There’s the thing in the UK, where victims of racism are treated as if they’re culpable in their victimhood. Take for example Ngozi Fulani, the founder of Sistah Space, who was invited to attend a reception at Buckingham Palace, only to face a racist interrogation by Baroness Susan Hussey, QEII’s former lady-in-waiting and some kind of emeritus snob in King Charles’s court. Instead of establishing that Hussey was unquestionably in the wrong and that Hussey was a symptom of the larger racism issues in the royal court, the royal establishment immediately turned on Ngozi Fulani. Yes, Hussey was wrong, but it’s Fulani’s fault because of the way she was dressed, or because she was too sensitive, or because she didn’t show the proper respect to an ancient racist a–hole, or because, you know, Fulani is Black. I bring this up because the British media is still framing this controversy as an issue for which Fulani must say something or allow Hussey or the Windsors to abdicate their responsibility. There’s an insane amount of tone-deaf white privilege at every level of this story. Speaking of, look at how the Telegraph framed a new statement from Fulani:
The domestic violence campaigner at the centre of a royal race row has said she will go to Buckingham Palace to raise awareness of “cultural competency”. Ngozi Fulani, 61, said she was willing to go to the palace if it would help create positive change and “save lives”.
The charity director revealed last week that she had been subjected to an “interrogation” about her origins at a palace reception by Lady Susan Hussey, a former lady-in-waiting to Queen Elizabeth II. Lady Hussey resigned from her post as lady of the household for “deeply regrettable” comments about Ms Fulani’s background. Buckingham Palace said it had since made contact with Ms Fulani, while Lady Hussey is said to be keen to apologise directly. However, it is unclear whether any specific arrangements have been made.
In a statement released on Monday via her charity, Sistah Space, Ms Fulani revealed that since the incident had been brought to light, she and her team had come under “immense pressure” and received “horrific abuse” on social media.
“What took place at the event is now well-documented, and sadly is something that occurs on an all too regular basis,” she said. “Incidents like this not only cause emotional harm to those involved but do also have wider repercussions within the community. I have experienced first-hand what happens when a black woman faces adversity and has to overcome additional barriers when trying to report it. This is at the heart of what we do at Sistah Space, and it has reiterated to me just how important the work we do is. I remain dedicated to raising awareness around cultural competency, and will go to Buckingham Palace, or anywhere else, if it will help raise positive change and save lives. It has been an emotional whirlwind and we now wish to take the time to pause, reflect and learn from these events.”
Fulani: what’s happening to me in the media and online is what happens to Black women every day when they report crimes, abuse and racist acts against them. The Telegraph’s version: Fulani says she’s going to fix royal racism, whew, that was close, you guys! Anyway, Fulani had every right to report what happened to her and she has every right to continue to speak about it.
What’s reprehensible is that Buckingham Palace lied about contacting her and then the palace has continued to be utterly silent as their surrogates and allies insult, gaslight and lie about Fulani. What should have happened within TWELVE HOURS of Fulani reporting Hussey’s racism is that Queen Camilla should have personally called Fulani and extended another invitation to the palace. Camilla should have been sitting down with Camilla within a day, and Camilla should have apologized to her on-camera, and then given Sistah Space a royal platform. The palace should be issuing statements right now in defense of Fulani. The Windsors are just so incredibly bad at this.
Photos courtesy of Cover Images, Sistah Space’s IG and Sky News.
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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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- 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**
The windsors are bad at this- on purpose. They are the racists in charge, and as long as they are racist, and see things from the white supremacist perspective, and frame their “pr problems” in this way- they lead the charge- and excuse the british press, and people for their racism.
Mostly by pretending it does not exist.
That is where racists actually get caught and stuck. They say they are in the right, that they are not racists, but if they get near a person who they believe to be like minded- their true colors will always show. They know they are racist- they know, at the very least, it is socially unacceptable in society, so they deny. And then they wink at their like minded friends.
USA is just as bad of course.
But ugh, abolish the monarchy, redistribute the wealth to the countries they looted.
The Windsor royal supporters would scream about them being too “woke” if they actually did the right thing. And since they believe they did nothing wrong, they will keep being atrociously bad at PR.
Co-sign 💯. They’re bad at this on purpose bc they’re the racists in charge. Supremacy in action. Although I’m still surprised at the audacity that they haven’t spoken to her yet. I’m wondering if William will have her come in for a conversation? Seems like a performative action he’d want credit for.
They are so bad at this because they don’t understand their own racism and they clearly don’t want to learn.
EXACTLY! They don’t care because they’re racists. The Windsor Klan deserves to be called out on it every damn time!
@Ariel: Yes, the royals are intentionally bad at this. It’s on purpose and I’m glad some people have said it. Even now, the invitation they’ve extended is only an effort to put this incident in the past. They want to see it off the front pages of newspapers, that’s all. And, for some reason, I resent the phrasing that Ms. Fulani is “at the center of Buck.Pal’s race row.” No. Your Susan Racist, and Camilla who hired her, and Charles (cuz he’s in charge), and William (cuz he deserves it) are at the center of this mess. They made it, they should face the music, not this woman who really is leading a life of service. And wouldn’t you know, Camilla (who people claim is a defender of women) has been silent on this while another woman is getting abused due to her ridiculously unqualified “help.”
“Camilla should have apologized to her on-camera, and then given Sistah Space a royal platform.”
Omg, they really are atrocious at this, aren’t they? This seems so deeply obvious and the ONLY move in this situation. The gears of this institution grind so very slowly, and I – a person who loves history, and glitz, and the full royal drag of it all – am so over it, and I’m definitely not alone.
Such a fumble. I thought they could put redundancy off for another generation on star power alone, and they might have, if W+C+H+M had worked out.
The British media (save for a couple) are absolute disgusting racist. The Royal family is nothing but racist. I am so sad that Fulani has to deal with this onslaught of trash from these people. I hope that that disgusting family continually gets exposed for who they really are.
Side note: Fulani is SIXTY-ONE?!?! My GOODness my good sis looks no where near that. Doing good works and minding your own business serves her well.
I was also surprised to read that Fulani was 61 years old. That’s far too old to still be dealing with such nonsense, at her time of life. Some English writer was going on and on yesterday about how Susan Racist was too old to be called racist, considering her one-legged husband’s name was Marmaduke. Boo-hoo. Well, how about acknowledging Ms. Fulani’s delicate age and how she’s also deserving of some grace and deference.
Every time something like this happens, I’m reminded of the centuries pre social media, pre growing awareness of racial justice and equity that there was no forum to reveal hate and prejudice. If it’s this hard now, how bad was it even as recently as the 1990s? Just like the rallying cry of “believe women,” we need to believe People of Color. Not every incident is witnessed or recorded, but enough have been now that we can’t justify ignorance.
I expect Meghan and Harry explicitly experienced this first hand. Probably had Something to do with them bolting to California. I mean, who wants to be around racist pigs?
These people are so bad at their jobs. Camilla making the call is beyond obvious. Even if she didn’t want to they should have urged her to do it. Bad PR.
But what do we expect at this point??
So basically the royal family is communicating that if you get invited to the palace, and you don’t bow and scrape, and if you hhonestly discuss what happened to you there, then you will be publically demeaned and abused on social media.
So in other words, royal palaces are not safe spaces for black women. Got it.
These conversations are so exhausting. I’m white but look very clearly mediterranean (a lot of people can even recognize it as Greek) because I’m the child of a guesworker here in Germany. Now, it is a completely different experience when you’re white but even I used to get so pissed at people who were determined to find out where I’m “originally from”. And I used to tend bar. It happened a lot. It tells you over and over again that you don’t belong 100%. To me that was just annoying and tiring and I could always have any reaction I felt like having because at the end of the day, I was white and – important to many here – Christian. Or rather, not Muslim. That’s okay then I guess. I was the good kind of half foreign.
Someone actually once tried to convince me that it’s the same as them going on vacation and people asking where they’re visiting from. “I don’t feel attacked by that.” You are clearly a tourist! Are you kidding? But THAT is the level of not understanding that people are operating from. I don’t even know where to start.
And I’m over the senior bonus. You want to participate in society and be respected? Respect others and move with the times. You don’t get to be a dick just because you’re still here at 83.
I do not understand how they did not have a photo op with her the very next day. I’m not surprised they’re blaming the Black woman, I feel like that’s how it works in the US too (are you sure you didn’t misunderstand? I’m sure the person didn’t MEAN it that way etc) but still….they are SO BAD at this!
All of this. A few months ago, there was a work conference call for marketing that I did not attend. On this call, someone used an acronym for something marketing related that spelled out the N word. I am not joking. A black young lady who recently started working there immediately took a screenshot and sent it to various people in management as well as HR. It is worth noting that two very senior white males as well as a male of Asian descent also complained. They talked to the person that did it and his response was that it was an acronym and “they” are too sensitive. After several weeks, some disciplinary action was taken and his response was that this young lady was out to ruin his career??? Also worth mentioning, someone showed up to a work event and was already drunk and they got fired on the spot bc they won’t “tolerate that behavior”.
This is happening everywhere, every day.
Third attempt at commenting bc I get so ragey about this…
The royal family needs to acknowledge their deep seated racism and start doing better, and they need to do it yesterday. It’s not ok to pretend this didn’t happen. It’s not ok to “be bored” by it.”
Or not, I guess. But not fixing this is NOT WORKING. And we know the definition of insanity is doing the same things over and over …
You hit it in a nutshell. Harry was able to acknowledge institutional racism and be inspirational for a new generation at the same time. Something they are incapable of and what the BF desperately needs. They think they can fire one person and it’s OK. They absolutely did that with Lady whatsherface. She totally should have been fired long ago, but now it does nothing.
There’s the thing in the UK, where victims of racism are treated as if they’re culpable in their victimhood.– This is NOT a UK thing, this is a white people who stepped in it and got push back thing. This happens here all the time, Trayvon Martin is the most famous example. Whatever happened to you, no matter how horrible, somehow your attitude , your past is responsible your mere existence is responsible.
Despicable palace officials don’t get it, because they don’t want to get it. They don’t want to change. They don’t want to cede even an iota of their white privilege.
Ngozi Fulani put them in an untenable position because she has the moral upper hand here. So she has to be destroyed.
Even after Fulani defended Hussey and said she would love to meet with her and even called for people to stop harassing her, the right wing media still turned this into a “race-baiting” incident with Fulani being in the wrong instead of Hussey. Let this be a lesson for black people, stop allowing the Royal Family and establishment to use you as pawns. They don’t care about your well-being or accomplishments. They simply see you as “diversity” and nothing else. There’s an article by another organization that turned down Camilla’s invitation and they pretty much call this “reception” held by Camilla a PR exercise. They weren’t allowed to give speeches, weren’t even given funding, they basically just stood around and mingled with other guests. Giving platforms to causes like DV is of great importance, but how is standing around and being bombarded with questions about where you’re REALLY from while Camilla graces everyone with a speech written by her staff bringing awareness? It’s especially performative on Camilla’s part since we know her and her husband gladly took part in the abuse of a teenage girl.
Camilla, the advocate for domestic abuse against women, is silent while a woman invited to Camilla’s own event gets abused on line and in the press. Abused for reporting racist abuse at Camilla’s event. Karma train coming through the palace in 3, 2, 1……
OMG, it’s like decision-making by a committee of racists. They know what has to happen, they’re blocked by their racism, so they’ll discuss it endlessly until it’s too late to do anything about it.
Agreed Kaiser, also: I worked as a racial justice activist for 8 years and before that, like many POC, provided free diversity training and leadership for many years. It is not Fulani’s responsibility to address racism within the monarchy. The right thing would have been apologies from LH & CPB, making a large donation to Fulani’s organization, and to ask her if she has any recommendations for training and process. If she does, offer to pay her for her time as a consultant. It should be clear she has no obligation to assist in this process. Insane, I can’t for the first drop of M & H. Hopefully more people will wake up because honestly I see a lot of comments on news websites that have accepted the Palace narratives.
One more example that shows they’re “clearly not a racist family”. SMDH…
Years ago I found out one of my coworkers was talking trash about me to a new employee, I reported her to management. The reaction was, oh but you know that’s how she is, she takes turn talking trash about people. It’s similar to what Fulani is being told, Hussey is an old aristocratic white woman that’s the way she is, why are you making such a fuss.
Instead of management dealing with it, I was tasked with having a sit down with this person. I kid you not, we sat in a room for close to two hours and she played the victim. It was all about how she’s misunderstood, why do these things keep happening to her, not once did she apologize, not once did she say it won’t happen again. In retrospect, I should never have met with her, her manager should have handled it and if there was another occurrence I should have gone to HR. Fulani possibly meeting with Hussey is not going to serve a purpose other than publicity for the RF. Hussey will play the victim, nothing will come of it.
I can say, as a black woman, no one sees us as a victim. We are constantly told that we are “tough” and that we are “strong” but we have to be because no one is willing to cape for us. If we report something, we are never seen as a “good enough victim” so what happens is, the thing that we report either never happened or it happened, but we are blamed for it happening. This is what is being played out for the world to see in the cases of Meghan and Ngozi. The victims are the villains. Just take the story about how Meghan made Kate cry. People were quick to cape for Kate but when Meghan said it was the other way around, how many people were willing to cape for her?
This. Completely
My Daily Mail reading, monarchy loving, Brexit voting MIL’s take on this: “OK, so the old lady was a bit pushy, but cut her some slack, he’s 83! Also, this woman was asking for it. Did you know she changed her given name to an African name? Did you see how she was dressed?”
I had such a massive argument over this with her! I am still so angry. Christmas dinner (first one since before Covid) is not something I am looking forward to.
Damn! Please give us an update! My Brit friends could care less about the monarchy and don’t even follow this at all.
You have my sympathies TikiChica. The elderly women in my in-law family just quote the DailyMail at me. There is no possibility for discourse. It seems to be their entire demographic and its awful.
Absolutely! During Brexit, I remember her telling me that “everybody I know is voting for Brexit”. And so it was. I ‘m looking forward to watching the Harry and Meghan documentary from tomorrow, but there is no way she will not bring these topics up during Christmas.
100% the palace should have done something but their position at the top of the pyramid is based on middle class white Brits believing they are only just below them – so the RF can’t show any signs that the Black community is equal or the RF might lose the backs holding them up in their lofty position.
But then there is a large portion of the U.K. population who take immeasurable pride in only speaking English and not being able to communicate in any of the European resorts in which they vacation, as if being dense and unilingual is an accomplishment over people who learn 2 or 3 languages before they even learn English and move to the U.K. The entire country is broken – we should burn it to the ground and start again.
One of the MANY things that gutted me about that Hussey woman’s interrogation of Ms. Fulani, is that she was sitting there, pelting Ms. Fulani with question after question about “where are you from??! No where are you REALLY from??” and then at one point says “I’ve spent time in France.”(????) Because Hussey is NOT French, it made NO sense for her to add that except to try to make herself seem worldly and cultured. It’s like, she’s gonna accost and interrogate this poor woman, and in the middle of it, name off the places she likes to vacation??? What a f*cking moron.
I hope Ngozi and Omid are ok. I have no doubt they are both receiving threats for exposing such an established figure.
KC3 and QC Camzilla are really making a total hash of their first couple of months at the helm. Aided and abetted by Egg and Stick of course. If they think they can just ignore this and whatever else is coming down the pipe for them they’re sadly misguided, the royal ship is in dark waters and starting to sink.
Can I also say that Ngozi Fulani is gorgeous.
Something else that pissed me off royally (pun intended) is how so so many people defended the old racist by saying things like “she was curious!” “the woman was dressed like an African [except she wasn’t], she just wanted to know more about the woman!”, “She’s just interested in people’s backgrounds!”, and “it was polite interest because the other woman was so intriguing!”…… Then why, after Hussey got Ms. Fulani to state that her parents were originally from Africa, did she then stop questioning?? Africa is a huge continent, with a massive range of countries and cultures! Just saying Africa doesn’t tell you shit! And I thought Hussey was so INTERESTED in her background?? So why did she stop as soon as she heard Africa???
As I recall, the Hussey woman didn’t just “rest her case” so to speak (since that was an interrogation) after finding out where Ms. Fulani’s family came from, she then seemed to go into a gloating mode and told Ms. Fulani, “Ah, I knew we’d get there.” As if to say, I knew you weren’t truly British. So, this wasn’t a woman who was having trouble hearing Ms. Fulani, she heard very well but she wanted to prove a point.
It blows my mind how bad these people are at crisis management! Like, wow.
Seeing some of the responses on Twitter to this story basically excused that old racist bat (I was unaware that women married to one-legged Marmadukes were also a minority that must be protected) and BLAMED Ngozi (the victim!) of setting up Hussey as part of some elaborate BLM/Sussex plot. Insanity. These same commenters also said that Ngozi was racist because her organization was set up to help black people, and brought up that old racist against white people chestnut. Never mind that what happened to Ngozi is the reason that her organization helps marginalized black/Caribbean communities in the UK who don’t feel safe or comfortable being helped by white racists.
I can’t wait for the Windsors to tear what’s left of their little empire down, one PR disaster at a time. It’s unfortunate that Ngozi was caught in the crossfire, but it shows what a sham the royals are. The Commonwealth is cutting them loose, and I predict that Scotland will be the first to cut ties, and then the rest of the house of cards will fall.
Ms Fulani is currently on the receiving end of intense hate and abuse on social media. A smear campaign is currently underway to destroy her reputation. I really hope she is getting the support she needs through all this. The only thing l can do is donate to her organisation.
Talk show host also on Twitter in U.K. says that Ms Fulani needs to apologize to the royal family for setting them up and causing this ruckus. Says “Where are you from ” is a common and harmless question. They just are not paying attention. The smears continue from the smug self righteous.
The story makes her sound like a stalker. She said she was willing to go to the palace, not that she would just show up. “The domestic violence campaigner at the centre of a royal race row has said she will go to Buckingham Palace to raise awareness of “cultural competency”.
I read where the Brits don’t see race-well if this is true does this saying mean anything to them-judge by the content of one’s character and not by the color of one’s skin-she looked at her and judged her by her skintone and dress-no doubt about it.
The karma train has been (gently) ramming their behinds for a while now. It will continue to do so in an attempt to dislodge their heads out. The Karma Plunger, if you will. It will not be gentle forever though.
The French had a not so gentle karma plunger some 300 years ago. Very efficient, that was.
This miserable occurrence makes it so obvious to me that Charles the Turd will most definitely strip his mixed-race grandchildren’s titles. How can this family based on the highest level of white supremacy do any differently? They won’t.
They really don’t care what the rest of the world thinks. They want the bloodline to stay lily white. Period.
This woman has such courage! To have been abused and then turn that experience into Sistah Space so that WOC have somewhere to turn to deserved to be honored by the palace. Ngozi Fulani should be honored for pointing out the inherent disconnect between how she was treated at the palace and the honoring of domestic violence causes. Instead, the royals (are probably behind and) are not stopping the media campaign against Ngozi. I wish her all the strength!
I can tell this is an American site from the way everyone, writer included, seems to think it likely the QUEEN would apologize publicly to a peasant. L O L.
This is more than just about racism, it is classism at its finest. Class hierarchy underpins British society on every level, and equally makes everyone unequal.
Anyone who isn’t posh doesn’t really get acknowledged by other posh people, nevermind get an apology. If poor Ms Fulani was an aristocrat she still wouldn’t get a public apology from the Queen, nevermind as a nobody.
So yeah, not only are they racists they are definitely aristocrats in the true sense – they genuinely believe they are above ordinary people.