Originally published at: Racist royal aide quits after remarks to black Buckingham Palace visitor | Boing Boing
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From the story:
“In the meantime, the individual concerned would like to express her profound apologies for the hurt caused and has stepped aside from her honorary role with immediate effect,”
Conditional exonerative tense? “She’d like to apologize, but she won’t, because she doesn’t think she did anything wrong. Plus she’s Wills’ Godmum, and also people used to call her this and she’s still quite embarrassed”:
Lady Hussey was affectionately referred to as “Number One Head Girl” during her time in Queen Elizabeth’s office
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This aide no doubt studied at the feet of the master of boneheaded racism.
Also, again with touching a Black woman’s hair? What is this weird obsession bigots have with doing that?
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Entitlement, low key casual racism, completely oblivious of the effect her words had on the feelings of another human being
Scum of the earth
Name and shame please
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I’ve always thought that being the king or queen of the UK should be something you win in a lottery. You get to do it for a month or so and it’s filmed as BBC One’s new saturday night reality show
Maybe the last month of each year you bring everyone back and the public votes for who gets to be king/queen for christmas
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But where are you REALLY from?
Fwiw, Asian Americans, even 4th and 5th generation ones, get that one a lot too.
In both cases, it’s an oblivious yet aggressive assertion of the stubborn centrality and power of whiteness.
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In your scenario, does the succession still require the death of the reigning monarch? That might influence scheduling the programme pre or post watershed.
The irony here is that “Fulani” is literally the name of an ethnic group, so if that was something one was curious about, it’s right there. Granted, it doesn’t tell you the specific part of Africa her ancestors came from, nor how long ago, nor the path they took from there to England, but neither did the questions being asked…
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Who would have thought that someone who chose to work for an institution that continues to insist that the UK is the personal property of one geriatric inbred aristocrat, placed there by divine right and that all power in the country flows through him due to this fact; would have some dodgy opinions about human equality?
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So I remember seeing a video making a joke about this line of questioning and went searching for it… only to discover that there are a lot of videos joking about this line of questioning, which is depressing. I did however find the specific video I was looking for:
But also found this delightful take which subverts it a bit:
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Holy hell, that’s a lot of clueless privilege wrapped up in the racism.
Black people around the world (especially but not limited to the United States) often have no idea what parts of Africa their ancestors hailed from because white slavers and colonizers intentionally erased that part of their history. Names were changed, families split apart again and again, people forced to forsake their native tongues and regional cultures and folklore on pain of literal torture.
An enduring legacy of institutionalized racism is that tracing one’s family history back more than a few generations is a privilege many people will never have.
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Or manufactured affect.
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Can they revoke her title?
That sounds like it would be fun.
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Oh, I don’t believe for a second she was clueless about that. Part of the cruelty of that line of questioning involves not only rubbing someone’s nose in the fact that they don’t know, but also reminding them why they don’t know. It’s the reason they persist with the questions until they get the answer / response that they are seeking.
Personally, I shut that stuff down fast by asking the questioner why they want to know. Also, polite versions of this work, too: 
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It’s the “I spent time in France” part that kills me.
You took a vacation and remember being in a different country? Cool. So how should this woman know where her ancestors came from BEFORE SHE WAS EVEN BORN?
I’m watching the current season of The Crown with my Canadian husband, slowly letting my mask down to show my anti-royal leanings. They were glaringly out of touch 40 years ago, hasn’t really improved since.
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In addition to all the above thoughts, why is this any of this woman’s business?
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Hundreds of years of crystallized racist privilege. She probably has a book, passed down the generations, of various put-downs and snubs like that.
“Oh I see, so you’re the hereditary help, are you? How nice.”
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I cannot help but think that this is a euphemism for something…
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