REPRESENTATION IN FILM
Why Some Never Want Us to Imagine a Black Queen
They prefer seeing Black women in positions of servitude rather than in power.
Many people are clutching their pearls at the portrayal of a Black queen in Queen Charlotte in A Bridgerton Story, a fictional story created by Shonda Rhimes inspired by the history of Great Britain's Queen Sophia Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz who married King George III. Their ire is two-fold, inspired by some people's inability to appreciate the genre of historical fiction, where writers are free to take liberty with their writing, and others who hate the idea of a Black woman taking the reigns of a powerful empire.
Whether Queen Charlotte had a Black ancestor or was Black herself is hotly debated. Some historians, such as Mario de Valdes y Cocomnc, argue that her features, as depicted in royal portraits, suggest African ancestry. They also point to the fact that her ancestor, Madragana, was a Moor and thus a Black African. Others contend that Charlotte would be too distantly related to Madragana to be considered Black. This view of race is rather binary, as having a Black ancestor can result in Afrocentric features among Creole people. While some artists portrayed the Queen as having a darker complexion, other official portraits made her…
