Racism Is Not A Permanent State, The British Royal Family Can Change

It’s a choice to be racist, and you can decide to no longer be one if you want

Almost all the essays and articles that I have read about Meghan and Harry’s interview come to the same unsurprising conclusion that the British royal family is racist. What’s new? Honestly, that is something that I and most other black and brown people had figured out a pretty long time ago.

I mean, think of it, they have been in power for more than a thousand years and apart from Queen Charlotte who was mixed race, in my 50 years here on earth, before Harry, I had never seen a royal date or marry a black or brown person. What is the probability of that given that 80 percent of the people they rule over in the Commonwealth are black and brown people? How come none of those blue-bloods ever fell in love with a black or brown person? The answer is simple: Because they always knew that their family was dead racist. There was no re-enactment of Guess Who’s Coming to dinner at Buckingham Palace for centuries — at least not until Harry met Meghan.

So yes, we’ve known for a while that something is rotten in the Kingdom of England. White people seem surprised, but black and brown people have known this all along. One thing that bothers me about most of these essays and articles is the strong and undisputed conclusion that once a racist, always a racist. And this is simply not true.

According to Ibram X Kendi, all individuals are capable of transforming from racists to anti-racists, and in my mind, the British royal family is no exception. They too can change. And here are a few ideas about how they can embark on the anti-racism journey.

As the leading monarch, the Queen must set a good example and put the entire family on the path to anti-racism. If I were her, I would create a task force of prominent anti-racism experts from all over the world. I’ll invite them to Buckingham Palace and ask them to teach me how to be anti-racist.

I will make sure that every single member of the Royal Family is enrolled in anti-racism classes – no exceptions. I’ll make it clear what my expectations are: No member of the royal family should ever inquire about the color of a baby ever again. If you engage in expressions of racism, you will be disowned by the family altogether – and this goes even for the future King – hint hint. I hope it wasn’t you who made those disobliging comments about Archie possible skin color William? We’re all still trying to figure out who’s the racist — with the Queen and Prince Charles now out of the pool of suspects, the list is narrowing.

As Queen, I will make sure that all the younger royals integrate playgroups with black and brown children. They need to be taught to be anti-racist from a very young age. Like saplings, they need to thrive without the toxicity of racism eating at their core.

I’ll make it a priority for them to grow-up alongside children from diverse cultures and backgrounds. There’ll be concerted and coordinated efforts between royal family members to encourage, foster, and nurture these relationships through time.

As the Queen, I would make every effort to increase the level of diversity amongst the palace staff. At present, there is not much information about the level of diversity, but my guess is, is that there is a glaring lack of ethnic diversity. Going forward, I think it would be important to hire and retain diverse talent to manage the Firm aka, the British royal family.

Given their popularity, the royal family could be very effective allies in the fight against racism. They can address real societal problems like police brutality against black and brown people and be sponsors or advocates for legislation to drive change.

In these Covid-19 times, we see a higher prevalence of mortality amongst black and brown patients. The royal family could fund studies to understand why the disease more often causes fatal outcomes in these populations. They could genuinely and not performatively support issues that relate to or are important to black and brown people.

In conclusion, I would say that the British royal family needs to realize that times have changed. If they want to continue their reign or maintain any form of relevance in today’s world, they are going to have to become demonstratively anti-racists.

With what was revealed during the Meghan and Harry interview, I believe they have a lot of work to do, and now have a perfect opportunity to address racism head-on. They can’t hide behind their palaces and Cinderella-like carriages and say that they are nonracist. While that might have worked in times long gone, it will not work today. This time, the people who they refer to as the commoners are angry. Actions will have to speak much louder and bolder than words.

Since the dawn of time, the royal family has always cultivated one big OCD-like obsession— that of its longevity. If it wants to live happily ever after, it is going to have to become anti-racist now. The commoners have demanded it and the royals have no other choice but to obey!

Thanks for reading my perspective.