To those not watching Bridgerton because "it's historically inaccurate."
It has come to my attention, dear reader, that some people are refusing to watch the Netflix series Bridgerton because it is historically inaccurate. In short, it has Black people in it. Queen Charlotte herself is played by a Negress. – Lady Whistledown
Okay, so “some people” is really just my friend’s (white) dad, but based on the backlash after productions announced that Rue, Annie, and James Bond were Black, I can only imagine that there are plenty of period-piece-loving white folks boycotting this scrumptious and delightful piece of escapist art produced by the one and only Shonda Rhimes under the guise that it is historically inaccurate.
Well, I have watched the first season of Bridgerton. Truth be told, I am contemplating re-watching it.
I view Bridgeton as a “what-if” series similar to the super fun summer series Hollywood, which entertains, what-if some of the power brokers in the Golden Age of Hollywood had the cojones to cast Black actors in leading romantic roles? What-if the LGBTQ actors, writers, and producers of the Golden Age had come out? I’m looking at you Rock Hudson, Greta Garbo, Dorothy Arzner, Montgomery Clift, Marlena Dietrich, Catherine Hepburn, and Hattie McDaniel.
Bridgerton asks what-if the King of England had married a Black woman and her entrance to the royal family had equalized the BIPOC population? Many of us like to suspect, based on her portraits, that Queen Charlotte of Great Britain and Ireland (pictured) was of the African diaspora. We might be wrong, but what-if history had gone just a little differently?
Bridgerton is fiction. And the truth is that most period pieces include gross historical inaccuracies and it doesn’t stop anyone from watching them. In the Academy Award-winning film Amadeus, Mozart laughed like a hyena, saw dead people, and spoke perfect American English. In the most recent incarnation of Pride and Prejudice (2005), Mr. Bingly unceremoniously enters the bedroom where an unmarried Jane Bennet is lying in bed sick and Caroline Bingley wears a sleeveless dress to a ball. As we all know, such things would have caused scandal and ruin.
Quiet as it is kept, Bridgerton partygoers dance to a classical version of Billie Eilish! Why isn’t anyone refusing to watch because of that? I’ll tell you why. It’s because all of this talk about historical inaccuracies is just pretextual racism. Far more inaccurate than Black people in court, Ms. Eilish’s song will not stop any one of them from watching. Her music might actually garner more viewers (because it is amazing).
If we are truly concerned about historical inaccuracies, we should be quick to correct those who repeatedly present a world in which there were never Black people in the royal court or present in the streets of London.
Henry VII regularly employed a Black trumpeter at court named John Blanke. When Catherine of Aragon traveled from Spain to England to marry Henry VIII, she brought to court, Catalina de Cardones, her Lady in Waiting of 26 years, who was of African origin. Catalina’s husband, a crossbowman, was also of African origin. Records show that Queen Elizabeth I ordered two fine sets of clothing for a Black boy on her royal staff.
The remarkable story of one particularly beloved noble family of African descent began when Russian Emperor Peter the Great elevated his brilliant African military strategist, General Abram Petrovich Gannibal, to nobility. Gannibal and his family rose to be prominent members of court. The great Russian poet Alexander Pushkin is Gannibal’s grandson and Leo Tolstoy based the striking beauty, intelligence, and allure of Anna Karenina on Maria Hartung, Pushkin’s daughter.
Gannibal and his descendants married white aristocracy in Russia and abroad, including in England. They entered many noble family lines. As there were no other prominent Black families of that rank, they continued to marry white people. As a result, their modern descendants appear white. The current Queen, Queen Elizabeth II, considered her cousin by marriage, George Mountbatten, 2nd Marquise of Milford Haven, “one of the most intelligent and brilliant of people” and his son, David Mountbatten, 3rd Marquis of Milford Haven, who assumed the role of the head of the Mountbatten family after his father’s death, was best man at her wedding to Prince Philip Mountbatten, Duke of Edinburgh. Both George and David were direct descendants of Gannibal.
Another oft missing fact is that Queen Victoria adopted a Black daughter named Sara Forbes. She marveled at the little girl’s ability to pick up English and excel at the piano so quickly. By all accounts, she doted on her. However, as racism was more formally entrenched in Western society by the time of Victoria, the Queen ultimately sent Sara to wed an African man in Liberia. Most depictions of Victoria inaccurately exclude Sara who was a known favorite of the Queen.
As for all of those lily-white London street scenes that permeate period pieces, the concerned history buffs may want to expose those as a highly inaccurate white supremacist fantasy. While not many in number, Black Britons existed as far back as the Roman period. By the Tudor period, at least 360 African immigrants were living in Britain; a number that grew to more than 15,000 by Charlotte’s time. We have heard references to them in English literature, including in Shakespeare’s Othello and others. They are sometimes referred to as Moors. Black actor Ira Aldridge played Othello, at the Royal Theater in 1833. Everybody who is anybody went to see his performance, including the King.
Before your American mind jumps to conclusions about Black Brits in Charlotte’s day, please understand that these men and women occupied a variety of British occupations and lifestyles. They were not slaves. Slavery was always illegal in Briton. If it helps, think of Brits more like a prolific meth dealer who quite tellingly doesn’t use meth himself.
Anyhow, while the diversity on display in Bridgerton is far more than would have been seen in the Regency Era, the truth is that it would be unusual to go to court or walk the streets of London without seeing a Black person. Even in those period pieces that opt for a predominantly white cast in the interest of historical accuracy, the use of an all-white supporting cast to depict the royal court or London streets of any period is historically inaccurate.
Those who decry the casting of Bridgerton are wed to the false narrative of a time when white supremacy and all whiteness were commonplace. It is as if they are exclaiming, “By God, we were more racist and exclusionary then and I want my period pieces to reflect that! Hamilton is one thing, an entertaining lark, but let’s not make it a habit, shall we?”
These people would be far more comfortable with a random white dude from Russia playing Robert De Niro in a biopic than Robert De Niro’s own son because his son is Black.
But back to what-if. What-if more families, like General Gannibal’s, had been admitted to court and they had married each other? That is the premise of Bridgerton. How much more colorful, beautiful, and just would our world be? To some, it is an abhorrent thought that must never grace their television. Nevertheless, it is the world that we actually live in. And it is about time that folks have the license, not the mandate but the license, to reflect that in their art.
For some of us, we love period pieces because they portray a simpler, sweeter time, without meth or Rudy Giuliani. Others enjoy it because it is a simpler, sweeter, and whiter time. For many, period pieces seem to be the last bastion of whiteness, where people can go and not be affronted with a Black face. It is one last place where it is acceptable for people of color to be openly and completely excluded.
The truth is, my friend's dad said he didn’t want to watch television that he would otherwise watch because there were Black people in it. That’s not thinly veiled racism. It’s blatant racism at its plainest. Over my lifetime, I have heard this argument in a variety of ways. Historical accuracy is just the latest.
I’ve heard many complain that there is a Black guy and a lesbian in everything now because TV execs have to be PC even though most friend groups are homogeneous. Again, they are arguing this notion that society is racist and segregated and that should be reflected on television. These same people would think it was totally strange if I said, “It doesn’t make sense for white people to be in virtually every show. Why do they have to be everywhere? Why are we pretending that everyone has a white best friend? They don’t! Ugh!” Again, BIPOC have been watching art and media with all-white or predominantly white casts our whole lives, and we can suspend imagination and relate just fine. White people, you can do it, too. I promise.
Now if I am being honest, seeing Black people in court during Charlotte's reign is visually jarring. It reminds me of seeing a Coke commercial in the early 90s referring to a dark-skinned Black woman as the all-American girl. That commercial felt so strange and awe-inspiring. It’s shocking because we are so very used to the visuals offered by white supremacy. So thanks to Coke and Cheerios and Shonda Rhimes for doing the hard work of changing the optics in American media to look more like actual America.
Studies show that companies lose money when they do this because people refuse to watch. Magazines that put Black models on the cover do it knowing that they will only get 30% of their usual revenue. The writers and advertisers in the magazine know that fewer people will be reading their articles and seeing their ads. They do it because it is the right thing to do and the only way we can get to the day when it becomes normal and generates equal revenue.
The real point is that this idea that people are different based on color is a construct, one that people find excuses to cling to. If people want to make art showing us how much more beautiful history would have been if we had not employed these hateful sentiments about each other, we should let them. We should enthusiastically watch and learn.
There is no way that stone-cold-fox of a Duke should have been excluded from the Bridgerton production because he is Black. Thank goodness that while such penalties occur all the time in Hollywoodland, they don’t happen in Shondaland, because that young man is a star. Maybe if we become more comfortable with seeing BIPOC in every segment of society on our television screens, we will become more comfortable seeing BIPOC in every segment of society off of our screens.
So watch Bridgerton. The next time you see a Black person on the cover of a magazine, buy it. The future of this great nation and the people in it depend on it.
I hope my friend's white dad notices that his Asian granddaughter should have been allowed at court and what a nice thing it is that a piece of fiction chooses to put her there. I hope he realizes what it would mean to see herself represented in that powerful space and come to understand that her opportunities are directly shaped by things like the viewership of Bridgerton.
*Although, Shonda, the first Asian person I recall seeing in the series was playing a damn violin, and I was heated. Even when we are doing great things, we can always do and be better.
- Lady Morgan-Greene
You can watch Bridgerton here: https://www.netflix.com/title/80232398
