In this period of Egyptians' efforts to explore their culture within the new context of political independence, journalism and theater served as mir- rors in which Egyptians could look at themselves both critically and hope- fully. Taymür and his contemporaries tried to perfect an image of the peo- ple of their country that other Egyptians could recognize and relate to, while at the same time they questioned the direction in which Egyptian society was headed. But these investigators of new roles for Egyptians drew a sharp boundary when they reached the Nubians and Sudanese in Egypt, who remained stereotyped in much the same manner as they had been in the plays and articles of dramatists and journalists writing fifty years earlier. Most of these black characters remained gullible, manipulable, ugly, asexual, undisciplined, and above all, humorous. They were lovable characters but blank, at a time when Egyptian writers characterized their own culture with greater complexity and insights.

Eve M. Troutt Powell, A Different Shade of Coloni…, loc. 1003