How Deep the Egypt Worry Goes

Abstract

Abstract Denial about ancient Egypt’s visible blackness has fueled evasion of customary guidelines for defining black racial being. This section argues that the Egypt worry—“black Africans” influenced ancient Greek civilization and thereby Western culture—challenges a tenet of Western supremacy. Without racialism, there is little motive to insist that the ancient Egyptians were closer by racial nature to white Europeans than to yellow Asians. The ancient Egyptians were ascribed Caucasian racial being through a color-conscious device that groups reputed white peoples (natives of Europe) and off-white peoples (“mixed” settlers outside Europe) in the same major race group. In turn, ancient Egyptian civilization was claimed for evidence of white natural superiority. The section explains how this racial branching approach to cultural appropriation calls for a racialist conception of race. The “Caucasian” umbrella category conceals its hierarchical division of white natives of Europe above off-white settlers.