There is no question that America is a racist country. There is institutional racism across the board, and we just went through four years of absolute hell with an openly white supremacist “president,” who was supported by an ignorant, racist, misogynistic cult. But… the majority of Americans agree that we’re a racist country and we talk about it openly and we acknowledge and call out systemic racism. We have thorough national debates and conversations all the time about race and racism. Which makes it so f–king weird to cover the current royal-racism/media-racism stories. People in Britain – white people – are so bumfuzzled by the very idea of simply having a national conversation about modern racism, institutional racism, systemic racism. Those white people are just shutting it down, or acting like “being accused of being racist” is somehow worse than actually being racist. And now those same systemically racist institutions are being silent as the grave about this new YouGov poll.
A relative majority of ethnic minority Britons believe the royal family is racist, a YouGov survey revealed. The poll found 43 per cent of non-white voters believe the family holds racist views, whilst 27 believed they were ‘very much not a racist family’, as Prince William recently stated.
A survey of the wider population found that on the whole 55 per cent of the UK believes the royals are not racist, with 20 per cent of the opinion that they are, The Times reports.
The poll, conducted days after Prince Harry and Meghan’s interview with Oprah Winfrey, asked 504 people from ethnic minority backgrounds whether the UK should ‘continue to have a monarchy in the future’ to which 43 per cent said yes, but 40 per cent opted for an elected head of state instead.
Almost half, 49 per cent, of those asked said they believed Prince Harry and Meghan had been treated unfairly by the royals. While 24 per cent said they had fair treatment.
Anthony Wells, director of YouGov, told The Times: ‘Our polling of ethnic-minority attitudes suggests the royal family need to mend some fences.’
He added that there was a negative perception of Charles and Camilla among ethnic minority voters, the Queen, Prince William and Kate, ‘all have strongly positive ratings’. The survey found 67 per cent of non-white voters thought positively of the Queen, the paper reports.
I always trash reporting based on YouGov polling because the numbers and methodology always seem so suspect. But now I kind of wonder if YouGov only polls white folks 99% of the time and then with this specific issue, they were like “well, let’s find some non-white people, I guess.” If you want me to take these numbers seriously, I would say that most British ethnic minorities are fine with the Queen but they believe the institution is racist and they think Meghan was probably treated pretty poorly. Here’s the thing though… why are so few British outlets covering these latest YouGov numbers? Usually the polling is like “do you think Kate is perfect and white, yes or hell yes?” And the “polling results” are featured on many royal reporters’ Twitter feeds, complete with snide comments about the Sussexes. So… are we gonna get that same energy with this poll or nah?
The YouGov survey found many adults from ethnic minorities share the concerns voiced by the Duke and Duchess of Sussex in their recent interview with Oprah Winfrey https://t.co/S8cvMkauTs
— The Sunday Times (@thesundaytimes) March 27, 2021
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid and WENN.
how in the hell can you verify if someone is a minority in an online poll?
Just saying ethnic minority screams racist to me… this is the term we as BIPOC are trying to get rid of . we aren’t minority , we are insignificant ….
So yeah this just confirms that salty white island is racist too. Nice Try
This!!!!! I bristle at the word. But it proves they have so much work to do. It reminds me of how Meghan McCain recently said that commonwealth countries like Nigeria and India are filled with minorities….like what?!
Language matters
@Nina Simone – Are you f’ing kidding me?!? I cannot keep up with “My Father” McCain and her … everything.
I live in a “majority minority” area and it’s weird when people outside of here talk about the demographics.
@Nina Simone…in those countries there are many groups of people with different languages and cultures who feel marginalised.
Most Brits would rather die than admit being racist. Most ethnic minorities know there is no use in complaining about as they would be gaslighted to death. Most saw how Meghan was treated. The fact that she refused to accept it was an affront to the press and to the racists. The RF by its very nature sits at the very top of the British class system which is why it’s the the most racist. This class system needs the lower strata of black people, especially black immigrants to serve as objects of hate, blame and distraction for the working classes. This is also why Meghan fulfils that role as an object of hate and distraction for any bad news the RF or government want to bury.
And I am not a fan of BIPOC myself because being Black is definitely not the same as being another non white ethnicity, since they often too joint the racist white people in anti Blackness. I would much prefer if everyone not be blanketed under one term. That might work for LGBT or other organizations but it actually works against us as Black people and at the end of the day, every non white ethnicity/race that has faced racism has the right to stand on their own and speak their own truths without being lumped in with us.
But overall I get it.
Let’s not kid ourselves, most Americans also think being called racist is worse than actual racism. It’s why things had to get so far.
Hopefully this reckoning will spread over the pond as well.
most *white* Americans. . .
We need to start speaking, explicitly, about who the problem is whenever and wherever possible. As long as white Americans are the default (and the term “American” is applicable to them) and everyone else is [ethnic group] American or other, then the specific behaviors (and associated harms) of white American people (and the influence of the white supremacist system) remains hidden and nothing can be done about it.
They took this article down for several hours soon after they first published it and then put it back up. I wonder what pressed the royal klan so much that needed changing.
I will never understand supporting a monarchy in 2021, especially one that include racist old Nazi Phillip and the rest of these inbred assholes.
Elizabeth is the only monarch most people in the UK have ever known. They may regard her fondly, but I wouldn’t mistake that for support of the monarchy.
They are really doubling down on their racist nonsense over in the UK. They aren’t fit to lead any kind of commonwealth of nations. If the commonwealth survives at all, the leadership should not be British. The powers that be really want them to stew on their little island, cut off from world trade and world engagement. They’re starting to sound a lot like North Korea.
Supposedly U.K. is not racist according to a new government study published today.
Yeah the report is complete garbage.
UK has got gaslighting down to an art. I feel bad for people of colour living there. It’s mentally exhausting.
I’ve encountered that on Twitter. The whole “shut up about our country. Were not racist. You’re American, you had ‘race riots’ over the summer, not every country is as horrible as yours.”
True. But yours is! At least we have conversations about it Sometimes these conversations go horribly, sometimes they turn acrimonious but once in a while someone is reached and a light goes off. When one of the MAGA bleat “there is no racism, it’s an invention by antifa to divide us but oh look at that black guy looting a store instead of that white guy going to shoot up a black church” there’s only agreement in the echo chamber.
The news we get over here in America makes it seem like the UK is one big echo chamber with no dissenting loud voice saying well maybe something just might be wrong. I really hope it’s just filtered wrong over here. But at least we got rid of our racist head of state and stripped him of official powers. UK is stuck with theirs until she dies.
It is fishy to me too. I would say the numbers are very off. I’d argue that way more “ethnic minorities” (hate the term, but for the sake of argument will use) believe the royal family is racist and that H&M were mistreated. Maybe it is because I frequent more liberal websites so take this with a grain of salt, but it appears practically all young British minorities side with H&M and see the royal family as racist.
As for general social media, like Instagram, the “minorities” that don’t side with H&M tend to be men or the older generations. Many men, of any race, argue that Meghan is using Harry and just a lot of other misogynistic crap. It gets really gross. Also, it seems to be that even among minorities, it is the older generation that favors the Queen, and W&K because they believe those two seem to behave well for the Queen (don’t get me started on that argument).
You don’t really know that anyone on the internet actually is who they claim to be so how do they verify their results. I have seen people outed on Twitter for using a model’s portrait for their page.
Not even the Royal Correspondent for the Sunday Times retweeted this poll and she’s a person of colour.
Did not understand about the negativity towards Charles & Camilla unless ii is not about racism and about Diana.
I am not saying that Charles is free or racism but I still view Chucky as the least racist of the bunch.
Charles is also the one who seems the best informed about issues and he and Camilla seem to actually care about their causes.
I’ve concluded that white people just don’t get what being called racist means. We think we’re automatically being equated with nutbars in white sheets with torches and blood in their eyes. For the average pretty decent white person, it’s mostly about ignorance, and a lot of that is unconscious. We don’t get that being called racist is a long-overdue request to look at ourselves and our own personal histories. It’s there white people…guaranteed. Just go deal with it already.
You would think though, given how much exposure the Royals have to other cultures and their long history of colonizing countries where the people don’t look like them, not to mention an entire corporate institution that’s supposed to be keeping them abreast of current events, that somebody would have pointed this out to them by now. They are supposed to be an example to their people of how to be better. Megan and Harry just keep offering them opportunities to prove that they really are, and they just keeeeep faaailing.
@Valerie Came here to say something similar but you explained it very clearly. I’d also add that racism is in the laws and history of countries that displaced or ruled POC and profited from disparity of opportunities.
Any white ppl who benefit from being white — or who don’t face the barriers & inequalities that racialized people do — are benefiting from racism.
All white ppl should read White Fragility, and everyone should read How to be an Anti-Racist.
Usually the polling is like “do you think Kate is perfect and white, yes or hell yes?”
Oh my god, I didn’t expect this and laughed so hard. Kaiser, you are both a poet and a machine gun. Your writing, your takes, your choices of photos are all amazing!
The British basically set up systems of slavery and genocide all over the globe but are going to pretend that they don’t have structural racism themselves. Please. The level of gaslighting is insane.
Look at what the Germans and Belgians got up to in Africa and then we’ll talk. Many African nations aligned with the British to avoid these far, far worse options and join the “safety in numbers” approach against much more racist and murderous European powers. I mean, come on …
I didn’t get it when younger, but I get it now, most or significant number of humans need to be impacted by a thing for them to understand that thing. One of the reason that disability rights and homosexuality are actually making better strides than say racism, or even sexism is because anyone can be a homosexual, or have a disability, that’s understood by most people NOW. Only women can experience sexism, only minorities can experience racism. I know that anyone can experience bigotry, but racism is a different animal, it’s a system, a structure where historically only one people group holds the power. That people group does not face racism, so many don’t know what it feels like and for those within that group who lacks empathy, they cannot recognize what others are experiencing.