Royal aide’s resignation in Fulani racism row fortuitous timing for Sussexes

The palace says Lady Susan Hussey has stepped aside from her honorary role with immediate effect. Picture: Getty Images

You will, I am sure, join me in sending thoughts and prayers to British activist Ngozi Fulani, who in her words is feeling a “bit drained” and in need of a “rest” following her “traumatic” experience at Buckingham Palace last week.

Attending a reception in her capacity as head of charity Sistah Space, which is dedicated to helping African and Caribbean victims of domestic and sexual abuse, Fulani crossed paths with Lady Susan Hussey, 83, a former lady-in-waiting to Queen Elizabeth II and godmother to Prince William.

The encounter, regrettably, was not a positive one. Hussey broached the conversation by repeatedly asking the British-born Fulani about her origins, including the question “What part of Africa are you from?” Credit to Fulani though, for despite her harrowing ordeal she stoically managed to compile a transcript of the conversation, which she tweeted for posterity along with an image of herself.

Britain's Queen Consort Camilla (right) speaks to guests near Ngozi Fulani (back left) during a reception to raise awareness of violence against women and girls at Buckingham Palace. Picture: AFP

The reaction was swift. In an official statement, the palace described the remarks as “unacceptable and deeply regrettable”, saying “the individual concerned would like to express her profound apologies for the hurt caused and has stepped aside from her honorary role with immediate effect.” In other words, Hussey has been awarded the commoner’s version of a DCM, thus abruptly ending more than 60 years of unpaid service. Harsh but not unexpected.

But for Fulani, this is just the start. “This is bigger than one individual,” she told The Independent. “It’s institutional racism.” Not only was the experience akin to “violence” and “abuse”, she told the BBC, but it “felt like an interrogation”. We hear you. Much like the methods of extraction that used to take place in the Tower of London, only worse.

Fulani has reportedly been invited to meet King Charles III and Camilla, the Queen Consort, to discuss the incident. Already she foresees herself providing so-called cultural competency training to the palace. “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,” she said. This is our cue to stand and applaud I take it?

Ngozi Fulani claims the incident is one of ‘institutional racism’. Picture: Twitter

This cultural competence training is a curious thing. Like much of what falls into the category of rent-seeking, it is increasingly mandated in government and private enterprise. Its overpaid practitioners demand we respect the sensitivities of minorities, but any suggestion they should reciprocate is met with hostility.

Take the case of Fulani. It was an honour for her to be invited to the domain of British royalty, a revered institution that spans millennia. Cultural competence would require that any complaint she had about her treatment there should be made in the first instance to that household and not yelled from the rooftops. It also requires that Fulani not seize on the actions of an individual to smear the entire royal establishment in proclaiming that racism was “institutional” to that body.

Mention this and race activists will accuse you of trying to silence a strong black woman. But the hypocrisy is self-evident. Take Diane Abbott for example. “I was shocked,” the Labour MP and first black woman to be elected to the House of Commons told CNN regarding Hussey. “It’s 2022, and somebody can speak like that and think like that.” But Abbott is not above race-baiting. In 2012, the then opposition frontbencher controversially tweeted “White people love playing ‘divide & rule’. We should not play their game”. Initially claiming this was “taken out of context”, she later apologised only when ordered to by then Labour leader Ed Miliband. Unlike Hussey, she retained her position.

The Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights group says Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex and Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, have shown courage in challenging the royal family’s ‘power structure’. Picture: Getty Images

But if anyone deserves a prize for chutzpah, it is Fulani’s friend, fellow activist, and leader of the Women’s Equality Party, Mandu Reid. “Neither Ngozi nor I wanted Hussey to receive the grand order of the boot,” wrote Reid, who had witnessed the conversation, in the Guardian. “Ngozi didn’t even name her publicly; it was social media that did this, immediately seizing on the story as another chance to form into polarised rival camps.”

This is disingenuous in the extreme. In her initial tweet, Fulani had referred to “a member of staff, Lady SH”. You would not have to be Scotland Yard to work out within minutes that the subject was Hussey. As for her rapid termination, somehow Reid even managed to skew this. “Blaming Hussey risks minimising and distracting from the depth and breadth of racism that is enshrined in an institution that carries the heritage of empire, slavery and inequality,” she wrote.  And if the palace had not ended Hussey’s tenure immediately, you could be sure Reid and Fulani would be screeching this was further evidence of racism.

Like Reid, Fulani has a set against the royal family, having claimed last year on social media that the Duchess of Sussex, Meghan Markle, was the victim of domestic violence at the hands of her in-laws. It raises an interesting question: if the two detest the institution, why did they attend the reception in question?

The bigger irony is that both activists are behaving like princesses. As commentator Katherine Bennett noted in Catholic Herald: “The first line on her [Fulani’s] website is ‘my parents came to London from the Caribbean’. So proud is she of her heritage that she chooses to illuminate it at every opportunity, except when asked about it by an elderly white aristocrat.” The timing could not be better for the Sussexes, given the release today of the first three episodes of their six-part Netflix documentary, Harry & Meghan. As I write this Markle no doubt is rehearsing for the camera her spontaneous reaction to the news of Hussey’s faux pas. Steel yourself for the sight of the duchess collapsing as she wails like a banshee.

This week the American advocacy group Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights awarded the couple its annual Ripple of Hope prize. According to the organisation’s president both had shown courage in challenging the royal family’s “power structure”. That was Kerry Kennedy, a daughter of the late senator, who shares with the Sussexes a spectacular inability to self-reflect.

Incidentally, Hussey’s daughter Lady Katherine Brooke was appointed last month to serve in the newly created role of Queen’s Companion. If she officiates at a reception where either Fulani or Reid is present, then I suggest she say this: “As a descendant of the First Peoples, I welcome you to this country. I ask in return that you pay your respects to Indigenous people of this land and acknowledge past, present, and emerging Elders. Always was, always will be, the land of the Britons.”