Almost one month ago exactly, Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness welcomed the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge into his office. Before William and Kate even had the chance to sit down, Holness gestured to the television cameras (which were broadcasting live) and he fired the Cambridges. He fired the entire monarchy and said that Jamaica doesn’t need their colonialist nonsense anymore. It was an incredible moment in a tour full of horrific imagery from Will and Kate.
Following the Flop Tour, all of the palace lackeys swore up and down that they would learn from the Cambridges’ mistakes, and that all future tours would be less colonalist and not as horrendously tone-deaf. The test case is now, with the Earl and Countess of Wessex beginning their Caribbean tour. Originally, they were supposed to do drive-by stops in Antigua and Barbuda, Grenada, St Lucia, and St Vincent and the Grenadines. Then on the eve of their departure, the Wessexes dropped Grenada from their tour. The Wessexes and the palace didn’t explain why. Allow the Independent to explain it though:
It was announced on Thursday that Grenada has been removed from the Wessexes’ itinerary, with no official explanation as yet. However it comes days after after fresh details emerged regarding Britain’s role in the enslavement of Black people in the island nation while it was a colony. Research commissioned by the Bank of England in the wake of Black Lives Matter demonstrations in 2020 recently revealed that ownership of two plantations and 599 people was transferred to the financial institution in the early 1770s. The names of the 599 enslaved people can be viewed within the free exhibition, launched last week, at the bank’s museum on Threadneedle street in central London.
Though the Bank of England has previously apologised for its historical links to the slave trade, this insight regarding its direct ownership of Black people has caused upset among the Caribbean diaspora and, in particular, descendants of those who were enslaved under the regime which dealt in the trade of sugar, cofee and Africans.
Ambassador Arley Gill, Chairman of the Grenada National Reparations Committee, said: “this exhibit at the Bank of England’s museum in London brings home to us now — if we were not aware of it before — the exploitation of Grenada as a colony of Great Britain and its institutions, and should intensify our urgent call-to-action to every Grenadian to join the fight for reparations and reparatory justice for the descendants of enslaved people here in Grenada, The time has come for the British government and the descendants of British elites who benefitted from the enslavement of our ancestors to own-up to this heinous crime against humanity – and do the right thing.”
So Bank of England commissioned a research project into their own history in the slave trade and their business ties to chattel slavery? And then they organized an exhibition so that everyone could see them acknowledging this dark, disturbing history? Well.. on one hand, that’s an incredible self-own, but on the other hand… I mean, at least they’re not just issuing blanket denials. They’re trying to bring their f–ked up history into the light. I absolutely agree that this is part of the reason why the Wessexes dropped Grenada from their tour. Incidentally, it looks like they’ll be flying into a sh-tstorm in Antigua and Barbuda too:
Now, ahead of Edward and Sophie’s visit, the Antigua and Barbuda Reparations Support Commission has written an open letter, criticising the Royal Family for past comments on slavery.
“It has become common for members of the Royal Family and representatives of the government of Britain to come to this region and lament that slavery was an ‘appalling atrocity’, that it was ‘abhorrent’, that ‘it should not have happened’,” the letter says. “We hear the phony sanctimony of those who came before you that these crimes are a ‘stain on your history’. For us, they are the source of genocide and of continuing deep international injury, injustice and racism. We hope you will respect us by not repeating the mantra. We are not simpletons.”
The European slave trade resulted from the “wilful acts of white Europeans aimed solely at Africans”, the letter adds. “We know that the Crown ‘owned’ enslaved Africans as late as 1831, three years before the passage of the Emancipation Act. Those enslaved included our ancestors. We ask that you respect that. We know that no one today in your family was alive when the crimes against humanity were committed, (but) please do not tell us that again either – as others before you have done. We know that everyone in your family continues to live in the splendour, pomp and wealth attained through the proceeds of the crimes.”
Phony sanctimony?? Does the reparations committee understand that the Windsors exclusively trade in phony sanctimony? That is their only currency! Seriously, this open letter is so badass. Antigua and Barbuda said “don’t you bring your mealy-mouthed colonizer bullsh-t to our house, y’all better just stay home.”
PS… I wrote this Thursday evening and so much crap has happened since then, so there will be another post about it, lmao!!
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Instar.
“We hear the phony sanctimony of those who came before you that these crimes are a ‘stain on your history’. For us, they are the source of genocide and of continuing deep international injury, injustice and racism. We hope you will respect us by not repeating the mantra. We are not simpletons.”
Amazing
It truly is. I want their way with words for my own. Perhaps I’ll steal them, then colonize them, then claim them as my own and never acknowledge the source of their greatness.
You better preach!
Came here to say the same thing. Love the way that they not only pulled no punches but shut down any likely mealy mouthed utterances that palace lackeys were probably currently writing….
Edward: *looks at prepared speech*
Edward: *crumbles it slowly and sighs*
Sophie: “So should we move our tour to London then?”
It’s glorious. And will have so much more impact for pampered idiots who are used to being deferred to by crawly lickspittles.
They really need to look up “performative apology” in the dictionary, if for no other reason than to note that pictures of themselves illustrate the definition.
Countries are saying the visits are prompting them to seriously reconsider the Queen as head of state. Who knew all these 21st century royals had to do was show up in order to destroy the Commonwealth? I hope these countries start suing for reparations along with firing the monarchy.
It’s my sincere wish that the commonwealth countries all ‘nope’ out of this nonsense and then in my lifetime we ditch the whole terrible institution here in the UK too. I’m not too hopeful on the second point but the first is starting to look like more of a reality by the day.
“Who knew all these 21st century royals had to do was show up in order to destroy the Commonwealth?”
So William and Kate have some use after all? 😉😉
Re that statement from the Antigua and Barbuda Reparations Support Commission – FIRE and boy are they going to feel the burn. Love that statement. Laying down the truth. I hate that condescending bs too.
Yes. Somebody did an amazing job writing that.
Agreed. Perfection.
Lol….Sophie and Ed have been desperate for press and attention recently. Be careful what you wish for, right?
I just spit my coffee out.
Wow. That letter is something.
It also *directly quotes* PW from his speech on the recent flop tour.
The Antigua letter says:
“It has become common for members of the Royal Family … to lament that slavery was an ‘appalling atrocity’, that it was ‘abhorrent’, that ‘it should not have happened’ … We hear the phony sanctimony of those who came before you that these crimes are a ‘stain on your history’.”
What PW actually said:
“The appalling atrocity of slavery forever stains our history … Slavery was abhorrent. And it should never have happened.”
Verbatim quotes.
Yeah that was all about William’s speech. Ouch,.
Can you imagine the shame and embarrassment that a normal, non-Prince William person would feel to have their speech quoted word for word as a “here are the worst possible things you could say” example? I’m sure he’s just incandescent and raging about how “ungrateful” all those colonized peasants are, but I wonder if the anger masks some sense of shame that he feels subconsciously deep down? Because that is legit embarrassing. I’m sure he’s more like “how dare you embarrass me!” though as opposed to “I am embarrassed.”
Wasn’t that the speech where he was basically parroting what PC said though?
@equality yes, he copied what Charles said. Elegant Bill has no original thoughts or any desire whatsoever to rock the boat, but he knew he had to address slavery during the tour. So he took the safe route and copied his dad.
That letter is calling out both of them and the whole institution. It’s fun to think of the FFK’s rage over this, but it’s even more amazing when you realize the letter is calling out a man who will very, very soon become king and who is very, very invested in claiming that role. Of course Elegant Bill’s going to be upset, in a clueless ‘how date they’ way. But Charles will not be happy either, and I think he’s self aware enough to understand that institution he represents is a corrupt one (even if he’ll die to defend it).
William’s speech is an excellent example of why diversity, inclusion, and equality matter in the workplace. A group of toffee nosed twits was never going to get it right on slavery.
Catlady, so true!
@Cinders: Rarely has a royal tour sucked SO MUCH that it continued to rain acrimony, hostility and rancor long after it ended. But, God bless them, William and Kate managed to have such a tour.
That statement is brilliant and tells no lie. #AbolishTheMonarchy
That statement is everything.
“We know that everyone in your family continues to live in the splendour, pomp and wealth attained through the proceeds of the crimes.” Some more than others. Reason to be glad that H&M are out. It would be interesting if countries around the globe brought lawsuits for reparations and stolen jewels, etc.
That excerpt really nails the ridiculousness of the kate fashion parade during the tour.
+1
I mean, there’s no way the Wessexes can rescue this, is there. They should just turn the plane around and go home.
Given how painfully dull and bland they are I wasn’t expecting much entertainment value from this tour (which I can live with given how much the flop tour wildly exceeded all my expectations) but it seems I was wrong. Hurrah.
#abolishthemonarchy
I haven’t been this excited since will and Kate’s colonizer vacation tour was about to start. I figured that one would be bad and full of tone deaf, racist oopsies but it went worst that I could have ever imagined and hoped for! And now we get a tacky sequel (with cheaper, lesser actors cast as the leads) almost immediately and I couldn’t be more excited.
@amytoo
I cackled at “tacky sequel”, perfect description of this tour!
Whoever drafted that letter and whoever ultimately approved that letter for release can fight over my heart. It belongs to one or both of them.
Exactly! None of these countries asked the third string to come. BIPOC are not happy about Petty Betty having a 70 year reign bc she did a bunch of shady shit to their countries when they were trying to become independent. She is a symbol of white supremacy and unearned privilege attained on the backs of Black and Brown people. Who is running the RF, bc it seems like they’re actively trying to bring the house of Windsor down.
Omg. Citing PW. Epic.
This line:
“We know that everyone in your family continues to live in the splendour, pomp and wealth attained through the proceeds of the crimes.”
is so brilliant because in many ways that’s the crux of the problem, right? It’s what makes their apologies ring so false and hollow etc. The royals may be “sorry” that slavery happened but they act like slavery is this distant concept and dont acknowledge how slavery impacted the current world, including their own lives. And not only slavery but colonialism a a whole.
They don’t ever acknowledge where their wealth and jewels come from and how colonialism was a GOOD thing for the royal family and their wealth.
Of course these countries don’t want British royals parading around.
Yes, that really hit me too – it’s exactly the crux of the problem. Current Royals like to pretend it was an awful thing that happened a long time ago and is now over. But it isn’t over whilst they are still benefitting from its proceeds. And a description of the Royal family as one that lives, like the Mafia, “in the splendour, pomp and wealth attained through the proceeds of (the) crimes” is an excoriating and accurate observation.
Royal Family organised crime syndicate are still exploiting the Caribbean and stealing from the people of the UK by stashing their money in tax havens like the Caymans, which have that tax haven status as part of their past as colonies. Burn it all to the ground.
The parade of outfits by Kate was especially tone deaf during this tour because it was a reminder that all the expensive fashion is paid for by taxpayers or at best funds acquired by the family through proceeds of slavery and colonialism.
This is indeed a brilliant sentence! This is the first time I’ve read them called them out on this hyprocrisy publicly, and I’m loving it.
Are any of the Windsors heading towards the Sub-continent for a jubbly tour? If they do, someone is bound to mention the Koh-i-noor, and that will be fun.
The Koh-i-noor is currently on the Queen Mother’s crown, right? so if Camilla wears that same crown for Charles’ coronation it will be, uh, interesting, to see the discussions around that.
It’s what they deserve.
Ok, people in the Caribbean speak with an accent, but education in mandatory.
I really love how they included the part about how the current member of the BRF didn’t personally own people but that they do absolutely continue to live extremely luxuriously off of the wealth that came from owning people. They are not fully innocent. They prance around in stolen jewels, in couture outfits paid for with stolen money and the blood and lives of slaves. They still suck a lot.
Not surprising. Monarchists can pretend that the current generation of royals and even the queen had nothing to do with colonialism and slavery but they very well benefit from it to this day and have not talked about how all the fancy jewels they coo over came from colonisation.
Is there an example somewhere of a family or government following through with reparations to a community, government, or group of people? Is there someone out there crunching numbers of what this *could* look like for the Windsors to actually do something about this?
From what I’ve heard reparations have been made to former slave owners, for the lack of income due to the abolishment of slavery, as late as the 1970’s.
@Harla—Thank you for sharing this *shocking* fact. I’d never heard of this before and a quick Google search brought many links, but the top 4 were about these payments for “loss of property” (I feel sick just typing that) being done in Haiti (who had to borrow from France to pay the French), the UK (in 2015, taxpayers finally finished paying off the original loan taken), and the US.
Here are links to those articles…but again much more is available via Google search.
Re: UK
https://taxjustice.net/2020/06/09/slavery-compensation-uk-questions/
That article references this piece— https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/feb/12/treasury-tweet-slavery-compensate-slave-owners
RE: Haiti
https://today.uconn.edu/2021/03/there-was-a-time-reparations-were-actually-paid-out-just-not-to-formerly-enslaved-people/
RE: USA
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/16/opinion/when-slaveowners-got-reparations.htmle
@Mumzy don’t know if this is in the info you linked: David Cameron’s family / ancestors were paid reparations for the slaves they had to give up when the law changed.
Burn it all to the ground and start fresh; UK society won’t stabilize unless or until the government is actually representative of the interest of its people. That is just, like, political science 101.
Yeah, it’s the government compensating people for confiscating their ‘property’. Slave owners get compensated & the descendants of slaves get squat?
TeamAwesome, I don’t think it compares, but there is the reparations that the US made to survivors of the Japanese Internment camps in the US during WW2. I didn’t know about the US paying slaveowners until Mumzy gave the link above. Just when you think your Country couldn’t sink any lower . . .
The royal family is so obnoxious . If they didn’t want to irritate these islands further they needed to stop touring as if they are still colonial masters checking out how their property. It’s stupid to have these unaccomplished dimwits floating around from territory to territory as if it’s 1950. Even if the Caribbean never receives a dime at least they have made it known that they detest them and all that royal family represents. They are not even donating a hospital or anything but they expect these countries to use their resources to give these dummies a vacation ,
I have been to Antigua and Barbuda and it’s absolutely beautiful and the best vacation I have ever had. So after reading this letter, they will definitely be getting me to return. This letter is chef kiss
Me too! My
Family has gone several times. In fact, I went last summer. And what struck me the most is just how much the island suffered due to the loss of tourism due to Covid. Beaches where we previously ate and paddle boarded were completely desolate and trash-strewn, and restaurants closed down. If the monarchy was so invested in these islands, shouldn’t they have found some way to subsidize the people who inhabit these islands?
Well, well, well. The chickens are truly coming home to roost. The monarchy’s clock is ticking.
No punches pulled!!! Also another brutal way of saying “we don’t just want your white guilt, thanks.”
I have to wonder if these countries also saw the way the BRF treated and then ousted Meghan and decided “No thanks.” They were always going to remove the Queen as head of state at some point and many were already n the process. But “Megxit” may have hastened that process that was already in the works. And if that’s the case, the BRF has no one but itself to blame.
If we cancel royal visits to every country Britain did dirty, the royals are gonna have to Netflix and chill until the zombies come.
Even Edinburgh is out.
#RoyalFamilyFiredInEntirety. 😂😂😂
Sofiesta. Meh. Why anyone ever thought this dullard could fill the void left by Diana is beyond me.
I find the statement so moving, honest, and just.
No putting that genie back in the bottle.
As an American looking in from the outside it seems the only people who want the monarchy is the royal family and the British media. End of list.
I would add all the other titled people in the country, the aristos, etc., because the monarchy represents the whole classist system they’ve got going there.
So………..!!! I wonder if King Charles III (or King George VII as I hear he will prefer to use) will do any tours to the Caribbean during his relatively brief reign after he ascends to the throne?
I mean…….these shocking burns from Caribbean nations will not be forgotten any time soon, so what would be his purpose for coming to any C’Wealth Caribbean island as “king?” Perhaps Australia, New Zealand and Canada will suffice……..maybe.
Otherwise the royals (esp Charles) could just stop the pretense and fully embrace their middle eastern comrades. They have more in common with each other, afterall.
If they wanted to learn, maybe they should have taken some time to process what they had learned before doing another tour?
Also, this is just yet another example of how elbowing out the Sussexes instead of adapting much of their focus and mindset is just another step on the steady decline of the British royals.
No one expects the monarchy to pretend slavery happened. No one wants their bland, dishonest apologies that treat the middle passage as little more than a natural disaster that happened all on its own. Hell, I’m not even sure people really expect reparations.
What would meaningfully shift the reception would be visits that acknowledge Britain’s part in that legacy, brought it out in the open, spoke in frank times that didn’t downplay either the horrors of the time OR the ways in which that past informs the current. And from there to highlight programs, charities, organizations that work to address the systemic issues that continue today.
Something like, this is such and such farm, which used to make up x plantations run by British second sons. Today we’re visiting an indigenous community, descendants of the enslaved who worked the land. Wages are still depressed here because of these factors and here are some organizations addressing those disparities one of which we are visiting this afternoon. And also if you buy this cookbook, you can support this charity.
But nooooooo
Oh, bravo Antigua and Barbuda Reparations Support Commission. Shoot down the RF’s self-serving notpologies before they begin.
That speech should be written out in Meghan’s excellent calligraphy, framed, and given to all the royals. It should serve as a warning to never try this sh!t again.
What did they expect ? The Monarchy drove its only family member of color to the brink of suicide, and the world bore witness. The BRF can keep that shit to themselves in England.
As an American, I only hope talks of reparations for these colonies transfers to that of African Americans in the U.S.
Well said!!!!👏👏👏
Daaaaaaaaaaaaaamn!!! Alley Gill is amazing!
Righteous!