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She was a semi-important figure in the history of an empire that was the progenitor of Western civilization, thereby lending her a cultural prestige in the US and Europe that the likes of Nzinga Mbande will never have here. Hoteps have no interest in the culture of their ancestors because the West attaches no esteem to that culture; they latch on to the culture of ancient Egypt and its figures because the West's interest in it brings a chance of reflected glory.
It makes me really sad, because I can't exactly blame them - all the hoteps I've seen were ADOS, so they don't know who their ancestors were and have no way of finding out. They could use DNA testing to find out what tribe their ancestors were, but they have no link to the culture and traditions of those people, and no sense of belonging. Sadly it doesn't work however, by latching onto Egypt they are only disrespecting actual Egyptians, although actual Egyptians don't seem to mind (I only know one Egyptian chick irl though).
Of course you can blame them. In 2023, it requires no effort whatsoever to flip open a book and read about west Africa if one chooses, and at some cost you can get a DNA analysis to find out where your ancestors came from.
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I do occasionally see online Egyptians pointing out that claiming the pharaohs were black implies that they are themselves foreign invaders or colonialists, a charge they resent.
Also, not to invoke Godwin's Law, but this whole business reminds me a bit of prewar Germany's obsession with Aryans, as they were ashamed of their own ancestors' lack of sophistication at the same time the Greeks and Romans were building great empires and so had to find historical validation through an imagined descent from a comparable civilization that had nothing to do with them, in this case the Indo-Iranians.
While I can understand the impulse to find belonging in the great achievements of one's ancestors, such validation is ultimately hollow if the traditions being venerated are museum pieces rather than living and breathing culture. The wiser course if one lacks illustrious ancestors is to try to become one, and to make one's people thereby worthy of remembrance. Many scoff at "made-up holidays" like Kwanzaa and various other attempts to create a unifying black American culture from scratch, but culture is all made-up in the end and at those people are trying to build something new.
I wonder how that plays with their Arab identification.
Many Arabs take some pride in their pre-Islamic ancestors in the same superficial sort of way that the French call themselves Gauls or the English commemorate King Arthur despite him being a Briton rather than a Saxon, though with the exception of a few Lebanese Christians all of them would still claim to be Arabs first and foremost.
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