Racism and the ‘very much not a racist’ royal family
King Charles III released his first holiday card since his promotion to the British throne, which came after the death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth. The card featuring Charles and his wife, Queen Consort Camilla, reads, “Wishing you a very Happy Christmas and New Year.”
You know who probably won’t be having a happy Christmas and new year? The staff at a London-based charity for domestic violence survivors that’s been inundated with threats and abuse after a racist episode at Buckingham Palace.
“Thank you for the continued support and messages,” Sistah Space posted on its Instagram page last week. “Unfortunately, recent events meant that we were forced to temporarily cease many of our operations to ensure the safety of our service users and our team.”
Those “recent events” began last month at a palace reception. Susan Hussey, Prince William’s godmother, relentlessly pestered Ngozi Fulani, Sistah Space’s founder, with questions about where she “really came from,” Fulani later said. No matter how many times the British-born Fulani replied, Hussey, the late queen’s senior lady-in-waiting, kept waiting for a different answer. She stubbornly refused to accept that someone who looks like Fulani could be British.
After Fulani’s tweet about the incident made headlines, Hussey apologized and resigned her palace post. William’s office issued a statement calling Hussey’s initial comments to Fulani “unacceptable” and said that “racism has no place in our society.” It was a boilerplate response — racism always finds itself right at home in most societies. But that should have been the end of it.
Yet as people of color, especially Black women, know, calling out racism in a racist society is often punished as a greater sin than racism itself.
Fulani, her family, and the Sistah Space staff have been subjected to what she calls “horrific abuse,” especially on social media. But the repercussions of this racism don’t stop there. African and Caribbean women, domestic and sexual violence survivors who have long sought Sistah Space’s services, have temporarily lost a vital source of support and healing.
In 2015 Fulani founded Sistah Space to offer assistance with the cultural awareness and sensitivity that’s often lacking in predominantly white institutions — from law enforcement to social service agencies. That’s why Fulani was invited to Buckingham Palace for a reception hosted by Camilla, who has chosen domestic violence as one of her royal causes.
Yet neither the Queen Consort nor Charles or William have said anything about what Fulani and those close to her have endured after hurtful comments from a member of the palace’s inner circle. Hussey perpetuated an old racist trope. Asking a person of color where they’re “really from” is meant to separate and otherize, to make clear that the soil on which they stand cannot be claimed as their own. That same foul energy is what drove the so-called birtherism movement against Barack Obama by those who could not accept the possibility of a Black president.
Because Fulani refused to accept racist treatment and be a silent party to Hussey’s attempt to diminish her, she is being excoriated.
Charles, Camilla, and William should condemn the terrorizing of Fulani and Sistah Space. They should praise the crucial work now going undone and the communities being unserved because of racist abuse. Instead there’s nothing but silence from the royal family.
Of course, all of this is unfolding as more episodes of “Harry & Meghan” prepare to drop Thursday. It’s a multipart Netflix documentary about the prince who fled to America rather than allow the racism of the British tabloids and his own family to destroy his wife, Meghan Markle, who is biracial. The House of Windsor probably can’t stomach even more scrutiny of their family which built its empire through racist violence, plundering, and subjugation and has been increasingly called to answer for it.
“Never complain, never explain,” the royal family’s unofficial motto, has sustained the palace for decades. But accusations from Harry and Meghan and what Fulani called “an interrogation” by Hussey demand a more thoughtful response from a family accustomed to parceling out carefully curated public appearances. Blaming Hussey alone absolves the royal family as a purveyor of unchallenged white power. But Hussey’s beliefs weren’t just tolerated in the House of Windsor. They were probably cultivated there.
Right now in London, Black women aren’t getting the support they need because trolls can’t abide the fact that Fulani dared call racism by its name. This will pass, but it will leave scars. But not for the royal family. As usual, they will stay cloistered behind palace walls, dole out bland Christmas greetings, and try to shore up the crumbling myth that, as Prince William insisted last year, they are “very much not a racist family.”
Charles, Camilla, and William should condemn the terrorizing of Fulani and Sistah Space.