Was Beethoven Black? That question was raised by a newspaper columnist some years ago. She wrote that the Beethoven family had previously been merchants. The Middle East was the trade route where traders from Europe, Asia, and Africa exchanged goods and, human beings being what they are, exchanged DNA as well. There was no photography in Beethoven's day and portrait painters "idealized" their subjects. "Ideal" meant fair skin and North European features in a portrait, regardless of what the subject actually looked like. However, everyone who knew Beethoven described him the same way: A man with swarthy skin, tightly curling black hair, dark brown eyes, broad nose, and full lips. These are not Germanic features. So she speculated that Beethoven may well have been part African. She was inundated with hate mail (I'd bet 90% of those who wrote never in their lives actually listened to a Beethoven symphony) because she dared to suggest that this flower of European creative genius could have been of African descent. Just like some people can't accept a man of African descent as President and have to pretend he is actually foreign born. One of the things MarAzul apparently (in the other thread) claims "needs to be said". (strictly speaking, of course, the entire human species is of African descent)
Obama's 54% approval rating is better than W's at the end of his term. Of course, comparing him to Hiliar and Trump makes him look good.
Just like the meme where Bush says "miss me yet?" people will long for the days of Obama. Maybe after Hiliar is President we'll get this .... myfox8.com/2016/08/24/minnesota-town-re-elects-dog-as-its-mayor/amp
Even if his mother being a Moop is true, Ray Charles was obviously black and he was one of the greatest musicians of all time. I spelled it Moop on purpose.
Having curly hair, full lips or broad nose doesn't mean you're black. This bust of Beethoven was sculpted in his life by an artist who made an actual cast of his face. There's nothing obviously Negroid about it. This article is reaching big time.
You do realize that the question of whether or not Beethoven was black wasn't actually the point of @crandc's post, right
As I said, there was no photography and portraits "idealized" subjects by painting them with fair skin and North European features regardless of how they looked. These are not photographs. Notice all these men look different. Read posts before making snide remarks. And I did not say he was "from Africa", I said it was hypothesized, with some evidence, he may have had some African ancestry. Read posts before making snide remarks. If your attention span can't cover more than two sentences, then ignore the post. I'm fine with that.
