After Ngozi Fulani disclosed the painful interaction on Twitter, King Charles III moved quickly to expel Lady Susan Hussey from the royal households.
The timing couldn’t have been worse for Britain’s royal family, coming on the heels of a racial crisis involving Prince Harry and ahead of a fresh media push from the outspoken “spare heir.”
Prince William, Harry’s elder brother and heir to the throne, has had to split ways with one of his godmothers after she used racially inflammatory words to a black British woman at a royal function on Tuesday.
After the bitter interaction was disclosed on Twitter by Ngozi Fulani, King Charles III moved quickly to dismiss Lady Susan Hussey from the royal household – all while William and his wife Kate were travelling to Boston.
When Hussey began questioning her about her roots, the Fulani from the United Kingdom claimed she tried to give the 83-year-old courtier the benefit of the doubt.
“But it rapidly dawned on me that this had nothing to do with her capacity to comprehend,” the charity advocate, who works with domestic violence survivors, told BBC radio on Thursday.
It is the most significant squabble since Charles took over for his mother in September. Hussey was no ordinary courtier; she served Queen Elizabeth II for six decades.
However, she was abandoned abruptly as Charles and William moved quickly to draw a line under the controversy, gaining praise from some black observers.
Shocking’ –
Diane Abbott, the first black woman elected to the House of Commons in the 1980s, said it was “very upsetting” that a black Briton’s identity should be questioned in this way.
She did, however, tell Times Radio that Buckingham Palace had made “progress” on racial issues in the last decade.
The palace appears to have learned its lesson, particularly after Harry and his mixed-race wife Meghan accused an anonymous royal of prejudice in relation to their pregnant child last year.
Then William said, “We are not a racist family.” However, the family stated that the situation will be handled “privately.”
The royal household has also begun publishing data on the ethnic breakdown of its workforce, admitting that it needs to do more to ensure fair representation.
However, from their new home in California, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have portrayed themselves as modernising outsiders attempting to challenge a regressive elite.
Ironies abound when the fighting brothers each find themselves on the East Coast of the United States – with no intentions to meet.
In Boston, William will present an environmental prize inspired by former President John F. Kennedy’s “Moonshot” goal in the 1960s.
Next week, Harry and Meghan will attend an awards dinner in New York hosted by Robert F. Kennedy’s human rights charity.
Meghan vindicated?
Kerry Kennedy, his daughter, said the pair will be honoured for taking a “heroic stand” against “institutional prejudice” inside the British monarchy.
For their detractors, Harry and Meghan are cashing in after leaving the royal family. A new Netflix documentary is on the way, and the prince’s book “Spare” will be released in January.
Until the Hussey controversy, UK public opinion had been moving against them. When Meghan joined the family, the lady-in-waiting was tasked with teaching her royal protocol, a position Hussey she performed for William and Harry’s mother, Diana.
According to one biographer, Meghan turned down the offer.
“The repressed horse laugh you can hear rising from California is the noise of a duchess trying not to cackle ‘I told you so,'” former Commission for Racial Equality director Trevor Phillips wrote in The Times.
The dispute erupted in the same week as fresh statistics from the 2021 census confirmed that Britain is more racially diverse – and less Christian – than ever before.
Charles has a lifetime dedication to multiculturalism and religious tolerance, and the government is led by Rishi Sunak, the country’s first prime minister of colour.
“A worldview that colour codes British identity is not only repugnant and antiquated, it is obviously racist,” Phillips continued.
As William and Kate go to the United States, the UK royals are embroiled in a fresh racial feud.
