Warning: This post may evoke a series of long sighs. Rupert Murdoch, founder, CEO and chairman of 21st Century Fox, took to Twitter on Friday (Nov. 28) to defend the casting of white actors in the upcoming film, Exodus: Gods and Kings. With Christian Bale and Joel Edgerton playing Moses and pharaoh Ramses the Great, director Ridley Scott came under fire for “whitewashing” Egyptian history. Murdoch posted a series of responses to criticism of the film:
Moses film attacked on Twitter for all white cast. Since when are Egyptians not white? All I know are.
— Rupert Murdoch (@rupertmurdoch) November 29, 2014
Everybody-attacks last tweet. Of course Egyptians are Middle Eastern, but far from black. They treated blacks as slaves.
— Rupert Murdoch (@rupertmurdoch) November 29, 2014
Okay, there are many shades of color. Nothing racist about that, so calm down!
— Rupert Murdoch (@rupertmurdoch) November 29, 2014
His thoughts were, obviously, met with backlash on Twitter:
Erasing the actual skin color of Ancient Egyptians is called white washing @rupertmurdoch & it is definitely racist.
— Mikki Kendall (@Karnythia) November 29, 2014
Someone tell Rupert Murdoch that Egypt is in Africa. Also, fuck that Exodus movie.
— Memphis Fleek (@Aqua174) November 30, 2014
Rupert Murdoch saying that he didn’t know Egyptians were Black while ppl deny the totality of Black history. This is why “#BlackLivesMatter“
— #MIKEBROWNCOVERUP (@mikebrowncover) November 30, 2014
Rupert murdoch said “calm down” which we all know always ends a disagreement in a satisfying fashion
— Desus Nice (@desusnice) November 29, 2014
Wow, @rupertmurdoch! I’m a proud Arab woman but even I know Ancient Egyptians were not “Middle Eastern.” They were most CERTAINLY Black.
— Simone Amelia (@BossLadyTV) November 29, 2014
Exodus: Gods and Kings hits theaters on Dec. 12.