Why Do You Think The Way You Do?

Why do you think the way you do? Who taught you the images that automatically come into your mind when you view things?

I was reading something I bumped into on line - the article was about Cleopatra. What is the first imagine you have of Cleopatra when you think of her? Mine is Elizabeth Taylor. Never saw her movie, but I can see her with the black eyeliner and the sheet like toga. The article I was reading mentioned that Cleo was black. Someone else had written they didn't believe that was possible - Cleo was white. She couldn't be black because she was beautiful. It is a fact that Cleo was black though. So why don't we see that? What was the person taught that they believed Cleo had to be white to be beautiful? Someone, in my case a white casting director, changed my history. Cleopatra was white and then I saw her as white. I was taught - in a not intending harm way - that Cleo was white because that probably sold more tickets at the theatre.

This is how White Privilege works. Subtly. Not meaning any harm. Yet doing it.