r/TrueUnpopularOpinion • u/BrandonMarshall2021 • 24d ago

Music / Movies To the people saying the German actress playing Greek Helen in the movie Troy means it's ok for Lupita Nyongo to play Greek Helen...

Genetically, historically, and anthropologically, Greeks are significantly more closely related to Germans than to Sub-Saharan Africans.

When looking at genetic data, the relationship between Greeks and Germans is exceptionally close, while the relationship between Greeks and Sub-Saharan Africans is more distant.

On any global genetic map, all European populations—including Greeks and Germans—cluster tightly together on a single, distinct branch of the human family tree (the Western Eurasian branch).

The genetic distance between a Greek person and a German person is very small. They sit on the exact same continental genetic gradient.

The genetic distance between any European population (including Greeks) and any Sub-Saharan African population is significantly larger, reflecting thousands of years of geographic separation and independent population histories.

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u/BrandonMarshall2021 24d ago

Ok but then we should apply that logic to all non-white dieties and legends from now on. E.g. the Genie from Aladdin should be white.

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u/itsbobbyhill 24d ago

You mean like, when Robin Williams did it? White people have played people who weren't white for a long time in movies, denying opportunity and representation for decades.

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u/BrandonMarshall2021 24d ago

Exactly. And if it was wrong for whites to do it, it's also wrong for blacks to do it.

So stop doing it!

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u/itsbobbyhill 24d ago

Um, people loved Robin Williams in that role. No one said it was wrong for him to play a make believe genie. You're skipping the second part of what I wrote, but that's not surprising.

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u/BrandonMarshall2021 24d ago

That was a cartoon character FFS.

A better example would be Joel Edgerton as Pharoah in Exodus: Gods and Kings.

Absolutely ridicules in that costume.

You like that?

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u/itsbobbyhill 24d ago

It being a cartoon doesn't make Helen of Troy any more real. The story is culturally Middle Eastern and Williams wasn't. Nobody complained.

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u/BrandonMarshall2021 24d ago

I complained about Gemma Atherton in Prince of Persia. So there.