King Charles’ Caribbean tour began on Tuesday. He arrived in the Bahamas and immediately did an “inspection” of the honor guard and sat through a welcome ceremony. While the British press keeps saying that this is Charles AND Camilla’s tour, Camilla did not join Charles in the Bahamas. She’s not going to join him until he goes to Antigua for the Commonwealth meeting. I find Camilla’s absence pretty notable, and not in a good way. The message, I feel, is that the whole-ass queen consort DGAF about Caribbean countries and/or Black folks.

Charles also gave a speech and spoke about slavery. Part of the “hype” for this tour is that Charles has to walk a fine line between “acknowledging that slavery was bad” versus “not apologizing for slavery whatsoever.” This is how he threaded that needle:

The King will directly address the “great suffering” caused by the historic slave trade in the Caribbean. Speaking within two hours of landing in the Bahamas, the King will celebrate the country’s culture while recognising that some of it was “born out of darkness”.

Addressing the Future Bahamas Youth Rally, he will acknowledge that the issue of reparations will be raised at next week’s Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM). The King is expected to say more on the subject in his opening address at the summit next week. A palace spokesman said the King wanted to “engage, understand and educate about the most shameful aspects of our past”.

During his eight-day tour of the Bahamas, Guyana and Antigua and Barbuda, campaigners are expected to put pressure on Britain to apologise for its involvement in the historic slave trade and pay reparations. Activists are planning demonstrations on the streets of Antigua when the monarch arrives. Last week, the secretary-general of the Commonwealth said that an apology for slavery “wouldn’t hurt” and that the “time has come” for a discussion on reparations.

On the road to the youth rally, around a dozen protestors held signs saying “Pay us what you owe us” and “Reparations now”.

The Government has already ruled out paying reparations, while the King will stop short of apologising for Britain’s role in the slave trade. Speaking at Clifford Park, which he last visited in 1973 at a ceremony for the country’s independence, the King will say: “Some of what is best in Bahamian culture today – the most joyful, the most hopeful, the most bright – was born out of darkness. It is only right that we should acknowledge the great suffering of the past, in these islands and beyond, even as we rejoice in the successes of the present and build new opportunities for the future.”

[From The Telegraph]

The argument against King Charles apologizing for slavery and/or making real reparations is that the British government wants no part of any of that “woke nonsense” and there’s no political appetite for it across all of Britain’s political parties. The argument for Charles apologizing is that he’s done his own thing and disregarded political guidance before. I would also argue that Charles is being poorly advised here, not just by Downing Street, but by his own courtiers. People Magazine even platformed some commentary about how Charles is adhering to this BS status quo in dealing with these issues, and yet there’s a path for more substantive change and a real acknowledgement for what British imperialism did to these countries.

Photos courtesy of Cover Images.