Yesterday was the sixth anniversary of the Grenfell Tower Fire, the 2017 disaster which caused the death of 72 men, women and children, and displaced hundreds of Grenfell residents, many of whom are immigrants and people of color. The Windsors did not mark the anniversary in any way. None of them did a thing. Instead, King Charles and Queen Camilla hosted a “reception” at Buckingham Palace to mark the 75th anniversary of the HMT Windrush’s arrival in the UK.
King Charles and Queen appeared in great spirits this afternoon as they hosted a reception at Buckingham Buckingham to celebrate the 75th anniversary of HMT Empire Windrush’s arrival into the UK. The newly-crowned King and Queen were joined by BBC News anchor Clive Myrie – whose parents were part of the Windrush generation and travelled to the UK in the 60s. Other high profile guests at the event included veteran journalist Sir Trevor McDonald, former Loose Women panelist June Sarpong and Jamaican-born entrepreneur Levi Roots.
For the occasion, the Queen wore a stylish button-down green-and-white printed dress by Samantha Sung. The royal completed her ensemble with a dainty gold pendant necklace and some pearl earrings.
At the historic event this afternoon, the royal couple will unveil 10 new portraits of Windrush elders. The King commissioned the pieces of artwork in 2022 when he was still the Prince of Wales. The subjects were carefully selected by the specially-appointed Windrush Portraits Committee – which was chaired by Baroness Floella Benjamin. The portraits will pay tribute to the Windrush Generation and the lasting impact they had had on the UK. King Charles is said to have personally selected Black artists to paint the portraits.
The former troop ship Empire Windrush landed in Britain on June 22, 1948, carrying people from across the Caribbean who had responded to an ad offering tickets for £28 (around £1040 in today’s money) to those wanting to work in the UK. Between 1948 and 1970 more than half a million Windrush migrants from the West Indies left their homes to emigrate to the UK.
Basically, the Windsors couldn’t do anything for Grenfell on June 14th because they were too busy whitewashing Britain’s treatment of the Windrush generation. It’s actually all part of the same thread, in my opinion.
No word on whether Susan Hussey was in attendance at yesterday’s Windrush reception. After “resigning” from her position last December, she was brought back into the fold and she attended the coronation last month. I bet Hussey was there at the palace yesterday. “But where are you FROM?”
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Photos courtesy of Cover Images.
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- Reception at Buckingham Palace in London to celebrate the Windrush Generation, and mark the 75th anniversary of the arrival of the HMT Empire Windrush. Featuring: King Charles III Where: London, United Kingdom When: 14 Jun 2023 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- Reception at Buckingham Palace in London to celebrate the Windrush Generation, and mark the 75th anniversary of the arrival of the HMT Empire Windrush. Featuring: Queen Camilla and June Sarpong Where: London, United Kingdom When: 14 Jun 2023 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- Reception at Buckingham Palace in London to celebrate the Windrush Generation, and mark the 75th anniversary of the arrival of the HMT Empire Windrush. Featuring: Queen Camilla Where: London, United Kingdom When: 14 Jun 2023 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- Reception at Buckingham Palace in London to celebrate the Windrush Generation, and mark the 75th anniversary of the arrival of the HMT Empire Windrush. Featuring: King Charles III Where: London, United Kingdom When: 14 Jun 2023 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- Reception at Buckingham Palace in London to celebrate the Windrush Generation, and mark the 75th anniversary of the arrival of the HMT Empire Windrush. Featuring: Queen Camilla Where: London, United Kingdom When: 14 Jun 2023 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- Reception at Buckingham Palace in London to celebrate the Windrush Generation, and mark the 75th anniversary of the arrival of the HMT Empire Windrush. Featuring: King Charles III Where: London, United Kingdom When: 14 Jun 2023 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
Operation We-are-pretty -much (not)-a- racist family. Grotesque. How much longer are these folks going to exploit the public image of people of color, damn.
There should be laws against such PR neo-colonialism.
Yep, all performative BS for the “we’re not racist at all” family. It’s becoming almost comical.
Cam looks like she’s either 4 sheets to the wind already or heavily medicated. Maybe it takes both to get her to stand so close to a POC,
Was the camera lighting intentionally set to make the black people’s features disappear. Just curious…
Used to be that photographers “didn’t know” how to light people of color – now, all you have to do is go to YouTube.
I don’t understand why the Palace chose the anniversary of the Grenfell fire for this reception when Windrush Day is next week.
Because Grenfell smacks of Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, and it is a paramount concern to the Royals to wipe her excellent work and memory off from the surface of philanthropic activities.
Look at Horsilla’s eyes in first picture. Looks like she is saying “look I’m standing with a black person so I’m not a racist”. What a smug look. All for show nothing more.
I noticed the name tags on people & immediately zoom back to Madame Hussey’s ‘but where are you really from?’ These people have a lot of nerve hosting these types of receptions any more, without addressing the issue of racism.
I totally missed Camilla as she is outshined by the beautiful woman next to her.
Can anyone in the know confirm but does Camilla have Botox/ Surgery Lips ?
It’s like she can’t really smile properly.
If she’s had (mini)strokes or has something akin to Parkinsons, that also affects facial expressions. To me, QCC doesn’t look like she’s had botox, surgery, fillers and the like.
If she does, it’s some really really bad work.
Hey king and queen, how’s the investigation into the 2018 Windrush scandal going? Have you made reparations to everyone dispossessed or harassed by it?
How interesting it would’ve been if Charles had himself painted those portraits. Imagine what it would be like for a white king, his wealth is based on slavery, to have to ponder and represent Black faces as aesthetically and historically worthy.
Now now, let’s not tell falsehoods. The Walses posted a green heart on their twitter account for Grenfell. Just one green heart. No words. And, okay, if you didn’t know the date of the tragedy, you probably wouldn’t be able to understand the significance of one green heart but that’s on you. They did their part. With one green heart.
God, I wish there was an upvote button. You would get so many upvotes from me.
Ha! Kinda like how they helped Ukraine by offering smiles.
Love your comment @Rawiya!
Charles looks pretty much at ease. Cam looks stiff and like she wants to pull her hand back.
This is disgusting. No acknowledgment for the wrongs? I’m sad the Windrush guests showed up because they look like they have consigned on the whitewashing. I guess some black Brits are willing to put up with ongoing racism to get an invite to BP or get on the New Years’ honours list. SMH.
Maybe they are attending in hopes of being treated fairly and not being deported?
Mind you, most of the people who were wrongful targeted by the Home Office have not been compensated yet. It would be great if Charles could put in a good word for them.
Some of them died as they were thrown out of the UK and were made homeless
Every time my people willingly pose and rub elbows with these racist asshats. I die a little more inside. I can’t for the life of me understand why they do it. Like I could never. I can’t just go wine and dine with people I know for a fact hate my color and only use me and people like me to make themselves look like very much not a racist family however at the same time go out of their way to snub two mixed race babies who share blood with them and those babies biracial mom who married into their very much a racist mafia family.Yet , here they stand and smile . How do they do it ? This colonial mentality some of my people have, I am afraid they will never let go of .
Same, Over it, same. This is performative violence. Wish BIPOC would stay away.
Well said, Over It. I can never understand why my people insist on making the royals comfortable for their performative dog whistles while they continue to marginalize us. It sickens me. I don’t get why they would debase themselves all for an invite to rub shoulders with these vipers.
Right there with you Over it! Everything you just said.
This totally comes across as KC and QCC using POC as props. I hope those invited were treated well.
Royal fashion plate Camzilla (hahahaha) looks as though she raided Keen’s wardrobe look book with that dress.
I am shallow, I guess-all I care about is that dress in the first shot worn by that striking woman. It’s slaying, and I wanna see the full pic.
Oh yes, she is a beauty and I love the dress too.
I get that people think this is performative (because it is), but would it be better if they never acknowledged POCs exist? I’ll bet the RF doesn’t give a rat’s ass for 98% of their patronages, but they slog through those events, too. It’s all performative, but at least POCs get to show their faces, and that’s a good thing for the rest of the British public to see.
“but would it be better if they never acknowledged POCs exist”
^^ Yes because these half baked attempts at inclusion and diversity are infinitely more damaging as they’re merely performative and reinforce the notion that is all I&D should be i.e. just performative.
Look at the way they treated Ngozi Fulani – they set the attack dogs onto her until she bent to their will and gave them their photo opportunity.
Charles and Camilla are the definition of living vampires.
EDIT : More would be achieved if black people repeatedly said no to these invites and stated why. Then the Palace is forced to implement real change.
This (your edit). As a black woman I find myself, in this instance, not pissed and KC and CC, but the black people who attended. Then I feel guilty for “blaming the victim,” which then just makes me angrier. So I have no further comment about it.
I love June Sarpong as she is literally the definition of a self made broadcaster – she started out doing this quirky show on channel 4 and was an instant hit.
I get that she was the diversity Czar for BBC and has some sort of CBE/MBE and so will always get invited to these events, but I wish she wouldn’t associate with the Royals. They are so toxic and give nothing back for the goodwill that people like June bestow on them via association.
The epitome of ‘window dressing inclusion and diversity’.
Are Kate & Camilla doing a version of sister-wife dressing? They were both photographed at events wearing green printed shirt dresses. It reminds me of how Kate and Sophie did their Little House on the Prairie twin look at the garden party
These people saw how this firm treated a black/mixed race woman who joined their ‘family’, how they continue to treat her; heck how THEY were treated yet they continue to allow themselves to be used as props. No black brit should appear alongside these people but the colonized mind is really a thing.
Camilla went to the smile therapist. She unnaturally, consciously is stopping herself from smiling like a horse showing all her giant chicklets at once. It’s probably the same smile doctor as kate, we don’t see her with that big azz hanger size smile that always seemed to appear for no reason at events. It’s sad that anybody would need to alter their smiles to avoid public criticism, but here I am writing this comment