The Spare Heir and his Wife…

[Belle RoseParticipant]

I’m wondering if anyone here has been following what’s been going on with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex…

I watched the Oprah interview

Saw the Netflix special interview

Been reading the news/reaction from the UK about it all, and I must say, I’m rather confused.

I am confused by a lot of things in this matter. I’m curious what other people’s reaction has been and why if you have also been following the stories.

[AutumnParticipant]

No matter how confused you are, you are less confused about it than I am. In relative terms, you are now less confused. In objective terms, I am not helping. All I know is they’ve been dominating the tabloid covers for some time, and I don’t really get why they don’t just make it into a reality tv series already. Like a ‘Real Housewives of…” type of deal.

[Simon PayntonParticipant]

I try not to follow it, but living in the UK it’s impossible not to.

Harry’s main problem with everything is that as he sees it, the UK press killed his mother by hounding her to death, and now he wants to protect Meghan from the same fate.  Apart from that, he thinks the Royal family doesn’t like Meghan, (*because she’s mixed race*) which is probably not true.  I think she was anti- the whole thing from the moment she started, because, who wouldn’t be?  Who would want to be a Royal wife?

Now it’s a case of California versus the Royal family, and it’s not a pretty sight.

[Belle RoseParticipant]

@simon

I think she was anti- the whole thing from the moment she started, because, who wouldn’t be?  Who would want to be a Royal wife?

That’s what everyone assumed about her….but if you watch the Netflix series that’s not AT ALL the case.

Apart from that, he thinks the Royal family doesn’t like Meghan, (*because she’s mixed race*) which is probably not true.

Again that’s not at all what he said 😂

He’s absolutely pissed off about the fact that his family’s safety and security had been flippantly disregarded, because of his family’s ignorance on what happened to Meghan and how it absolutely is tied to her race.

After watching both of them talk about it….I honestly came away thinking, “How on Earth could the Royal Family really be that willfully blind and careless. It baffles my mind almost as much as how Donald Trump isn’t behind bars. I do think they’re ignorant. They just don’t get it. It’s actually really sad…

[DavisModerator]

No doubt Harry is an opportunist. Having said that, I easily buy it that he and his wife were harassed, that the royal family did not support them at all, that elements of the royal family were blatantly racist (there is little doubt) and that they did nothing to protect them from the vilest media the world has ever seen (the UK tabloid press). Just look at any paper and the way they have reacted to his book (it is the vilest shit I have ever read in any press in the world) and you can understand why they did what they did (protect themselves from toxic vultures) and got out their own story. Spilling out the reality of how things work and breaking the ridiculous impossible image of the royal family is a good thing. They are a relic of an unfair time, slow to change, mired in privilege, hoarding wealth, not paying inheritance taxes, keeping crown land that should be for the people and giving entitlement to people simply because they were born away. It maintains an extremely unjust class system and it goes hand in hand with a vile and conservative media.

Good for Harry. Reading the English media and the way it has viciously acidic ally attacked a man who tried to protect his family, expose the royal family for the ticks and sneaky tactics they used and confront the nation for its underlying bigotry at all levels, is a good thing. It makes me want to support Scottish separatism even more.

[Belle RoseParticipant]

Thank you Davis. You summarize a lot of my sentiments and takeaways precisely.

It really is a shame, because I was really looking forward to seeing what Meghan could bring to “the Royals.” when they first got married of course I was super excited for them, and I remember thinking that it was going to be so awesome to see how Britain embraced her… It is so sad that they have done the exact opposite. I honestly thought Britain was not a racist country but I guess I have a lot to learn lol

[Belle RoseParticipant]

It just seems like a lot of people have made a lot of assumptions about her, and while I do agree that they are somewhat opportunistic, I also think they’re extremely smart for doing what they’re doing. Because eventually… I think I see where they’re going with all of this and it’s brilliant. Absolutely brilliant and I am 100% rooting for them. It’s just really really sad that the monarchy is doing exactly what Prince Harry says they do and saying “no comment” to everything… They didn’t have the balls to stand up for Megan and they also don’t have the balls to address the issues. Cowards

[Simon PayntonParticipant]

Belle Rose wrote:

It is so sad that they have done the exact opposite. I honestly thought Britain was not a racist country but I guess I have a lot to learn lol

The British press gives everyone a hard time.  I think the couple have to acknowledge their parts in all this.  It seemed that they (or at least, Harry) were super-defensive and prickly about it pretty much straight away.  Having said that, I wouldn’t want to cope with that level of press intrusion.  So I don’t blame them for upping sticks.

I don’t know about all the family politics.  I guess that’s their business.  The Royals should have stood up for Meghan, you’re right.  But, it’s a lion’s den at the end of the day.  Everyone gets chewed up.

[_Robert_Participant]

You would think they would welcome a new bloodline. The Hapsburg jaw is still around today.

Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip were actually third cousins. That may explain some of it, LOL. Gotta keep it unseparated.

[TheEncogitationerParticipant]

Davis,

Overall a good assessment of the Royals, although, in all fairness, there are also Tories and Libertarians who want England’s biggest welfare family to make investments, get their financial house in order, “learn to code,” and get off the backs of the Commonwealth’s taxpayers.

[UnseenParticipant]

Belle Rose wrote:

I honestly thought Britain was not a racist country but I guess I have a lot to learn lol

I think they’re behind the USA in that regard, and racism is far from extinguished here. We had a black President after all. I think the most prominent nonwhite in UK government is Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London and, when it comes to actual skin tone, he’s almost white.

As racist as the US is, we once elected a black man as President. We’ve also had blacks in many top administrative and military positions, and lynchings and race-based assaults and murders are rare enough to be news and to register outrage and disgust with most Americans.

For some reason, the UK, like other Western European countries has failed to assimilate and absorb nonwhites nearly as well as the US has, imperfect as the US is.

Anyway, this is a first for me: linking to Vogue, but here goes:

Britain Is Racist. There, I Said It.

• This reply was modified 2 months, 2 weeks ago by  Unseen.

[jakelafortParticipant]

I shall preface my comments by affirming my heretofore assault on all of humanity. Racism is all over the globe. We are as a species shockingly cruel and easily led. Those Milgram experiments are indicative of how we fold under questioning or shrink at appearance of authority even when our sentiments are opposed. Give the historical victims a chance and they become the oppressors. Blacks in power in Africa have a bad record too. And many would say history’s victims, the Jews, are a little awful to the Palestinians. Native indigenous peoples in the Americas have some shocking cruelty also. I guess i’ve conflated a few things. Meh.

England of all nations and English get a pass for their transgressions. It is the default state of Whiteness and privilege. Yeah the episode with Ireland in its famine. Read about it sometime if ya have not. Slavery goes way back in English history-to sometime around the invasion of Julius Cesar. (i am proceeding by memory) The English were big time in the Atlantic Slave trade. Yeah they abolished the slave trade and the practice a little before Murica. But that is hardly a feather in the English cap. And you must know the line-sun never set on the British Empire? That is cuz the Brits were all over the globe dividing/conquoring, exploiting with impunity with their superior navy and their stiff upper lip and fuck the natives upside down attitude. British royalty had its share of nazi sympathizers too.

And if ya read some English authors like Rudyard Kipling (fun to read author) ya get a sense of the perceived superiority of the British and its implicit justification of their exploitation of other ethnicities. And the other thing is outstandingly disgusting classism. Enough said

[jakelafortParticipant]

While a Black prez (at least half of him and perhaps the good half) does signal progress it might not be the most germane assesment. It would have been unthinkable not so long ago to have highest office occupied by a noncauc and even a non wasp was a big deal.

The bigger criteria is really how lives are impacted. Housing discrimination. job discrimination Interpersonal relationships. Stereotyping. Everyday interactions. All that shit and more..

Is it worse in UK? Idk. Do You? I don’t.

[Simon PayntonParticipant]

Unseen wrote:

I think they’re behind the USA in that regard, and racism is far from extinguished here. We had a black President after all. I think the most prominent nonwhite in UK government is Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London and, when it comes to actual skin tone, he’s almost white.

It’s true that there is systemic racism in the UK.  But it’s one of the least racist countries, from looking at the other countries.

Five of the 31 people able to attend Rishi Sunak’s Cabinet are non-white, including the prime minister.  This is down from seven out of 31 in Liz Truss’s first Cabinet.

Evening Standard

Rudyard Kipling was writing in Victorian times.  Things have changed a lot since then: we’ve lost our fabulous *empire* for one.  When I visited the US in 1989, it looked better in some ways and worse in others than the UK’s racism.

I never heard any racist talk in the press about Meghan.  I think that’s all in their heads.  We have papers like the Daily Express and the Daily Mail, which love to post stories about asylum seekers – but then their readers seem to love being frightened of everything.

[_Robert_Participant]

It’s most probable that if I myself was a Brit stepping foot off a steamship onto a land with “savages living in mud huts”; that I would have behaved any better than they. Median morality for the day.

Fast forward 150 years and if you are the First Lady and show up in Africa with the stereotypical white master safari outfit, Fuck You.

“It’s like showing up to a meeting of African-American cotton farmers in a Confederate uniform,” Matthew Carotenuto, a coordinator of African Studies at St. Lawrence University, wrote on Twitter. “Historical context matters.”

What is different about Americans is our pride in being willfully ignorant. I don’t even enjoy travel anymore because invariably you end up watching disgusting Americans loudly complain about everything, disregarding all local customs. In fact, I dislike “feeling like a tourist”. All of the great places of ancient civilizations are ruined by hordes of ignorant photo-snapping tourists trudging around in their khaki shorts and backpacks full of snacks and water bottles while checking their “to do lists”.

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