Sooo… Who was it in this thread that claimed the royal family was not racist?
The Queen’s chief financial manager informed civil servants that “it was not, in fact, the practice to appoint coloured immigrants or foreigners” to clerical roles in the royal household, although they were permitted to work as domestic servants.
That’s a bit of stretch Geof to suggest that the Royal Family are racist because of some papers from the 1960’s. No suggestion here that the Queen herself or the family had anything to do with these ‘rules’.
Izzy x
Papers from the end of the 1960s that we know were still applied in the 1970s - and no evidence of their not reflecting royal policy and practice over many years. Indeed, all the evidence in this thread has been on one side, hasn’t it? The statements of various royals including the queen over the years, the links with fascism (again including the queen), Meghan and Harry’s testimony from inside, etc, etc…
The ‘that was a different time’ defence won’t wash either, I’m afraid. It’s used habitually in defence of racial slavery and colonialism - except that the true history here is that people always knew they were wrong. Read the contemporary accounts.
At the very time UK royals were giving nazi salutes right-minded Brits were out fighting fascism in Spain - many paying with their lives. Of course people knew what was right and wrong.
I was a child in the 60s, but remember them well - the height of the black civil rights movement in America, Martin Luther King’s speeches all over television, etc - and the 70s, when I went to university - Black Power, the Mangrove 9 trials, Rock Against racism, etc. etc… These were huge, dominant issues in those days - nobody was unaware of what was happening, and nobody should be excused for not knowing right from wrong in that time’s own terms.
As I said earlier in the thread, I don’t know any royals so can’t judge who’s telling the truth on that basis - but I do know whose version is consistent with all the other evidence we have. So where is the actual evidence that casts doubt on Meghan’s first-hand account?
Meghan lived in a world she did not understand and, it seemed, made no attempt to.
I find it very telling that she thought she could just waltz into Windsor for a coffee with her mother and her mother telling Meghan that she was being kept a prisoner.
This just goes to show just how little she understood her place after her marriage to Harry.
You want a lack of evidence. How does that work?
The point is that there is evidence of racism Irene. Lots of it - documentary, recordings, witnesses - and some of it does involve the royal family.
What’s lacking is any evidence for your implication that it ceased at some past time, or didn’t involve the queen.
I can’t see why evidence of this - if it were indeed true - would be lacking: some clear strong action or statement of anti-racism, for example - or a public dissociation from the clearly racist history of the monarchy - or a simple apology for racist words, incidents, policies, or employment practices in the royal household.
Megan is no stranger to power but the Royal Society is far more dynamic than any actress
Look how easily Andrew has slipped through the net. Perhaps Megan felt weak and insignificant in her Royal role.
And they’re still at it…
Yup. Quite unbelievable really.
Oh, I don’t know.
I know plenty of elderly people (younger than 83, anyway, which is how old the lady concerned is) who might say something crass like that, in the UK as well as in France.
It rather seems to have been leaped upon by people with republican ideas as yet another example of how racist the Royal Family is, when (given the speed with which it was dealt with) it shows - if anything - the opposite.
I agree. My mum (she would be 86 now if still with us) gave a cringeworthy performance while on a bus trip. There was a mixed race couple and mum kept questioning the white mother about the fact that the baby looked like the father (both were black). Like the lady at the palace mum went on a bit but the woman was very gracious and took it in good part - probably used to it. Also knew an elderly white man who had moved out of Slough because of the number of blacks (this was in the 70s). Not saying its right but I think it can be hard for people like my mum when things have changed so much. Don’t forget old white people have feelings too.
Not unbelievable at all that people of a certain age would make those kind of comments ( my grandfather used to call my brother a « clever little sambo » and that was said with great pride) but absolutely f***ing unbelievable that the palace has been stupid enough to appoint anyone, who even might say something like that, to any position whatsoever.
It just goes to show how arrogant and out of touch they are.
Meghan must be pissing herself laughing right now.
I suspect many might say something like that if their brains were failing and they had been brought up to not worry about what they said to others. The transcript on the BBC news site was achingly embarrassing, to the point where I can only imagine someone either drunk or losing their faculties would have continued in that vein for so long.
Yes - quite apart from the racism, the immense arrogance and patronising tone must have astonished and upset Ngozi Fulani - those around her couldn’t believe their ears.
Perhaps this woman’s personality had suddenly entirely changed as a result of dementia or drink without anybody in the royal household noticing, or perhaps her racism, arrogance and patronising attitudes had previously gone unnoticed. Either way, it reflects very badly on them - and certainly tends to confirm the picture previously painted by Meghan.
Oh, come on Geof, that isn’t like you.
Perhaps, at 83 years old, she’s behind the times and, having started with a version of “Have you come far?”, found she’d dug herself a hole and couldn’t get out of it. Neither you or I would have continued-or started-such a discussion, but we’re both substantially younger than her.
If it really is “immense arrogance “, then many of us here have immensely arrogant parents/grandparents/great-grandparents.
We just cut them a bit of slack.
Unfortunately in the UK, racism as demonstrated by Lady Hussey’s is not limited to the elderly.
As for cutting anyone a bit of slack - that attitude just perpetuates racism.
Or perhaps that’s because she’s spent much of her life around royal life and has never experienced real life. It seems to do a great disservice to people of her age to put it down to that when it seems much more likely to me perhaps to be about the company she has kept and the life she has lived.