u/CrazyForCrocs

“White people have no culture” or “Whiteness has no inherent culture” is an opinion held by a loud but minority group on Reddit that I’ve seen float around for a little while but I’ve noticed a new “talking point” recently and it’s always popping up in conversations around this controversial Odyssey movie. “Why do you care that a fictional character from mythology 2500 years ago is white or not? She’s never even described as being white plus she was hatched from an egg, who cares if she’s black.” To me, that is being purposefully obtuse just to hypocritically support your own “perspective” all the while claiming “academic honesty”. Mythology is not just “ancient mumbo-jumbo” they are stories embedded with deep cultural moral values that are supposed to be “guidance” for future generations through storytelling. And I’m only speaking to Greek mythology, ancient western mythology. There are all sorts of different mythologies according to different cultures however I am only speaking to western Greek mythology. Contrary to what some on Reddit would assume of me I do not believe that white people have a “monopoly” on all mythology nor do I think history needs to be “white washed” so that is why I find it doubly hilariously ironic that white people cannot even maintain their own cultural identity in their own mythology nowadays.

The Aegean coast along with western and portions of southern Anatolia (Asia Minor) were ethnically mixed but had large populations of what we would call “white” or “Greek” looking peoples going back a very long time in recorded history. It’s very bold to assume that just because a region looks one way today that it has always looked like that. That’s a very “modern” way of looking at things. I would argue that Anatolia has been one of the most ethnically diverse regions in history. Helen of Troy was described as having pale skin, skin like milk, etc. Setting aside the mythology of the story we could assume that the “real” Helen of Troy was of Greek birth from Sparta. The city of Troy was presumably on the western coast of Anatolia near Thrace. Someone who lived in these areas in that time who was described as being “pale skinned” was more than likely white. It’s not a “stretch”, it’s not “white washing” and it’s definitely not “white supremacy” it is just history and important to cultures that still hold these mythologies. It’s not the stories at face-value that hold so much importance but the ideas and values underneath that transcend time and history for us to enjoy and learn from. But for some reason it is “okay” to completely bastardize what I would consider “western Greek mythology” because it’s “open to interpretation”. Why? Who decides that? Are all other mythologies open to re-interpretation as well? I’m going to get on a “soapbox” a bit here but how are “white” people supposed to “maintain” their cultural identity if it is constantly getting “race swapped”? If white people really only have a few “ancient- outdated” things that we can point to as our “culture” what happens when the few “prominent” examples we do have get “race swapped”? Disney doing it with old stories for representation and diversity is one thing, they are not claiming “historical accuracy”. It feels dishonest and purposeful just to “spite” the legitimacy of “Western Greek Mythology”. Tasteless and just for “shock-value” but when you tell people it’s “historically accurate” it starts to blur the line between historical portrayal and dishonest interpretation. White people have plenty of culture it’s just been deemed “open to interpretation” by others.

Edit: I am adding a funny example of the double standard here. A white guy can’t wear a sombrero but Helen of Troy can be portrayed as black.