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Where are all the beautiful, powerful, black-skinned females from mythology and history? They were erased by Western art, argues Sophia Smith Galer. By Sophia Smith Galer BBC, January 16, 2019 It’s a complex story – of European racism as well as how useful black biblical figures were to those who wanted to teach religion through art – that helps to explain the absence of black figures in art history. For Michael Ohajuru on his art tours, that’s why it’s all the more important to try and locate the few representations of the black Queen of Sheba and the black Andromeda – and to find out why they disappeared. The huge influence that Western art history has had on our imaginations when it comes to visualising figures from the Bible or classics is arguably one that needs constant interrogation. Under such a lens, Gina Lollobrigida playing the Queen of Sheba in the 1950s or Alexa Devalos playing Andromeda become problematic.

...'cept everyone knows Cleopatra was white

Back in the '60s, during the hey day of the Back Panthers and militant spokesmen like Malcolm X and Stokely Carmichael, it was always my impression that black people didn't really think a full scale revolution would ever take place. We just gave lip service with rallying cries and chanting threats and even financial support for these guerilla cabals. But people like J. Edgar Hoover panicked and were scared shitless by the idea of these menacing organizations spurring the black masses to rise up and overthrow the government. The general consensus among blacks, however, was that a full scale rebellion would be a losing cause against a powerful country like America with its well-equipped standing army. But the idea of a black rebellion shaking up the White Establishment was a moral victory. In actuality, most of us were more attuned to MLK and his moderate approach. Non violent protest was a hard pill to swallow but the silent black majority was OK with allowing Civil Rights activists to represent them with this approach. Boycotting people and places was the closest the average black person came to demonstrating for justice during this turbulent era.