[3] The term "hotep" was originally used among Afrocentrists as a greeting, similar to "I come in peace",[6] but by the mid-2010s had come to be used disparagingly to "describe a person who's either a clueless parody of Afrocentricity" or "someone who's loudly, conspicuously and obnoxiously pro-black but anti-progress".
This belief stands at odds with the mainstream and scholarly understanding that ancient Egypt was a diverse civilization consisting of people of various skin tones and backgrounds, including those who were indigenous to the Nile Valley and those who came from the surrounding deserts and regions, such as Libyans, Nubians, Greeks, and Arabs, to name a few.
[2][4] Commentator Matthew Sheffield wrote in 2018 that "a significant portion of self-identified hoteps have so much in common with far-right white nationalism" that the subculture "has been dubbed the 'ankh right' by some of its black critics" (a play on the term "alt-right").
[11] In the 1930s, hotep ideology originated in the Islam-inspired teachings of Wallace Fard Muhammad, a door-to-door salesman and founder of the American black nationalist organization Nation of Islam.
[4] Claiming he was the incarnation of Noble Drew Ali, Muhammad "borrowed from traditional Islamic behavioral practices" to create "a myth designed especially to appeal to African Americans".