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Megan Markle’s fabulous wedding to Prince Harry was, for many, a belated modernization of Britain’s most famous family. Almost three years later, the Duchess of Sussex’s accusations of racism in the royal family and the media made their mark on the show, reflecting the truth about blacks and other minorities living in Britain.
The two spoke of racist comments in the British press during their interview with Oprah Winfrey last week. Complaints that led to the resignation of the head of the UK Publishers Association after he refused to admit there was a problem.
Megan’s claim that a member of the royal family had expressed concern about the color of her unborn son Archie had no effect. Instead, royalty was on top of the culture wars that erupted after the Black Lives Matter protests last summer. Even British Prime Minister Boris Johnson denies that the UK is a racist country, ignoring the evidence of what many black Britons have experienced.
British commentators have questioned the validity of his accusations.
“We don’t know exactly what was said, we don’t know how it was said, we don’t know who said it. The only context we can give this story is, frankly, made up of our own fantasies and prejudices,” wrote columnist David Aaronovich. in the center-right British newspaper Times. We have to fight hard against this. Intentions matter, context matters, facts matter. If “feelings” are all that matter, then in the end, all of us, each of us, are potentially lost to someone’s emotional intensity. “
Last week, Prince William told reporters that the royals are “certainly not a racist family,” days after the Palace said “memories of what happened vary,” but that serious allegations will be addressed. inside to the family. The palace hired an outside law firm to investigate allegations that Megan harassed royal staff.
This is not a normal family
Under normal circumstances, “you can draw the line and say it’s a personal family affair,” says Halima Begum, director of the Runnymede Race Equality Brain Trust, “but royalty is not a normal family.”
His matriarch, Queen Elizabeth, is the head of state of the United Kingdom and of 15 other countries in the British Commonwealth, an association of 54 countries, almost all of which were previously under British rule. The monarchy’s role at the heart of the British community means that the institution represents 2.4 billion people, most of whom are not white.
The monarchy is beloved in Britain and even beyond, but it is also the most recognizable symbol of whiteness and imperial nostalgia in British society. “Born to rule the white elite, he is encrusted with riches and jewels stolen from his former colonies,” Kehinde Andrews, a professor of black studies at Birmingham City University, told CNN. “It is disconcerting that someone is surprised by the questions that arise about the skin color of the couple’s baby, given the importance of whiteness in the image of the monarchy.”
Ignoring the accusations, royalty missed the opportunity to grapple with this deep problem with the sensitivity that was needed. “It is the kind of speech in modern Britain that we should not tolerate,” Begham said.
Royal protocol dictates that the family stay away from politics and avoid expressing their political opinions. The race is apolitical, thinks Begham. “It is a basic human right, so the royal family must publicly address racism in the same way that other organizations do,” he said.
The monarchy must unite the country when it comes to race. “If before they weren’t talking about racism or its role in the empire, now they have the opportunity to do so. These talks should not break families, nations and monarchies, on the contrary, they should make them stronger,” Begham said. explained.
Colonial amnesia
Prince Charles acknowledged Britain’s role in the slave trade at a conference in Ghana in 2018. However, the royal family remained largely silent on the role it played around slavery and colonialism, although its ancestors supported and benefited from both.
In the 16th century, Queen Elizabeth I supplied slave trader John Hawkins with his own ship “specifically for the purpose of capturing Africans off the coast of West Africa,” according to an article in the UK National Archives. Later members of the crown invested heavily in the slave trade.
As for colonialism, the East India Company, granted by Elizabeth I in royal statute, acted as agent of the empire in India and other parts of Asia, where it occupied territories, enacted laws, and defended its assets by military force. In India alone, economist Utsa Patnaik estimates that Britain confiscated the current equivalent of around $ 44 trillion from the country between 1765 and 1938, roughly 15 times Britain’s GDP for 2019.
“Obviously, it would make a big difference if India’s huge international profits were kept in the country. India would be much more developed, with much better health and social welfare,” Patnaik told the Indian financial daily Live Mint in 2018.
However, a 2020 poll found that nearly a third of Britons say the empire is something to be proud of, while 33% say the colonies developed better because they were part of the empire. Experts say these attitudes reflect British colonial amnesia, which has had an effect on non-white communities in Britain and abroad.
A 2019 study from the University of Oxford found that job seekers who are black or Asian in the UK face similar levels of discrimination in the workplace today as they did in the early 1970s. According to the In the study, applicants with Pakistani and Nigerian names must submit up to 80% more applications than their white counterparts before receiving a callback.
“Colonialism was monumental because it shaped the rest of the world and was, to put it politely, a massive redistribution of wealth and assets and sustained the development of racial ideologies that are still with us today,” explains Corinne Fowler, professor of postcoloniality. literature at the University of Leicester, he told CNN.
Fowler said it was important for people not to reject complaints of racism and discrimination because they were based solely on “feelings”, when in fact there was a lot of evidence showing that people of different skin colors face serious differences in the UK.
The first step in addressing these mistakes, say activists and protesters in the Black Lives Matter movement that swept the country last summer, is to provide a more complete and honest picture of Britain’s colonial past. According to them, this story is not reflected in the country’s museums, heritage sites, or school programs.
Strong resistance
Some MPs and commentators stopped attempts to be honest. In a letter to The Telegraph in 2020, a group of more than 60 conservatives called The Common Sense Group asked Culture Minister Oliver Dowden to review the funding of the National Trust.
His alleged crime? He published a report last September that recognized the links between his estates and colonialism and slavery. The Common Sense Group was particularly concerned because one of the houses cited was Chartwell, the villa of former Prime Minister Winston Churchill.
The former military leader who led the British military fight against Nazi Germany is a great source of national pride. Johnson even wrote a biography of him. But research also suggests that his policies have at least partially caused famines and claimed more than 3 million lives in India.
History must not be sanitized or rewritten to suit Snowflake’s wishes, lawmakers said in a letter to the report, which noted Churchill’s opposition to Indian independence and that he was prime minister during the Bengal famine in 1943. ” The clique of powerful and privileged liberals should not be allowed to rewrite our history in their image, ”they added.
The Thracians, which sparked a heated debate in the conservative press about political bias in academia, led to a National Trust investigation by the regulator, the charity commission, which found that the group did not violate any charity laws. In response, the head of the National Trust, Hillary McGrady, said she will “continue to take a comprehensive and evidence-based approach to history.”
“There are so many things to be proud of in our history,” he wrote on the National Trust website. “It is certainly a sign of trust, integrity and pride that while we can celebrate and enjoy history, we can explore and acknowledge all aspects of it.”
The charity’s conclusion didn’t come until Fowler, who edited the report, became a target for the trolls. The Leicester University professor continues to be the victim of the tabloid press. “I can no longer walk alone,” she said, due to the number of death threats she has received in recent months.
The same is true of other scholars and writers who study imperialism. Journalist Satnam Sangera received thousands of obscene tweets after the publication of his book “Empireland,” he told The Guardian last week. Andrews, a professor of black studies, has seen an increase in online attacks against him since the launch of his book, The New Age of Empire, in early March.
“There are risks of disproving the widespread story that key figures like Churchill or the empire were the good powers,” Andrews told CNN. “There is a profoundly changed version of history that is needed to mask the racism that continues today, so there is an almost total inability to accept the past,” he added. “The reaction is a defense mechanism to keep the nation calm in its delusions.”
All of this coincided with the ruling Conservative government, which was waging a culture war, lighting the flames of polarization in an attempt to significantly retain its new majority of voters. The Conservative Party can retain power in the upcoming 2024 elections by campaigning on socio-cultural rather than economic issues.
Authorities have introduced a controversial police bill that critics say gives police and ministers more power to stop protests and specifically mentions “monuments,” a clear reference to the public attack on Churchill statues and traffickers. of slaves damaged during BLM protests. If accepted, defamation of a statue could result in a maximum of 10 years in prison.
Humor changes
Moods are changing, as are demographics. A survey found that more than half of 18-24-year-olds believe the country is racist, compared with 22% of 55-75 year-olds. Several polls after the interview with Winfrey showed sympathy for Megan and Harry, who were again divided into age groups. Those aged 18 to 24 predominantly hold a positive opinion of the partner, while the majority of those over 65 do not like them.
“A lot of young people just don’t understand why public institutions and leaders are not more anti-racist in general,” Begum said, adding that calls for institutions to conform to their history and structural biases are getting stronger.
And, as we have seen in recent weeks, the monarchy is not immune. As heirs to the throne, Prince Charles or Prince William will not have the appearance of belonging to an older generation, Begham said.
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