Pseudohistory comes in many forms.
What they all have in common is a contempt for evidence, logic and proof.
A fascinating subsection of "woke history" or crank history
is the claim that lots of people in European history were actually black,
and no one noticed at the time.
Woke drama on TV and in movies
regularly shows some random white historical figure as another race, without even any "theory" behind it.
Many people will see this and think it is real.
As well as showcasing some of the above crank theories,
woke drama has also shown that:
Their 2003 poll
comically included both Philippa of Hainault
(who came in at no.5)
and Queen Charlotte
(who came in at no.15).
As at 2022, their website
seems to have dropped Philippa of Hainault,
but it still
includes Queen Charlotte.
A site called the
African American Registry.
This bills itself as:
"the most comprehensive on-line database resource of African American heritage in the world".
It is used in schools.
This absurdly
claims that
Philippa of Hainault
was black.
The fake "woke history" that has probably gained the most believers is the claim
that
Queen Charlotte,
the Queen of Britain from 1761 to 1818,
was black,
and no one noticed at the time.
Queen Charlotte's
Wikipedia entry
has for many years
been polluted with this crank theory.
The arguments against are included,
but it still should not be there.
The entire crank theory should be deleted,
or at least moved to a separate page of pseudohistory theories.
Bizarre Netflix drama
Bridgerton (2020).
Portrays
Queen Charlotte
as a black woman.
The mainstreaming of junk "woke history".
The crank history people get excited by this
quote from Baron Stockmar in a sketch of the Royal family.
He says Queen Charlotte has
"a true Mulatto face".
This is
from p.50
of vol.1 of "Memoirs of Baron Stockmar".
It is obvious to anyone (except conspiracy theory idiots)
that he was not claiming she was actually mulatto.
She was Queen for 60 years. If she was actually mixed race, all of Europe would have noticed!
The conspiracy theorists claim people did not "notice" her race, or "hushed it up".
Such absurd nonsense.
Probably 100,000 people from round Britain and Europe saw the Queen in person during her reign.
Someone would have noticed if she was black.
French cartoonists for one would have gone mad portraying her.
Ask the conspiracy theorists to explain the silence of the French cartoonists.
Queen Charlotte is not a fictional character in a book.
She was a real person, which is why it is so offensive to change her race.
My wife's family knew her well, and she stayed with them.
Above, Queen Charlotte arrives at my wife's family home on Wed 30 Sept 1778.
She stayed with them for two nights.
This is from pp.232-238
of Appendix to
Annual Register, 1778.
The Earl of Pembroke here is my wife's 5-greats grandfather.
His wife was Lady of the Bedchamber to Queen Charlotte in 1783-1818.
Letters survive
from Queen Charlotte to my wife's family.
See Wilton papers
WSHC 2057/F4/47.
The Earl and his wife
would have been baffled that some 21st century cranks think
Queen Charlotte was black.
After the success of the "woke history" drama
Bridgerton, period dramas are increasingly adopting racially diverse casts.
This is called
color-blind casting.
The problem with that is these are then no longer period dramas.
They are fantasy dramas set in an imaginary period, that never existed,
that feels a lot like 21st century California.
In fairness, there is a market for it.
But I love history, and I often spend time immersed in 18th and 19th century records.
I love historical drama from the period.
But, because I love history, I cannot watch these shows for more than 5 minutes.
Persuasion (2022).
A bizarre adaptation of Jane Austen's novel,
where
half of Austen's characters
are black or Asian.
There must be an audience for this imaginary world.
It's nice to imagine different worlds, maybe.
But for people interested in history,
and wanting to be transported for a few hours to Regency England (rather than 21st century woke California)
this is, well, unwatchable.
Mr. Malcolm's List (2022).
Another bizarre Regency movie set in 21st century woke California.
I wonder how long the craze for making everybody in history black will last.
It is even creeping into documentaries.
The comical Netflix documentary
African Queens (2023).
This documentary (not meant to be fiction)
portrays Cleopatra
as black.
The
trailer features a very strange academic called
Shelley Haley
saying:
"I remember my grandmother saying to me:
I don't care what they tell you in school.
Cleopatra was black."
Meme laughing at the above.
Parody of Netflix woke history.
(Though maybe not a parody. Netflix might actually do this.)
