History Main / BlackVikings

* ''BlazingSaddles'' has a black sheriff in the wild west, which would at first seem like this trope -- except that there were plenty of black cowboys, it's just that most Westerns didn't cast any.
** The fact that this is unusual for both the genre and the period is a pretty major plot point, anyway. It's not something that Brooks shied away from for a second.

* Movies about Ghengis Khan, or the Mongolian Hordes, or the Scythian's bothering Rome, or what-have-you, tend to cast people who look Mongolian (or are meant to, at least). However, Ghengis Khan had ''red hair'' and ''green eyes''. All the plains-tribes of the area currently known as Mongolia (and the plains from the Caucasus east) had a massive variety of ethnicity as they intermingled with each other and the societies they raided. While the first Asian people the Romans met were tribes from this vast area, so too were the first Caucasian people the Chinese met. These tribes were from everywhere, genetically. Mongolians as they are now are fairly recent as a dominant people in the area.
** To be fair, the red hair and green eyes depiction is up for debate, and more historians side with him not having red hair and green eyes. Still no one is 100% certain what he looked like.
*** Nor does possessing either of those characteristics necessarily imply that he was Caucasian; Mongols are a relatively diverse people in terms of such physical characteristics compared to other Asian peoples, and Central Asian "Mongoloid" individuals with red or blond hair and blue or green eyes, while rarer than among Europeans, are far from unknown.
** It's not helped by the fact that Genghis outlawed anyone drawing a picture of him under penalty of death. He subscribed to the "get your picture taken, lose your soul" belief.
* Additionally, all Genghis Khan movies use normal European horses, when the breeds used by the Mongols were actually smaller and had larger heads.

* ''TheMightyThor'' movie has apparently cast Idris Elba as one of the Norse gods. So pretty much literal there. For bonus points, said god is Baldr, a god associated with light and whiteness. Apparently the casting decision was at least partly influenced by a desire to spite Neo-Nazis, many of whom are Norse mythology buffs. Seeing as they're gods and it's a movie based on the Thor comic, historical accuracy isn't exactly to be expected.
** In truth, he will be playing Heimdall. Who was sometimes called "whitest of the aesir" and "the white god". So, extra plus bones points?

** In truth, he will be playing Heimdall. Which was sometimes called "whitest of the aesir" and "the white god". So, extra plus bonus points?

** In truth, he will be playing Heimdall. Which was sometimes called "whitest of the aesir" and "the white god". So, extra plus bones points?

This is especially likely to happen when the writers don't know the actual ethnicities available or when they are aiming at a color-blind cast at all costs.

Depending on the time and place, this can actually be [[AluminumChristmasTrees realistic]]. While other races were often rare and always a bit of a curiosity throughout history, racism as we know it only really caught on with the expansion of the slave trade. You can see this in works such as ''{{Othello}}'', where there is some discussion of Othello's race but for the most part he's one of the most respected men in Venice, you just wouldn't want your daughter to marry him.

Subtrope of PoliticallyCorrectHistory.

[[caption-width:345:[[strike:...Not likely.]] See RealLife.]]

* Vikings traded down into the Mediterranean, and had a term for the dark skinned folk found in North Africa: Bluemen (blue meaning dark). One such joining a group of Vikings would not have been far fetched, and one ending up a thrall even less so. Of course, thralls often earned their freedom and the respect of the community, and it being 500+ years before the invention of racism...

* ''TheMightyThor'' movie has apparently cast Idris Elba as one of the Norse gods. So pretty much literal there. For bonus points, said god is Baldr, a god associated with light and whiteness. Apparently the casting decision was at least partly influenced by a desire to spite white supremacist, many of whom are Norse mythology buffs. Seeing as they're gods and it's a movie based on the Thor comic, historical accuracy isn't exactly to be expected.

* ''TheMightyThor'' movie has apparently cast Idris Elba as one of the Norse gods. So pretty much literal there.
** Hilariously (or maybe not, if you're white) the Norse god he's casted as had the title of "whitest of the aesir." It's like casting Shaft as a white guy.
*** What's really hilarious is people thinking that refers to skin color. The Norse wouldn't have seen many black people and the terms 'black' and 'white' weren't used for skin back then. Anyway, acting like that's the biggest betrayal of mythology in the movie where Thor is a superhero...

[[caption-width:345:...Not likely.]]

Depending on the time and place, this can actually be [[AluminumChristmasTrees realistic]]. While other races were often rare and always a bit of a curiosity throughout history, racism as we know it only really caught on with the expansion of the slave trade. You can see this in works such as ''{{Othello}}'', where there is some discussion of Othello's race but for the most part he's one of the most respected men in Venice.

It is possible that when a Black Viking appears in film or TV, the character is still the right race. The actor used might have simply been the best available for the role, and the writers are merely asking us to use our imagination to make the actor's physical appearance fit the character's.

* A [[SassyBlackWoman Black Moorish woman prosecuting attorney]] named [[{{Valkyries}} Brunhild]] (!) appears in the eponymous ''Die Morin'', written by [[HolyRomanEmpire German]] poet Hermann von Sachsenheim in the year ''[[TheLateMiddleAges 1453]]''. She is supposed to prosecute love cases for the goddess Venus and her lover, King [[RichardWagner Tannhäuser]] (!!), who, according to legend, lived in a subterranean kingdom under some mountain in Germany. Probably Sachsenheim assumed that a servant of Venus was a pagan, and a pagan was a Muslim, and a Muslim was a Moor, and that "Brun-hild" meant "brown-maiden" (instead of "byrnie (=mail-coat)-maiden").

[[caption-width:345:Not Likely]]

* Pretty much any game that features [[TheBaroness Nazi dominatrixes]] in a commanding position in the Nazi military hierarchy, given the extreme StayInTheKitchen (and pop out those Aryan babies while you're at it) attitude of the Third Reich. Then again, most such games tend to also feature Nazi vampires or Nazi cyborgs, so historical accuracy clearly isn't a major goal.

* Vikings traded down into the Mediterranean, and had a term for the dark skinned folk found in North Africa: Bluemen. One such joining a group of Vikings would not have been far fetched, and one ending up a thrall even less so. Of course, thralls often earned their freedom and the respect of the community, and it being 500+ years before the invention of racism...

* ''[=~M* A* S* H~=]'', set during the Korean War, featured a black surgeon. (The TV show followed suit for a few episodes until the anachronism of the idea was pointed out to the producers.)
** I don't see how this qualifies, since the U.S. military was at least partially integrated in 1948 - and also because there were black doctors in the U.S. as early as the nineteenth century.

* In ''SpeedRacer'', during the "Casa Christo" crucible, one of the teams bribed to take out the Togokhan Team (Speed, Racer X, and Taejo) was a [[TokenTrio trio]] of Viking-esque barbarians, the leader of whom was black. Who fired [[BeeBeeGun nests of bees]] [[CrazyAwesome from their cars]]. Justified in that the team [[HandWave wasn't going for historical accuracy anyway.]]

** Hilariously(Or maybe not, if you're white) the Norse god he's casted as had the title of "whitest of the aesir." It's like casting Shaft as a white guy.

* Interesting little aversion: In an online discussion of the political correctness of ''DoctorWho'' producer RussellTDavies, the topic came up of a {{docudrama}} concerning a trial in VictorianLondon, in which they cast a black man as the judge. It emerged that, as surprising as it might seem, in actuality, a black judge really ''had'' presided over the case and the producers of the {{docudrama}} had merely [[ShownTheirWork presented what had happened in reality.]]
** In what is inarguably the ''best'' Doctor Who story of the 1980s, Curse of Fenric, one of the Russian soldiers led by Captain Sorin was played by a black man. (He's the one who spends most of the story under the sea, having been the first victim of the Haemovore.) However, his character being a Russian soldier in 1942, he also spends the episode under several millimetres of heavy white pancake make up.. ) The actor was actually one of the technical crew, and is part Dutch.
* In the 2006 series of ''Series/RobinHood'', one early episode feature [[{{TheDragon}} Guy of Gisbourne's]] political scheming against the [[{{BigBad}} Sheriff's]] current Master at Arms. The fact that the Master at Arms is black in 12th century England is never mentioned nor influence the plot. [[WordOfGod The producers have mentioned]] that originally there was no intention for the character to be black, but that the actor gave such a damned fine audition and performance that they felt he could pull it off regardless of the fact that that he would seem out of place, and gave him the part as-written, without any changes to make reference to his color.

* ''{{Merlin}}'' has been accused of this; Guinevere is black, as are several courtiers and some of the royal knights. The production team has {{handwave}}d this, and apparent anachronisms, by stating in interviews that the show is set in a mythical land that's not intended to be historically accurate. The Arthurian myths are already pretty anachronistic. French chivalry in dark age Britain? Come on...

** This qualifies. Although there were black surgeons and the Army was already integrated, there's no evidence that any black surgeons were in the Army in Korea during the war.