Black Vikings: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

{{quote|'''Kida:''' His name's Simon. He's a Russian of African descent. He works as a tout for a Russian sushi shop here.

 

This trope comes into play when an actor is cast for a role in a historical setting who would appear to be of the wrong ethnicity to portray such a role, either because of racism in that period or because there simply were very few members of such ethnicity in the area at the time.

 

Subtrope of [[Politically-Correct History]]. See also [[Not Even Bothering with the Accent]], [[Race Lift]].

 

== Advertising ==

* [[OutKast|André 3000]] in the 2012 Gillette commercials "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOQ6ifFMVgQ Masters of Style]". He describes how he feels about various forms of facial hair, near the end he mentions a long beard makes him feel like a Viking.

 

 

* ''[[Sakura Taisen]] V'' features an African-American female lawyer in the [[The Roaring Twenties]]; while college-educated black professionals were far from unheard of since the early 1900s, what's odd is that this character never has to fight prejudice or racism in the series (which instead would have been likely). Even for an [[Alternate History]], this is just stretching it a bit.

* Hilariously happens, as quoted above in ''[[Durarara!!]]''; Semyon Brezhnev, better known as Simonis a [[Gentle Giant|7 foot tall]] [[Scary Black Man|black]] [[Husky Russkie|Russian]] [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking|sushi tout]] in Ikebukuro. In the ''[[Refuge in Audacity|Russian]]'' sushi shop. While definitely ''not'' impossible (Pushkin's great-grandfather, for example, was an African who came to Russia in the 18th Century), it is a very unlikely situation, mostly because there's simply aren't that many black Russians around. And then there's the fact that most Russian sushi shops are atrocious in the country, so a bunch of Russians successfully selling them ''in Tokyo'' is, again, unlikely. Though author seems to [[Shown Their Work|know]] all this and aims at the [[Rule of Funny]]. Explained by the fact that Semyon's parents were Americans who moved to Russia.

 

 

* Subverted in an issue of ''[[The Sandman]]'' featured the immortal Hob Gadling attending a Renaissance fair with his current girlfriend (and [[Deadpan Snarker|making a lot of cutting comments about it]].) When Hob asks his girlfriend why she isn't the Queen of the Fair, she points out her ethnicity (she's black) and the fact that the fair is trying to be at least ''a little'' authentic (she specifically says "There were no black Queens of England.") To which Hob immediately replies "Catherine of Aragon. Had she been living in Selma, Alabama in the early 60s, they'd have made her ride at the back of the bus." This statement isn't actually true, as Catherine of Aragon, first wife of Henry VIII of England and mother of Mary I (Bloody Mary), is alternately recorded as having "golden hair, blue eyes and pale complexion," or, rarely, "auburn hair". Similarly, some accounts have Elizabeth I as blonde, as there are very few trustworthy accounts of the appearance of historical figures this far back. He might be referring to the "just one drop" rule and it has been claimed that Catherine of Aragon had a black (or Moorish) ancestor just a few generations back, presumably Hob would know. Being a former Slaver, he may have keep an ear out about those kind of things. Also keep in mind that from the perspective of the story, what he knows first-hand is more reliable than our history books. Hence the whole point of this trope.

* Since the 1980's, the ''[[Wonder Woman]]'' series has featured various non-white Amazons living on Themyscira, despite the island being based heavily on Greek myths and the women all having Greek names (such as Philippus, the black captain of the Royal Guard). This is explained by a [[Crisis on Infinite Earths|retcon]] establishing that the Greek gods created the Amazons by using the reincarnated souls of various women who had been murdered throughout history, meaning that even the white Amazons might not be ethnically Greek. And of course the Amazons from the Myths weren't Greek either.

* One of the supporting characters in ''[[The Mighty Thor]]'' is Hogun the Grim, a Mongolian-looking man amongst a Norse-inspired cast. This is usually explained as him being a foreigner to Asgard.

 

== Films -- Animation ==

* In the film adaptation of ''[[Much Ado About Nothing]]'', the character Don Pedro is the Prince of Aragon and played by [[Denzel Washington]]. While Spain was occupied for several centuries by the Moors, Medieval Spaniards were nearly obsessed with ''limpieza de sangre''—purity of blood, and the aristocratic class was the worst. It might have been a stylishic choice to make his illegimate brother's deep hatred for him more obvious. Otherwise, this would have to get across by [[Keanu Reeves]]'s acting ability.

* [[Kenneth Branagh]]'s version of ''[[Hamlet]]'' features a couple black people among the staff of the castle. Including one woman who was originally a "gentleman" in the play. In Denmark, in the 1600's. The film has a more 1800's style, but that doesn't change much.

* The 2011 film ''[[Thor (film)|Thor]]'' has Idris Elba [http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2010/12/20/ as one of the Norse gods.] So pretty much literal there. For extra irony points, he played Heimdall, who is often referred to as "White-god" and "Whitest of the Aesir". Similarly, the character Hogun is played by Japanese actor Tadanobu Asano, though as noted under Comics above the character was visually-Asian to begin with. In the movie, the idea is put forth that the Asgardians aren't really gods but [[Human Aliens|extradimensional beings]] that the Scandanavians mistook for deities after seeing them battle Frost Giants on Earth. It's also a manner of the Asgardians in the Marvel universe not actually being exactly the same as real-world Aesir mythology.

** If you examine the religious art of the Vikings, you may note that the symbols of Thor (such as the hammer) have particular prominence. If you look at the movie's Asgardians in that context, it seems that the Vikings liked Thor so much because he looked like them.

 

== Folklore ==

 

 

* Arthurian literature has featured Moorish knights since Sir Morien in the 13th Century.

* In the medieval romance ''King Horn,'' Saracens invade Suddene (a mythical kingdom in the British Isles). This is probably a [[Race Lift]] as the villains act just like Viking conquerors, but by the time the story was written down Vikings had become passe and the Crusades were the new hot topic.

** Germany had had an African colonial empire until 1919 so there were a number of African-Germans long after that. This matter surfaces in Istvan Szabo's movie ''Mephisto'', taking place in the 1930s, in which the protagonist, a famous theatre director, has an African-German mistress and therefore gets chastised by an angry Hermann Göring.

** Even if pretty unexpected for a modern reader, the [[Those Wacky Nazis|Nazis]] held no special grudge against Blacks—Nazi [http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005479 racism towards blacks] [http://www.ushmm.org/research/library/bibliography/?lang=en&content=blacks is well-documented] and horrible, but it wasn't as systematic as their main targets.

* In the 1997 Rodgers and Hammerstein's ''Cinderella'' Cinderella was black (and played by Brandy) her stepmother was white, and the Philipino prince had a black mother and a white father. Very jarring.

* ''[[Doctor Who]]''

** The episode "Human Nature", set in England just before World War One, averts this trope, as one of the students starts saying offensive things to Martha, and John Smith seems to find it utterly believable that Martha might not understand the concept of fiction. Smith's love interest understandably is rather incredulous when Martha claims to be a doctor, remarking that a ''woman'' doctor was conceivable but not "one of your colour" as said to Martha's face.

** The 2008 Christmas special had the Next Doctor have a black female companion, Rosita, in 1851. She gets treated like anyone else in the story except for two brief, almost missable, moments. The first is when the {{spoiler|villainess asks whether the Doctor "paid [her] to speak," which could be either a servitude reference or merely an implied suggestion that she thinks Rosita is a prostitute. The second is at the end when they live happily ever after and Jackson Lake makes a comment about her being his son's nursemaid.}}

* Any depiction of [[Jesus]] that makes him look Caucasian. Or black. Or even Asian. As the central figure in a religion spanning culture and geography, Jesus is often depicted with more resemblance to the local population then to any historical accuracy. As a Galilean Jew, Jesus mostly likely had a darker olive complexion similar to that of modern Middle East peoples.

* This also happens with other major figures of [[The Bible]], such as Abraham, Adam and Eve, Moses, David, etc, who look almost exclusively white in European artistic depictions.

** At several times throughout history, "Ethiopia" meant literally any place in Africa, so it's entirely possible she came from a northern pre-Muslim African nation—the people there would have had skin and hair colors much closer to ancient Greeks, and when one factors in how many mixed marriages there were between the various cultures, it makes more sense. The problem is that there were text describing Andromeda's dark skin. Possibly not black, but not actually until later artists decided not to depict her as such.

* Due to its syncretic nature and the loas' ability to change shape, the Vodou pantheon is filled with Black Vikings. Some loa like Ogoun and Erzulie Dantor appear as black Africans. Others are caucasian, like Mademoiselle Charlotte and Mama Brigette (who's a foul mouthed Irish redhead). While others are Native American like the Agua Dulce family of loa adopted from the Taino Indians.

== Video Games ==

* Averted and lampshaded in ''[[Metal Gear Solid]]''. [[The Mole]], while discussing her background, mentions that her Japanese-American grandfather was an FBI agent under Hoover. Although he doesn't say anything about it for several scenes, Master Miller immediately knows she's lying, realizing that the notoriously prejudiced J. Edgar Hoover would never have allowed a man of Japanese descent as an agent.

* Enforced in ''[[Resident Evil 5]]'': there are an awful lot of white people in Africa because people complained about [[Unfortunate Implications]] with all the Majini being black. Then again, there are an awful lot of white people in Africa if you know where to look.

 

* This effect is certainly older than the past two millennia, it's just hard to see clear examples after that long. When the armies of Alexander the Great marched across Central Asia, they buggered everything in sight and left garrisons and deserters in their wake, drawn from every corner of the conquest, but most have disappeared into the population at large since then. But high in the Hindu Kush mountains, there still exist tiny villages of almost pure-ethnic Greeks in isolated valleys, wholly integrated with local culture but still instantly recognizable. Journalists who've encountered them remark that, even 2300 years on, they look like Europeans doing a poor imitation of Afghans.

* DNA analysis has recently suggested that not one but four or five African and Indian groups may be (as they claim) Lost Tribes of Israel. Besides the famous Ethiopian and Ugandan Jews who got airlifted by Israel in the 70s, a full-blown ''tribe'' in Tanzania recently got themselves tested to prove their claim that the tribe itself were a lost tribe of Hebrews, since the Roman era. (Being cut off, they didn't know any other Jews existed, so they adopted local language and customs.) And the Indian group had become a caste claiming Hebrew descent, although they had more contact with the west.

* African German [[wikipedia:Hans Hauck|Hans Hauck]] was a soldier in the [[Nazis With Gnarly Weapons|German Wehrmacht]] during [[World War Two]]. There were quite a few African Germans in Nazi Germany, either descended from people from the [[Imperial Germany|colonies]] or the children of black French soldiers from the 1923-25 Occupation of the Ruhr, so called Rhineland bastards. Indeed, as they were considered inferior and not fit for military service, but not a threat like Jews and Slavs, black Germans were more likely to survive the war than ethnic Germans.

* The Black Seminoles are a controversial section of the Seminole tribe who are descended from escaped American slaves who sought refuge with the Seminoles in Spanish Florida. Many interbred with the Creek descended natives, while others remain genetically separate. The debate continues today as to whether they count as a true part of the tribe as they have little or no genetic connection, but upwards of two hundred years of cultural connection.

* Russian poet Alexander Pushkin's great grandfather, [[wikipedia:Abram Petrovich Gannibal|Abram Petrovich Gannibal]], had been an ennobled Black Russian.