In the summer of 2020, there was an absolutely surreal moment for the royal family. That moment came as Black Lives Matter protests/marches were happening across the world. There was a huge BLM demonstration in the heart of London, and white supremacists violently clashed with BLM activists. It was a chaotic scene. At the very same time, miles away in Windsor, Queen Elizabeth sat in the Windsor Castle courtyard and watched an abbreviated military parade for Trooping the Colour. She had a lil’ birthday parade while the people of Great Britain were desperate for acknowledgement of their legitimate grievances.
Around the same time, Omid Scobie pointed out that other than Harry and Meghan, no member of the British royal family would say one g–damn word about BLM. Not even a general statement of support or an acknowledgement or anything. This silence has continued past that moment in June 2020. Prince William has made it abundantly clear that he only cares about racism IN FOOTBALL, and Charles… well, who even knows. Now Sir Ken Olisa, “the first black Lord-Lieutenant for Greater London,” says that don’t worry, the Windsors are totally pro-BLM. Mmm, okay? All evidence to the contrary.
The Queen and the Royal Family are supporters of Black Lives Matter and ‘care passionately about making this one nation bound by the same values’ as the anti-racism movement, Her Majesty’s most senior representative in London has revealed. Sir Ken Olisa, the first black Lord-Lieutenant for Greater London, said he discussed the topic of racism with members of the royal household following George Floyd’s murder in the US and the protests which subsequently engulfed western societies.
Asked by Channel 4 News if Buckingham Palace supports BLM, Sir Ken said: ‘The answer is easily yes…. I have discussed with the royal household this whole issue of race particularly in the last 12 months since the George Floyd incident. It’s a hot conversation topic. The question is what more can we do to bind society to remove these barriers. They [the royals] care passionately about making this one nation bound by the same values.’
Sir Ken made the announcement while being interviewed for a programme for Black To Front, a Channel 4 initiative produced by an all-black presenting and reporting team. His interview will be broadcast at 7pm on Friday.
During the Channel 4 programme, Sir Ken also said the Queen had sought his advice after the Grenfell fire on whether to visit the site of the tragedy. He said he advised the palace to go, but added: ‘I remember thinking as it all happened, it was quite scary, we didn’t know whether she would be booed or have things thrown at her etc and when she got out of the car all these people applauded.’
I feel bad for Sir Ken because I know he’s just doing his job and I know he was sent out to say these words. And that’s all it is, in a nutshell – rather than actually do the work of speaking to the needs of the multiracial, multiethnic, multifaith British society and embracing inclusion and diversity in real ways, the Windsors asked a Black guy to go out there and embiggen them. It’s not even like the Windsors are a chaotic neutral in the conversation about racism – they are actively racist, and actively performing and symbolizing racism and colonialism.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid.
They care about Black Lives Matter like I care about Kate and William’s lives – very little.
Actions speak louder than words and look how they treated the only black member of the family. Enough said.
They’re desperate to deflect from andrew and his mess. That is the only reason they even come up with this nonsense
Using BLM as deflection is just so amoral which of course is right on brand for the BRF.
@sure: well… it worked to an extent. People are mocking lizzie instead of talking about andrew. I mean it dropped the same day as the story that andrew was fleeing to balmoral to stop being served the legal paper work.
I’m sorry but “Lizzie” needed mocking. That kind of nonsense cannot be allowed to go unanswered. Prince Pedo’s bad press is coming too, but the royals can’t just keep using Black people as fodder.
“I have discussed with the royal household this whole issue of race particularly in the last 12 months since the George Floyd incident. It’s a hot conversation topic. The question is what more can we do to bind society to remove these barriers. They [the royals] care passionately about making this one nation bound by the same values.”
This sounds to me like they care about BLM because it’s a “hot topic” that is dividing the country and making them uncomfortable, and they want it to go away so they can unite the country under one set of values: their values. White supremacy, aristocracy. Like they “care”— as in they think about/worry about—BLM because it’s making people fussy and giving people thoughts above their station, and they want that to stop, but they don’t *support* BLM.
“Royal household” seems the key here – because, as far as I can tell, that’s the administrative staff of the RF, not the RF itself. I don’t for a minute think he sat down with TQ, Charles and William to have a “hot conversation” about race.
@Amy Too That was my first thought as well. This sounded carfully worded so the public are suppose to think it means they aren’t racist. They want everyone to stop talking about this, because it spotlights their old fashioned racist values. If they actually were debating what they could do to stop racism, the very least they could was put out a statement in support for BLM. They chose silence. Sometimes silence speaks louder than words. Both when it comes to BLM and public support for Harry and Meghan.
😂🤣🤭🤮🙈😵
Sorry guys, I used the emojis to convey how I feel about this latest offering of tripe from the House of Windsor.
It’s just so gross. They abused a Black woman to the point she was suicidal. They are racist to the core.
How is it possible that the RF still have no idea how the interwebs work? They seem to have no grasp that what they say and do lives on in perpetuity. The public sees and hears them and we don’t forget. They are no longer isolated in their Ivory Towers. We see them, we hear them, and they show us daily who they are. Their continued lies only reinforce just how little they care for anyone who is not them.
They still think they are fine as long as the tabloids are on their side.
You’re right. Maybe they think social media is a passing fad rather than the Thunderdome it actually is. I am just amazed at the total ineptness with which they have surrounded themselves.
Thank you for telling the truth. They must think all of the people buy their BS. They are a bunch of half breed twits for sure
The royal family supports BLM? “Recollections may vary”.
YES.
LOL
Well said, Harla. And may I just add “so performative.” Just look at Charles in the picture after the Oprah interview. The man who did nothing to help Meghan during & after her pregnancy all of a sudden surrounds himself with Black British citizens — to the point where he leans even closer to this older woman DURING THE HEIGHT OF COVID no less, just to show how very much not racist he can look. We believe you, Chuck. We believe. Now leave that woman alone. (PS: I LOVE the expression on her face).
Yes, black lives matter so much to them that they helped drive their black family member to the edge of suicide. Too little, too late.
They still don’t realize that it would be over for them if Meghan had actually committed suicide.
They would have steamrolled over that and gaslit her memory and painted it as something totally unrelated to them.
They would have covered it up, and put another cause of deat in the papers. Then they’d praise her and make a whole bunch of statements about how close they were, how they loved her etc. They would have milked it for years.
BLM to the BRF only when it suits their own best interests.
There was a young Black woman, a family member no less, and they have shown her life did not matter nor does it now. So to tell the world BLM is all BS.
And I am editing and adding that this statement coming from a white man would have been a mockery and this statement coming from a Black man is an insult. They would be better served to SHOW the world BLM. Rhetoric that suits their narrative by a Black man is just another way they show anyone other than their “own” are seen only to serve them and their interests.
So if they cared about Black Lives Matter, we wouldn’t need to ask the Lord-Lieutenant for Greater London. We would know the royal family cared about it because they would have said something. We would have seen some sort of action on there part. And before people say “they can’t be political” and the “they don’t speak out about every social movement out there” – okay, but that’s part of the reason why younger generations think they’re out of touch and useless. I also know that part of their whole deal is being unchanging and steadfast and all that.
But even so – had they understood the protests, if the royals actually felt that black lives DO matter and not just as props, they would have said or done something to show that a year ago.
Right? They cared so much that they said f-all during the protests when Black Brits were being gaslighted by the media. Anyways, we know how passionate they are about black lives. We’ve seen their home decors.
Sir Ken also went out there after the Oprah interview to refute Harry and Meghan’s accusations of racism in the Royal Family so he’s doing his job as required. I don’t feel sorry for him because he’s playing an active role in upholding white supremacy. I think his comments about Grenfell and the Queen asking for advice were even worse. A true leader doesn’t hesitate when there is a national disaster and given that most of the people who lived there were black and brown, it shows that the Queen’s and Palace’s fear of people of colour and that they only cared about how she will perceived instead of offering comfort to people in distress.
I thought the Grenfell comments were weird too, especially in light of Meghan’s work with the community. “We weren’t sure if the Queen should go because we thought they might boo her, but they applauded her, so it shows that the royals aren’t racist” – was that the point behind it? If so, it doesn’t make the queen seem very strong or stoic, she was so afraid of being booed she almost didn’t go to a disaster in her city?
Meanwhile Meghan is actually working with the women and interacting with them and coming up with projects to help them.
@Becks: The Queen and her family are cut off from the real world and see people of colour as people that they should fear. I remember when William and Harry went down there. William looked very uncomfortable and even though he promised to go back to Grenfell and he never did. I suspect that the Palace disapproved of the work Meghan was doing at Grenfell.
The statement about fear of being booed makes sense if you know that the royal family’s “work” is only performative. They think, Why should I go to this place if I won’t get a good photo-op from it? Why bother?
Amy Bee, of course he was uncomfortable, a woman of color deigned to hug him. I will never forget that photo, and how it was used by the royal family as a way to humanize him because he “broke royal protocol” and hugged her back. I would be shocked to ever see him anywhere near Grenfell again.
Yep. This man chooses to shuck and jive for his white masters to undermine the biracial family member the Windsors psychologically tortured so she and her baby wouldn’t stain the family bloodline with the “wrong ingredients.”
Fuck him. I hope Hell is truly hot.
Great post Amy Bee. He was in the Fail dismissing Meghan’s experience as an in-law based on his own as an employee & saying H&M got context wrong like he was there. He was one of a few black/mixed race ‘friends’ the royals deployed to do their ‘we’re not racist’ dance after Oprah which to me made them look even more racist & out of touch to be so tokenistic.
It’s funny that he’s been sent out to say this rather than them saying it directly. The jubilee PR is underway! Im guessing they are worried about the U.K. youth who are more likely to be socially conscious (as Robert Lacey said they don’t know how to do woke & woke isn’t going away) as well as Commonwealth countries replacing Brenda as head like Barbados. Also think this is to appeal to the US market- with Biden in not Trump the royals are probably trying to get aligned with similar values rather than MAGA.
Clearly they used Ken rather than speaking through press buddies for credibility to the left leaning types but also to have plausible deniability for the monarchists who are very upset and alternately blaming Ken for speaking out of turn or Harry and Meghan’s influence.
The royal brand is a bit messy at the moment as they leaned hard into traditionalists/white supremacists to get rid of Meghan but they also want that younger crowd that she attracted to secure their future. That’s why they have someone claiming they support BLM, Camilla is talking about women journalists in Afghanistan & importance of women having a voice (even though posters here said the royals wouldn’t be able to talk about the situation in Afghanistan) & William is out on world suicide prevention day when experience of their family member is that they don’t care about these issues.
I thought the Grenfell comments were very telling too. Disappointing as I respected Brenda & Will’s visit at the time. I remember Teresa May staying away from talking to Grenfell residents out of fear & I thought the royals were great for showing how it’s done so pity to find out they were so concerned about their image & not just comforting the survivors they had to be reassured about reaction in order to go.
I found it very ironic that Camilla was praising the journalists for “fighting for truth and justice.”
@Amybee “A true leader doesn’t hesitate when there is a national disaster… they only cared about how she will be perceived instead of offering comfort to people in distress.”
Why am I suddenly reminded of George W flying over New Orleans in 2005?? You are spot on with this.
It never fails to amaze me how image-conscious the royals are on one hand, but then how utterly bad they are at actually projecting a positive image on the other hand.
How are they caring? Didn’t we just here yesterday that the keenbridges children are made of the right stuff/white stuff. So how are they really caring about black people when all their actions show us otherwise. Does Harry and Meghan black children have titles yet? No , but I thought you cared about black lives.
Miss me with this bullshit.
@ ABritGuest, I agree with your support of Amy Bees translation of bringing out their one-sole POC to campaign on behalf of the RF, TQ and their distorted views for showing support while solely basing TQ’s visit as an opportunity to boo her. That’s not how heads of state, or government, show their compassion or offer their support to those who are suffering greatly. Ken is apparently their spokesperson to prove that the TQ, and the rest of the RF, truly care about POC because he IS a POC!! Including his ridiculous claims/lies that TQ asked for his “advice” as to whether she should appear or not, as if TQ has EVER asked as to what she should do!! Kens defense of the RF and TQ regarding their inactions regarding BLM and the Grenfell residents is nothing but a ploy to excuse their horrendous inactions, while trying to change the narrative. In addition to this atrocious PR campaign, Kens sole purpose it to change the history to the glaring inactions of every RF member regarding BLM, Grenfell victims and all POC in Britain and the CW. As for the abhorrent statements that Ken is spewing about Meghan, and her treatment and the tremendous smear/hate/racist campaign against her is utterly disgusting and defenseless. Ken wasn’t living through one entire day of what Meghan, and Harry, had to endure from the public, the RR, Lambridge smear/hate campaign, and more importantly, the inactions of the Royal family to put an immediate stop to ALL of it.
Don’t forget, when she was a young Queen, and the mining disaster happened in Wales, (Aberfan) which buried a school with over 120 young children and teachers, SHE DID NOT SHOW UP THERE!! Took EIGHT DAYS before she deigned to show her face “for her subjects”. She gives *no* f*cks until she is MADE to, and then it’s only a tokenism.
https://www.history.com/news/elizabeth-ii-aberfan-mine-disaster-wales
Wait. What?
The only thing they care passionately about is themselves. As far as they’re concerned, they are the UK – everyone else is part of the landscape.
Well said Eurydice.
What’s British for Uncle Tom?
Uncle Sir Thomas.
Didn’t Mike Tindall say out loud, “I don’t support Black Lives Matter?”
Recollections may vary.
Also, something something “woke” something something.
The royal family hides behind a black man who sings for his supper. Sure, they support black lives matter. So long as those black lives aren’t part of their own family.
Yeah, there is a lot of re-posting of Mike Tindall’s statement on Twitter.
So, in this case Mike Tindall (whatever that is) is saying “Recollections may vary?” That’s great.
It’s only 75% lie. BRF cares enough about black lives in that it wishes for them to continue to live for the sole purpose of giving them cheers for breathing. Oh and pay that tax to buy Keen more buttons. Other than that, POC don’t even register a third thought.
Yeah, more than a year after the BLM protests began, the Windsors are just now keen to care deeply about it, or at least try to co-opt some of it. The modern royals have a super secret plan to fight racism! This is either incredibly cynical or incredibly stupid, help me decide.
And there’s something…odd…about a plan to fight racism that centres around “making this one nation bound by the same values” which sounds an awful lot more like colonialism and assimilation to me. Cuz I’m pretty sure when they talk about being bound by “the same values”, we can understand that to mean “their values”. As if the problem is just that “those people” don’t understand “our” ways, but not to worry, we’ll actually be doing them a favour by showing them the “right” way. We certainly don’t have to change!
Maybe that’s not how it was intended, but as a Canadian in 2021, that’s how it hits me.
Let’s hear her say it then…
IKR??!!
Maybe start with a heartfelt, public apology to Meghan and for all the racist actions and things they have said. Harry apologized for his actions. The others are not too good to apologize.
Huh? If they’re so passionate and feel so strongly about it, why haven’t they don’t anything for it since the last 12+ months? Should have just kept their mouth shut.
It’s interesting that I haven’t seen royalists talking about Sir Ken’s comments. I’m trying to figure out what that means. I remember them trying to link tweets made by the Princes Trust and Heads Together about BLM as coming from Charles William and Kate but that was nonsense. As for what Charles thinks about black lives not much when he let his black daughter in law and grandson be hounded out of the UK. He was definitely one of the royals who had concerns about how dark Archie’s skin colour would be and he didn’t fired Michael Fawcett when he racially abused a black secretary at CH. I have no doubt he was one of the Royals who thought Meghan was acting above her station.
Ugh. Even if they did speak with him about race and put up some superficial front bc they were talking to an actual POC, they then went back to their white protection circles and didn’t think about it again as they simultaneously wondered if Archie’s skin color had deepened in California. Now they also have to worry about getting booed the next time they visit America. As they should. They should be booed and there should be protests in the street. Like hell any royal should visit here again. But I can’t speak for florida so….🤷♀️
I literally just laughed out loud when I read this headline. The BRF has done NOTHING to support BLM. They are assuring their downfall by continuing to believe that the public is too stupid to realize that they are full of it. While Sir Ken is busy Uncle Tomming, the rest of us are watching the BRF continue their actively racist behavior – even (especially) towards the one family member that is a person of color. They need to flip the pages on the calendar to 2021. That old playbook of theirs is obsolete. Their obstinance will lead to their extinction.
” Their obstinance will lead to their extinction”
Works for me
Sorry Windsors you can’t put the toothpaste back in the tub. Recollections may vary? Well receipts are plenty.
So they sent out their one Black friend to say they care about BLM, but none of them could say so with him? Okay then.
How did the courtiers and the royals think about the victims of the Grenfell tragedy? They were afraid. That tells me all I need to know.
Sure, Sir Ken, we believe you. Just like we believe the Keenbridges plan to “focus on diversity moving forward”. Maybe Sir Ken is the one who talked the palace out of hiring the ” Diversity Czar”. After all no need to actually do anything about your racist practices if you are having “passionate conversations” about BLM. This is all in response I believe to Omid’s book or maybe just his interview where he said Meghan and Harry have seen “minimal change or effort” in that area since the Oprah interview. I bet that comment stung some folks because its true, lol.
I guess it must be equally frustrating and lucky that the average person in the UK is so uninterested in the rf that this can be said and no one cares or notices that it is completely false.
I’m sorry but I never bought that Brits are “uninterested in the rf” crap. They may not discuss them every night, but NOBODY, no sane person, volunteers their tax money in perpetuity to already rich people (who are unrelated to them) unless they completely support them.
To be fair, they do seem fond of Saudi millionaires who are prepared to give them lots of money – does that count?
They care as much about Black Lives as they do about the Windrush generation. They can back the way all off, and then back off some more. Then again they’re good at back pedalling.
(please take this in the anti-colonial, anti racism way it is intended)
The Queen: How could they say we don’t care? We do charity work to make those poor heathens’ lives better. Of course we care, we throw pennies their way a few times a year.
I don’t even think they support ‘All lives matter’ the White resistance to BLM. Only their lives matter, as, in, all flags must be flown at half mast within ten minutes of the queens death. The represent the state in term of thanking and supporting workers who are first line front responders but as a family BLM just is not on the radar.
This is the second time they’ve trotted this man out for nonsense in the past six months. I’ve followed the BRF for years now, and in all that time I’d never seen Sir what’s-his-face until they authorized him to run interference after the Sussex Oprah interview. Someone on another forum called him “their puppet” and I laughed about it for a good fifteen minutes.
This is a shame and a disgrace.
But it’s become crystal clear in the last few years that more than anything the members of the BRF are extremely sheltered. That’s what’s so gross about all of this. The royals and the people in charge at the palace go out of their way to limit their contact and knowledge about the world around them. It’s 2021, they have access to all the money in the world, they could visit any corner of the globe they wanted to, they could call any expert in the world on the phone, and they choose to…do absolutely nothing. They don’t even *pretend* to care about anything outside of their immediate social circle.
Bollox!
You bet Lizzie.
So we’re supposed to just uncritically take this bloke’s word for it, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary? Yeah, nah.
Making the token black guy have to defend the silent white family basically confirms that they do not in fact believe that Black Lives Matter.
At minimum they should have openly denounced when the BBC guy compared Archie to a monkey. He was their nephew, grandson, great grand son. But they were silent. More was said about baby botox than that clearly racist comment.
The queen’s rep. said that? How cute. I see the Windsors are still engaging in that age-old custom of actively participating in raping foreign lands of people of color, continuing to treat them poorly during the modern day, advocate to be declared exempt from diversity laws, ignore monstrosities like Geo. Floyd murder, ect. as they are happening and then, when the demonstrations have cooled off, declare themselves “very much not a racist family.” I guess, now they are “very much not” against BLM. They are SCUM.
So, rather than soiling my eyes, or giving the Daily Fail clicks by going there, I hovered my cursor on their name above to get the story’s title. It’s odd the way the Mail’s title entirely attributes the first Black Lord-Lieutenant, a 3rd party’s BLM statement, to the queen and Windsors, as in the Windsors support BLM, says who? So, the royal family doesn’t have to do anything on behalf of diversity, the BM will gladly credit them for enlightened, modern behavior. This incident reminds me of W & K or Charles’s habit of being photographed with people of color when things get rough. They are just using people of color for their own benefit, and the BM enables that.
#AbolishTheMonarchy #AllOfThem #IncludingTheUSAHereditaryPoliticians
So, hey, were we discussing bringing back Le Guilloti__?? *looks innocently
They’re in “cue emergence Black friend” mode. Ugh! This is disgusting.
Why would she be booed at Grenfell? She didn’t clad the tower block. Honestly, Olisa’s attempts to create his narrative is all to transparent.
She could not even support Meghan and instruct the media to leave her alone.
That old hag cares about BLM about as much as she cares about Virgina Guiffre, which is to say — not much.
@ kaiser “I feel bad for Sir Ken..” oh please don’t. This is the same guy who ran to daily heil to dismiss the racist attacks on meghan & cclaim that Britain has no racism problem. He’s a known palace lacky with no self respect or loyalty to his fellow POC so I wouldn’t be quick to defend him.
The Windsors are finally realising their losses and how their silence was taken as approval of status quo seeing as its a institution built on subjugation & colonisation which played a key role in the slave trade(whi h they profit from till today). No amount of paid articles like these can erase that and the longer they’re seen as bullies the more they distant themselves from the majority of the public. I expect that they will try to arrange something with H&M be4 the end of the year or leak it to cover for Andy’s trail
I swear Meghan must have really suffered the few months she lived with them. So, so, sad I actually teared a little. They must have really tried and for them to pack up and move around the world to another continent shows the extent of it. You wouldn’t believe we are living in the 21st century.
This is borderline mocking and disrespectful. Who exactly is this statement for? No one believes this and their actions speak way louder than empty words.