I didn’t want Omid Scobie’s latest Yahoo UK column to get lost in the shuffle of the larger royal-gossip narratives of the past two weeks. Yahoo published the piece on Friday, and it’s mostly about the Susan Hussey debacle last week and how that incident reflects the larger racist and racial issues within the monarchy. Susan Hussey’s racist interrogation of Ngozi Fulani was a huge story, one which overshadowed the first day of the Waleses’ Boston trip. Then the Sussexes’ Netflix trailer overshadowed the rest of the Boston trip, and wouldn’t you know, the Netflix series is going to be about how poorly the royal establishment handles race and racism too. Some highlights from Scobie’s piece:

The Hussey debacle: The encounter was appalling but, sadly, didn’t shock many. The relationship between royals and racial sensitivity is similar to that of oil and water. Diversity at royal events sounds great, but does it work if the people there aren’t equipped to deal with it? Ms Fulani’s problematic encounter with one of Queen Elizabeth II’s most treasured aides was a reminder that little changes in the House of Windsor.

The palace couldn’t deny the incident: This time, however, with several eyewitnesses and a named culprit (“Lady SH”), there were no varying recollections to point out or comment requests to ignore. The speed at which the indisputable story spread on Twitter forced Buckingham Palace to handle the matter fast. But while their swift response may have put out a small part of the fire, bigger flames still roared. To many, particularly people of colour, Tuesday’s incident was a reminder of the countless times issues concerning race have been pushed to one side by the Palace.

The royal who made racist comments about what Harry & Meghan’s children would look like: With no royal named by the Sussexes, palace officials did their best at the time to curtail media coverage and public discussion by announcing that the accusation would be discussed “privately” as a family (it wasn’t) before new, negative stories about Harry and Meghan (courtesy of the “palace sources” being quoted) conveniently surfaced in British newspapers.

The Palace’s immediate reaction was about optics, not humanity: [Many] believe that the palace’s reaction was more likely an attempt at protecting Prince William’s long-planned trip to Boston for his Earthshot Prize ceremony — his first big overseas trip since the disaster that was his March tour of the Caribbean. But the palace’s rush to claim they reached out to Ngozi, who over a day later claims she was yet to hear a word from anyone, is a sign that the Palace may have just been thinking about optics, not humanity.

The Windsors’ problematic history: You see, the royals and racism is a long and problematic history that continues to this day. The grim jokes Prince Philip used to make about “slitty eyes” or Indigenous people were often dismissed as fun gaffes. And in the workplace itself, there was the 1968 memo against hiring “coloured immigrants or foreigners” to some roles in the palace. More recently, in 2001, a Black secretary of 10 years accused Prince Charles’ valet Michael Fawcett during an employment tribunal of calling her a “fucking n*** typist” in 1996. Fawcett went on to become senior valet to Charles. While the tribunal ruled the allegation was unproven, it should have been a fundamental moment for the palace to become more aware of such concerns in the future.

What the Susan Hussey debacle really says: Ultimately, Lady Susan is a product of the environment she served for and lived in for 60-something years. If a supposed expert in royal etiquette and diplomacy is willing to talk to a woman of colour like that in the gentile setting of a royal engagement, what’s said behind the scenes when the cameras are away?

Meghan’s connection to Susan Hussey: Previous reports have claimed that, during her time as a working royal, a “difficult” Duchess of Sussex turned down the opportunity to be mentored by Lady Susan on the “complexities” of royal life. Given what Meghan experienced within the royal institution (there are a number of claims that have yet to be aired publicly), can one really blame her for not being attracted to the offer? After all, even putting race to one side, this is the same Lady-in-Waiting who, per sources, would privately make disparaging comments about Meghan, and Princess Diana allegedly “couldn’t stand”. If in just a few minutes Hussey could make a group of accomplished and upstanding Black women feel like “trespassers”, then imagine what months of guidance could have been like for a biracial duchess.

The Windsors need to do more: Ownership of the issue needs to go further than a statement and a prayer that the story will disappear quickly. It’s time to reflect. No more false promises (remember the diversity tsar?), no more trying to silence those who speak up about these issues, no more boasting about championing diversity in the workplace (when almost zero of the staff hired are in senior positions). Face the problems, own them and—most importantly—educate yourselves.

[From Yahoo UK]

From what I remember of the reporting about Meghan and Susan Hussey, they did meet because QEII “sent” Hussey to brief Meghan on royal protocol, etc. After which, Hussey badmouthed Meghan to multiple people. Hussey is still being held up as a paragon of aristocratic breeding and manners, when really she’s just a racist a–hole who has never been told (before now) that she’s extremely tacky and horrible. I also think the theory (which I’ve seen multiple times on Twitter) that Hussey is being protected by the media so much because she was one of their favorite “royal insider” sources. As in, she’s one of the “royal insiders” regularly briefing the media on what Charles, William, Camilla and Kate really think about this or that (mostly the Sussexes). She’s not someone on the periphery of the establishment, she’s at the very heart of it.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.