... would the people of the Byzantine empire become part of a skin colour argument.
On the one hand, the elevation of the Byzantine empire as a right wing conspiracy theorist's great, white hope. That just wasn't what it was about. But if you want white, why the Byzantines rather than, say, the medieval Irish?
On the other, the Byzantine empire's portrayal as a multiracial, cosmopolitan paradise by the left. There weren't many Nubians or Ethiopians in medieval Constantinople, especially after the Byzantines lost their North African territory to Arab forces in the seventh and eighth centuries, making the journey north tricky for Saharan and Subsaharan Christian peoples.
You don't get much useful history by portraying the past according to 21st century interests...
"Despite this modern disdain for Byzantium in the West, it has recently served as an inspiration to various factions of the far right.
In September 2017, Jason Kessler, an American neo-Nazi who helped organize the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, inaugurated a new supremacist group called “The New Byzantium” project.
Described by Kessler as “a premier organization for pro-white advocacy in the 21st century,” The New Byzantium is based on the white supremacist leader’s misrepresentation of history.
His premise is that when Rome fell, the Byzantine Empire went on to preserve a white-European civilization. This isn’t true. In reality the empire was made up of diverse peoples who walked the streets of its capital, coming from as far away as Nubia, Ethiopia, Syria and North Africa. Contemporaneous sources noted – at times with disdain – the racial and ethnic diversity of both Constantinople and the empire’s emperors.
But Kessler’s “New Byzantium” is intended to preserve white dominance after what he calls “the inevitable collapse of the American Empire.” The organization has been operating under the radar since 2017 with little online footprint."
http://theconversation.com/why-white-supremacists-and-qanon-enthusiasts-are-obsessed-but-very-wrong-about-the-byzantine-empire-154994
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