Churchill was a racist, as indicated by the tag made by a supporter of the movement Black Lives Matter on the pedestal of the famous bronze statue located in the heart of London, in Parliament Square ? This same question is now news regarding the british royal family, especially queen Elizabeth II.
in The Uk, taken today in the turmoil of the death of the Afro-American George Floyd, the question of the attitude of the monarch towards diversity is no longer a taboo subject.
A “magic circle” 100 % white
In fact, to hear the anti-racist associations, the ethnic minorities are poorly represented at Buckingham Palace. Composed of the ladies of the company and advisors, the “magic circle” of the court is 100 % white. He had to wait until 2017 for the sovereign to choose his first squire black, lieutenant-colonel Nana Kofi Twumasi-Ankrah, a native of Ghana. The commander-in-chief of the armed forces has long been reluctant to open the regiment of the royal guards to the military from the antilles or from the indian sub-continent. The first officer black was hosted in 2007, after a campaign muscular prince Charles. In his Christmas speech, very listened to, peeled, analyzed, the queen has never denounced the discrimination or xenophobia, despite the many racial riots caused by police brutality.
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The Palace says she is the victim of the mode of functioning of the families-caribbean or asian. Listen to it, the parents prefer to see their gifted children to choose professions, the media, or the traditional public service, considered to be more hospitable. Remains that, rightly or wrongly, in the eyes of the children of immigrants of color, the royalty is still seen as a bastion of the old imperial order, white-anglo-saxon-protestant.
A queen view as to the past
” I’m conventional “, like to repeat the queen, aged 94 years. Conventional, and proud of it, as well as its detractors. In their eyes, it is a sovereign, strict, conservative, in the soul, which undergoes the changes of society instead of anticipating them. They denounce a personality behind the times, venerating the usages established, and considering that any innovation disturbs the existing system which has proved its worth.
In addition, some of the members of the royal family have been accused of rude comments vis-à-vis minorities. Princess Michael of Kent was asked, during a dinner in a restaurant new-york fashion, a group of Black people seated and boisterous ” return to their colony “. As for the own husband of the queen, prince Philip, he had to laugh at the expense of the Chinese for their slanted eyes. The queen has not obliged the wrongdoer to make amends.
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the defenders of the monarchy, highlight the marriage of Harry and Meghan, to begin by the tone that is multicultural to the bridal ceremony may 19, 2018. The head of State has welcomed with open arms the american actress, divorced and métis, which allowed a better anchoring of the monarchy to the diversity. The couple has attracted a young public, plugged in, which is hard to identify with the three traditional pillars of the reign of Elizabeth II, the army, the clergy and the aristocracy.
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Not opening for the hard core
But the critics have a beautiful game to highlight that Harry was only sixth in the order of succession to the throne and had no chance to reign. Beyond their symbolic value, this wedding had no impact on the institution dynastic as such. Indeed, under the aegis of the sovereign, the monarchy is focused today on the hard-core, Charles, the heir to the throne, William and his eldest son, prince George.
In fact, racially, Elizabeth II lives a paradox : to be ideologically favourable to the decolonization process, it is marked, like all his generation, by the memory of the empire in which she grew up. She accepts the multicultural society of uk, but don’t understand it. A misunderstanding that she shares with the “petits Blancs” of the kingdom, in support of the traditional monarchy.
The new generation of Windsor, however, is more open to multiculturalism. Prince Charles has focused his charitable work on improving the plight of disadvantaged young people of the ghettos. Prince William has complained of the lack of figures from the immigration in the cultural authorities and sports. Not to mention his younger brother, Harry, who married Meghan, the daughter of a White and a Black.
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