'm not using RTW terms, i'm simply on about the geographical areas so I can explain it easier) but didn't particularly care about people of darker skin. They were simply seen as "a slave is a slave" rather than "gallic slaves" and "black slaves" f.e.

Point is racism in the Ancient times doesn't seem to be something I hear much about when it's directed towards blacks. It seems to be more directed to the level of civilisation and the semi-civilised Celts were just seen as savages.

**Aetius** · September 19, 2009, 01:49 PM

Evidence is really before your eyes.

Modern Egyptians have suffered some greek and arab immigration but not really that much. Therefore they are basically the same people as thousands of years ago. Here are some people from upper Egypt.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

You can see skin color ranges from pale almond to black. This is Egypt.

**CtrlAltDe1337** · September 19, 2009, 02:31 PM

afaik white(er) skin was valued, since dark skin made you look tanned/sunburned, thus seeming like you did manual labor.

**Lysimachus** · September 19, 2009, 02:35 PM

Originally Posted by CtrlAltDe1337

afaik white(er) skin was valued, since dark skin made you look tanned/sunburned, thus seeming like you did manual labor.

Did this cause racism or was it more of a "food for thought" thing that was just at the back of peoples' minds when they saw darker skinned people?

**tullyccro** · September 21, 2009, 12:36 AM

Originally Posted by CtrlAltDe1337

afaik white(er) skin was valued, since dark skin made you look tanned/sunburned, thus seeming like you did manual labor.

Correct. It was considered a scandal if a Roman woman had tanlines/dark skin, etc... The Emperor Claudius is supposed to have cited his daughter's tan as one of the reason's for considering her banishment (on the grounds that it was proof of her promiscuity)

Also, in terms of the Romans looking down on Gauls, etc... The Romans looked down on everyone pretty equally. Though they despised Greeks as effeminate and flighty even though they cherished their art, religion, science, philosophy, etc... They tended to judge people on their military merits and were always terrified of their northern neighbors, so in terms of stigma being attached to "looking" something or another, the only evidence of prejudice against appearance is against tanning or dressing like a Greek (loose belt, silks, perfume). The Romans were much more judgmental of Easterners, including Greeks, than Northerners, Westerners, or even Southerners.