It’s “annual disclosure week” over in the UK, with Kensington Palace and Buckingham Palace selectively briefing the media on their income, taxes and office staff. While King Charles is committed to some modest transparency, let’s be real – until there’s a full audit of the Duchy of Lancaster, the Royal Collection and a full breakdown of staff, these faux disclosures are almost offensive. Speaking of, Buckingham Palace has released their numbers on “diversity.” If you remember, the entire royal establishment smeared a Black duchess to the point of suicidal ideation, then when she spoke about it, the palace suddenly had big plans to hire a diversity tsar to fix all of their problems. Only it looks like the big “diversity tsar” story was just a panicked, ham-fisted piece of PR, because no one ever got hired in that position. Now it seems that Buckingham Palace still has an extremely low number of ethnic minorities on staff. Shocking!
Buckingham Palace has once again missed its diversity target for staff, with the number from ethnic minority backgrounds remaining at 9.7%. The King’s household had set a goal of 10% for the end of 2022. It has now introduced a new target of 14% of all employees by 2025.
The Prince and Princess of Wales’s household, however, has 16.3% of staff from an ethnic minority background, with the Kensington Palace figure up from 13.6% last year.
In the UK, around 18% of people belong to a black, Asian, mixed or other ethnic group, according to the 2021 Census data.
The percentage of ethnic minority staff in royal households was published for the first time in 2021 in the wake of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s accusations of racism against the royal family in their Oprah Winfrey interview.
In November, the royal household faced a a public outcry after Lady Susan Hussey, the late Queen’s lady in waiting, repeatedly asked a black British charity leader where she “really came from” at a Palace reception. Lady Susan, who quit her role in the household, later met and apologised to Ngozi Fulani, founder of the charity Sistah Space.
This year’s Sovereign Grant report on royal finances showed that a new Inclusion and Diversity strategy and action plan has been implemented, supported by a specially formed working group, offering education resources and learning programmes.
A Buckingham Palace official said of the diversity figures: “I recognise we are not where we would like to be and we are committed to making progress in this area. And hence why we’ve raised the target to 14% having got close to our 10% figure. We now need to set out the scale of our ambition to really make headway in this space.”
Buckingham Palace said just over 12% of senior household roles or non-executive directors on the Lord Chamberlain’s Committee were from ethnic minority backgrounds.
OMG, they formed a committee in lieu of hiring a diversity tsar!! And the committee was 88% white!! I’m sorry if y’all knew that already, but it’s news to me and I cannot stop laughing. THEY FORMED A COMMITTEE!! They gave it a special name and everything, Lord Chamberlain’s Committee. And after very careful consideration by this almost entirely white committee, they decided that they should really hire some ethnic minorities at some point, then the committee adjourned and no one was ever hired! Anyway, keep in mind that the Susan Hussey debacle happened because Queen Camilla wanted a photo-op with a bunch of Black women at a palace event, only there was no diversity tsar around to stop the queen’s lady in waiting from being a racist a–hole! But it’s all good, don’t worry, Susan Hussey is still getting invitations to the coronation and Ascot, crisis averted! Don’t worry about Camilla having lunch with a racist misogynist like Jeremy Clarkson either, it’s fine!
Photos courtesy of Cover Images.
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- Camilla Queen Consort Hosts Reception At Buckingham Palace Sophie Countess of Wessex, Queen Mathilde of Belgium, the Queen Consort, Queen Rania of Jordan and Danish Crown Princess Mary during a reception at Buckingham Palace, London, to raise awareness of violence against women and girls as part of the UN 16 days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence. Featuring: Camilla Queen Consort Where: London, England, United Kingdom When: 29 Nov 2022 Credit: Kin Cheung/PA Images/INSTARimages.com/Cover Images **North America Rights Only**
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- Camilla Queen Consort Hosts Reception At Buckingham Palace Sophie Countess of Wessex, Queen Mathilde of Belgium, the Queen Consort, Queen Rania of Jordan and Danish Crown Princess Mary during a reception at Buckingham Palace, London, to raise awareness of violence against women and girls as part of the UN 16 days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence. Featuring: Camilla Queen Consort Where: London, England, United Kingdom When: 29 Nov 2022 Credit: Kin Cheung/PA Images/INSTARimages.com/Cover Images **North America Rights Only**
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- King Charles III and Camilla, Queen Consort during a visit to Liverpool.The royal couple will meet with key partners involved in both a two-week cultural festival that will run alongside the Eurovision contest, and Eurolearn, a Eurovision-inspired education programme for primary and secondary pupils. Featuring: King Charles III and Camilla, Queen Consort Where: Liverpool, United Kingdom When: 26 Apr 2023 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- Queen Camilla meets Khadijah Mellah winner of the 2019 Magnolia Cup during a visit to The British Racing School in Newmarket, Suffolk, to mark their 40th anniversary. Over the past four decades it has trained thousands of people and equipped them with the skills to excel in Britain’s second biggest spectator sport, horse racing. Featuring: Queen Camilla Where: Newmarket, United Kingdom When: 01 Jun 2023 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- Reception with authors, actors and lovers of literature attending the inaugural Queen’s Reading Room Literary Festival at Hampton Court Palace. Featuring: Camilla Queen Consort Where: London, United Kingdom When: 11 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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- King Charles III leads members of The Royal Family on his first Trooping the Colour, the monarch’s official birthday parade Featuring: King Charles III and Queen Camilla Where: London, United Kingdom When: 17 Jun 2023 Credit: Dutch Press Photo/Cover Images **NOT AVAILABLE FOR PUBLICATION IN THE NETHERLANDS OR FRANCE**
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- King Charles III and Queen Camilla attend the annual Order of the Garter Service at St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle, Berkshire. Featuring: King Charles III and Queen Camilla Where: Windsor, United Kingdom When: 19 Jun 2023 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- King Charles III arrives to attend the annual Order of the Garter Service at St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle, Berkshire. Featuring: King Charles III Where: Windsor, United Kingdom When: 19 Jun 2023 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- Annual Order of the Garter Service at St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle, Berkshire. Featuring: King Charles III, Queen Camilla Where: Windsor, United Kingdom When: 19 Jun 2023 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- Annual Order of the Garter Service at St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle, Berkshire. Featuring: King Charles III Where: Windsor, United Kingdom When: 19 Jun 2023 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- King Charles III and Queen Camilla attend the opening day of Royal Ascot at Ascot Racecourse along with other members of the Royal family Featuring: King Charles III, Queen Camilla Where: Ascot, United Kingdom When: 20 Jun 2023 Credit: John Rainford/Cover Images **NOT AVAILABLE FOR PUBLICATION IN THE UK**
This is a total joke!
Why do we still have a monarchy in Britain?
Apathy and a deeply entrenched system legally designed to protect itself.
Today on The Onion
It does sound like The Onion! But then, the British monarchy is the living embodiment of The Onion.
What type of positions are the minorities in? Gardeners and back of house servants? If they are found at all levels, it equity and diversity. Otherwise, it’s window dressing. What minorities by percentages are employed? I want the data..
That’s what I wondered as well. Are the POC all in lower level jobs? I don’t trust that they’re giving good opportunities to minorities.
I expected the “Diversity Czar” to be Lady Susan Hussey. And it well might be.
I’m honestly surprised they could find 12%. Wonder who they are counting as a minority. The UK deserves so much better but these are the people who were baited into Brexit so maybe they do deserve what they have.
Exactly. “Minority” can mean so many things, as we’ve seen on other threads here, where people deliberately revert to white +X, as opposed to nonwhite +/- anything.
I want to see a breakdown of the positions these people hold! Are they all “below stairs”? As records show that until the 70s that’s the only positions that were held by people of colour??
They are counting the white Irish, Scottish and Welsh employees, I bet.
That was my first thought too Roo! They’ve probably hired someone like me (and counted me twice as I’m half Irish and half Ashkenazi Jewish).
They absolutely are, and I believe the report from a previous year also included Polish and other Eastern European employees in the diversity figures as well.
Yeah, you have nailed it, Roo. How depressing, only England could claim that Irish, Scottish, and Welsh people are “others”.
Bingo.
Ethnic not racial diversity.
I know I keep banging on about this but. it makes me so angry that they haven’t followed through with their promise to hire a diversity tzar. It looks as if they really don’t think they have a problem. The fact they think diversity is solely about ethnicity tells me that they haven’t got a bloody clue what they’re talking about and need a diversity tzar ASAP.
I still find it hard to believe they interviewed three candidates and found all three to be unsuitable. That tells me that there was either something wrong with the sifting process or they were offering below the market rate for the position. There’s also the possibility that one (or all) of the candidates interviewed listened to what the interviewers were telling them about the role and decided against it. To have made the interview all three candidates would know what the job SHOULD be entail. I believe the palace(s) didn’t really understand what it would mean to hire a diversity tzar and didn’t like the expectations/questions put forward by candidates who had worked in diverse workplaces.
Most, if not all, of the ethnic minorities at the Palace work as servants, that’s why there’s no breakdown of the positions in the report.
Queen Victoria had Muhammad Karim as a trusted advisor. She was more enlightened than C and C. The Royals are actually encouraging racism with attacks on Meghan, refusal to acknowledge Archie andi Lilibet and their embrace of Hussey. They’ve become the problem. Either they do an about face or get pushed aside.
The fact that Queen Victoria was more enlightened than the current monarch shows just how low the bar is set. And still Charles can’t get over it.
No, he can’t. C&C are simply terrified of having POC near them within any setting. The fact that they have openly accepted Hussey back into the royal fold speaks for themselves. It’s the same with W&K as well. Unless you are there to clean or carry their luggage keep your distance.
Who is Eva Omaghomi — whose position I’ve seen described as Director of Community Engagement? I saw pictures of her at the coronation, and wondered if her role actually represented a positive baby step forward, an actual effective position, or mere window dressing.
She was a member of Charles comms team (never the head) and then she was given this special title after the Oprah interview. Make of that what you will.
I’m guessing window dressing? They probably told her her job is to make them look like they care.
I’m confused. The article doesn’t say that the Lord Chamberlain’s Committee is the “working group” assigned to diversity. The Lord Chamberlain’s Committee already exists – maybe it’s in charge of the working group? It’s worth noting that the LCC is 88% white, but that doesn’t mean the working group is also 88% white – it might be 100% white or…100% white
Yes. I thought that too. Ethnic minority backgrounds doesn’t equal not looking white. For instance, of the 12% number how many are people who are Muslim or Jewish? Because of religious belief, they’re people who fit the minority background brief but aren’t necessarily immediately, externally, identifiable as other
Good catch, Eurydice. I didn’t see it.
This committee and KP’s “minority report” proves the Oprah interview and Spare have done significant damage to the BRF and rightly so. The Windsors will only do the bare minimum.
So on-brand.
For those who think they are just clueless.
Think again this is the messaging.
They want their core supporters to be reassured that they don’t give a rat’s a** about “this stuff”.
In the same vein as having Lady Susan Hussey up front and centre at Ascot.
Buckingham Palace is located in London. Not reaching 10% ethnic diversity is absolutely appalling. To give an idea about the population of London: https://www.ethnicity-facts-figures.service.gov.uk/uk-population-by-ethnicity/national-and-regional-populations/regional-ethnic-diversity/latest
KP’s numbers aren’t exactly anything to write home about either. There should also be a breakdown on how many senior positions are filled by POC. And they also need to do this for gender as well.
The diversity czar will never materialize. Ever.
Racist white people see absolutely no reason to change. Because “recollections may vary”, they prefer to change nothing and instead, vilify the victims of racism. Didn’t Pegs publicly declare that racism bored him? That’s how they all feel. They want to carry on as usual and they expect us POC to shut up and put up.
These two are actually repulsive and an affront to everything decent.
Crucially, they don’t mention the part where they insisted on a royal exemption from anti-discrimination legislation as recently as 2014, and have shown zero signs of changing this. Until they remove that exemption, all of this is performative crap and they’ve no intention of pulling back on the blatant racism at any time.
Because that’s what diversity means to them: only 12 percent people of color. But that’s still a lie. When they got Duchess Meghan as the 1 person of color in their family, they collapsed, had tantrums, screamed, lost their minds, said and did terrible things and still can’t leave them alone now that they found a sanctuary in California. F-ck them with their fake diversity. They are only happy with 100 percent white people. They are white supremacists all the way. Lying liars who lie.
I feel existing employees were offered a free ancenstry or 23 and Me test. If their DNA came back as any percentage not white, they were counted as “ethnic.”
I had one of those tests done. It showed I was less than 1% SubSaharan Africa. There wasn’t enough to specify it any further. But bet your bottom dollar they would have counted me as ethnic.