Seven words Prince William can’t escape

The Duke of Cambridge gave a powerful speech this week but even a future king can’t ignore the ghosts of the past.

In hindsight, the white suit was not a great idea.

On Tuesday this week, William and Kate, Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were back at it, helping unveil a new national monument at London’s Waterloo Station.

So what did the Duchess, who has shown a cheering propensity towards businesslike get-ups of late, choose for the occasion? A crisp two-piece ensemble from Alexander McQueen which was blazingly white.

One online publication then quickly sprang forth with the doozy of a headline, “Kate Middleton Looks Business Chic in White Suit to Celebrate Windrush Day.”

Kate Middleton wore a white suit on Windrush Day. Picture: Eddie Mulholland/WPA/Getty Images

The problem here is a) the term “white power” is clearly a deeply problematic term and it’s usage is only when made worse when you realise that b) Windrush Day celebrates the thousands of people from Caribbean nations who migrated to the UK after World War II and who have, at times, been treated terribly by the British government.

The thing about Kate’s suit is that it was emblematic of one unfortunate thing: The couple has a racism problem.

Before anyone starts yelling, let me be very clear here: I am not accusing the Duke and Duchess of being racist, holding any sort of racist beliefs or knowingly doing a single thing that would earn them the praise of the MAGA crowd.

However, when it comes to anything vaguely adjacent to skin colour and prejudice, the Cambridges are at sea.

The Duke and Duchess attended the unveiling of the National Windrush Monument at Waterloo Station. Picture: John Sibley/WPA Pool/Getty Images

The spectre of racism is one which has loomed large over the entire House of Windsor since March last year when Harry and Meghan, Duke and Duchess of Sussex, turned up on global TV screens to denounce their treatment at the hands of the Palace.

The Duchess said when she was pregnant with her son Archie, there had been “concerns and conversations about how dark his skin might be when he was born”. She also told Winfrey of her unborn child, “They didn’t want him to be a prince or a princess. He wasn’t going to receive security.”

Meanwhile, Harry talked about the fact that “over 70 female members of parliament, both Conservative and Labour, came out and called out the colonial undertones of articles and headlines written about Meghan”.

“Yet no one from my family ever said anything. That hurts,” he said.

Buckingham Palace’s response to the interview and their claims was stony silence for nearly two whole days, before putting out a purse-lipped statement saying that “the issues raised, particularly that of race, are concerning” however, “recollections may vary”.

Meghan and Harry outed a member of the royal family for making a racist remark about their then-unborn son. Picture: Toby Melville/WPA Pool/Getty Images

The only HRH to actually publicly comment on the stinging allegations was William who later that same week off the cuff told reporters, “We’re very much not a racist family.”

In the 15-months since then, not a peep more has been uttered on the subject by a single senior Windsor.

The royal strategy seemed to be to treat the situation like a bear attack; lie very still and hope the danger passes by. But for all that the Palace might have been hoping the world would move on and simply forget the Sussexes’ racism claims, they very clearly have not.

In polling done post-Oprah, ethnic minority Britons said they thought that the royal family was racist by a margin of 43 per cent as opposed to 27 per cent who disagreed.

Meanwhile, in research done in June this year, nearly equal proportions of 18-24-year-olds think that the UK should become a republic.

The thing is, the Sussexes’ comments were not made in a vacuum but against the racial reckoning of the Black Lives Matter movement which resoundingly reached British shores. Statues were toppled and in the months since then, 69 tributes to slave traders and colonialists in Britain have been either taken down or changed since then.

Against this backdrop, it would be a serious error of judgment if William and Kate continued to turn a blind eye to the fact that, courtesy of the Sussexes, the royal family has, for many people, become synonymous with bigotry.

William has insisted the royal family is ‘not racist’. Picture: Paul Edwards/WPA/Getty Images

Again, I am not saying that they are racist but now that charges have been made, they can’t just hope they will magically go away of their own accord.

The longer that anyone with an HRH fails to adequately and meaningfully respond to the Sussexes’ claims, the worse they all look.

Moreover, how can either William or Kate morally or intellectually try and hold themselves up as proponents of equality when the family and institution they represent has been accused of contemporary racism?

How can they hope to have any credibility on the matter when Meghan’s claims are still very much at the forefront of public consciousness?

There is a much bigger situation at play here, obviously.

Even if the Duke and Duchess of Sussex had not uttered an incendiary word, the centuries of colonial rule presided over by British kings and queens is hardly something that can be swept under the rug or politely ignored.

More than three million men, women and children were abducted and shipped to the Caribbean. Between the 1660s and 1680s, the English in Barbados instituted the Slave Code, defined slaves as non-humans who were, according to the UN, “‘heathens’ and ‘brutes’ not fit to be governed by the same laws as Christians”.

Which is pretty much exactly the same time – 1689 specifically – in which William III, who owned half of the Royal African Company and which profited hugely from the slave trade, bought a modest ‘cottage’ and re-made it into Kensington Palace.

That is, of course, right where the Cambridge family currently lives.

Or take the Imperial Crown, which Kate could wear when she is crowned Queen and which features the 186-carat Koh-I-Noor diamond.

There is no single object which better exemplifies what has been termed the British Empire’s campaign of “state sponsored theft”. Both the Pakistani and India governments have repeatedly asked for the jewel back.

In 2020, campaigners called for the The Order of St Michael and St George, one of the highest royal orders, to be redesigned given the image on the gong depicts a white angel with its foot on a black angel’s head.

Harry and Meghan made racism claims during their explosive Oprah interview. Picture: CBS

None of these – the palace, the diamond or the honour – are things that the current members of the royal family created but that they are still responsible for, at the very least, talking about the more problematic aspects of the monarchy’s past.

They can’t all pretend that the echoes of colonialism and racism are not still woven into parts of royal life.

I can predict the arguments many people will make at this point: It’s impossible to prove you are not racist or that the empire crumbled long ago; it’s not as if it was the Cambridges themselves who subjugated millions while strip mining assets. Why should the Duke and Duchess be made to pay for the sins of his forefathers?

However, if William and Kate want the monarchy to become a relevant and useful institution in British public life, i.e. survive, then they can’t go around pretending that previous heads of the same body did not profit hugely from the brutalisation and suffering of people of colour.

Obstinate muteness is not an option here.

Obviously, they can’t change the past but they can more openly acknowledge it.

Likewise, Harry and Meghan’s accusations. I’m not suggesting a they-said/they-said war of words but the royal family still needs to put some sort of substantial response.

If William wants to be a leader he can’t just give the issue of racism a wide berth and hope everyone will be suitably dazzled by how well he is doing on climate change or homelessness and forget to be concerned about it.

A paltry seven words – “We’re very much not a racist family” – simply won’t cut it.

The Duke can’t outrun, out-ignore or out-charity the fact that a very clear line can be drawn between the horrors of the monarchy’s past and the present day.

What would be incredible to see is William taking part in some sort of national conversation about race in the UK and or agreeing to a very frank public discussion about the monarchy’s dark past. After all, admitting you have a problem is the first step, right?

Or the Duke and Duchess could start much closer to home, given that in their team ‘diversity’ means people who went to State school. Not a single one of the Cambridges’ senior staff is a person of colour. (Overall, only 8.5 per cent of royal employees are from ethnic minorities.)

Perhaps if they had some non-white advisers then their Caribbean tour earlier this year may not have gone so spectacularly off the rails, with the couple photographed shaking the hands of black children through a fence and inspecting Jamaican troops while dressed up like two extras from Out of Africa.

The week-long escapade only reinforced the impression held by many that the royal family is an inherently antiquated and useless relic with no place in 21st century life.

During his speech at the opening of the Waterloo monument this week, William said the Windrush generation had been “profoundly wronged” before later declaring that “discrimination remains an all too familiar experience for black men and women in Britain in 2022”.

It was a forceful speech but future kings cannot survive on impassioned speeches alone.

William and Kate need to do some seizing the day here; they have the opportunity for history to remember them for all the right reasons and not the wrong ones.

Daniela Elser is a royal expert and a writer with more than 15 years of experience working with a number of Australia’s leading media titles.

Originally published as Seven words Prince William can’t escape