Rupert Murdoch, one of the most powerful CEOs in the world, took to Twitter recently to defend the questionable casting of the biblical film, Exodus. Murdoch said a series of tweets that all Egyptians he knows are white, causing a backlash across social media.
Hollywood’s attempt at retelling biblical stories have been lacking in the diversity department, most recently with the Russell Crowe film, Noah, back in March. Exodus, with stars Christian Bale as Moses, Aaron Paul as Joshua, and Sigourney Weaver as Tuya, has been dogged by critics for not using more actors of color in the film. Murdoch, clearly a historian, tweeted his opinion last Friday (Nov. 28) on the matter and stated it as law.
“Moses film attacked on Twitter for all white cast. Since when are Egyptians not white? All I know are,” read Murdoch’s tweet. Naturally, the reactions from the Twitter faithful were strong and swift which caused Murdoch to make a weak attempt to clarify.
“Everybody-attacks last tweet. Of course Egyptians are Middle Eastern, but far from black. They treated blacks as slaves,” he added.
Murdoch, who has not deleted the tweets as of this writing, changed the subject to job development in foreign countries after telling people to “calm down” regarding the tweets that he made.
Just another day in the office for Rupert Murdoch, eh?
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Photo: David Shankbone/CC by 3.0
