Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex and seventh in line to the throne, has done something few right-minded people have had the courage to do.
In a new Netflix series about life with his mixed-race, American, former-actress wife, he has talked about his own ignorance with regard to unconscious racial bias, something of which most of us are guilty without recognising it, regardless of our own ethnicity.
Race is a very difficult subject to express one’s views and feelings about honestly, even to oneself, or as a victim of racism, and often, too, among those who perpetrate violent acts motivated by racial hatred.
One reason may be that there is little sympathy for those who do, whether victim or hater. Everyone who talks about the subject pays the price, because racism is difficult to prove, except when it absolutely cannot be anything else, and even then it is a slippery thing to pin down and rarely accepted. Proven victims seldom win fans, and those who call it out are treasonous.
Just witness the social media vilification of the British charity worker Ngozi Fulani, of African descent, who dared to complain that despite claiming her Britishness she was challenged by Lady Hussey, Prince William’s godmother and the departed QEII’s long-time lady-in-waiting, as being not really British.
It may seem innocuous that someone who, indeed, looks African might be upset about being put on the spot about her ethnic origins, but the particular challenge implied a negation of who that person thinks she is. By insisting, Lady Hussey deprived Ms Fulani of the right to consider herself British, despite being born there and swearing allegiance to Britain, and working for society, protecting women of colour from domestic abuse.
That rejection is not easy to accept, since one’s sense of self is deeply rooted in one’s place of birth and the values of the society where one has been schooled and shaped and feels a sense of patriotism towards, and where one might have birthed one’s own children.
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The incident could be read as racist – but you could argue differently. Certainly, it is evidence of how removed certain sectors of society are from the modern world most other people inhabit.
Lady Hussey’s husband, Marmaduke Hussey, was the most patrician of BBC chairmen, who served during my time with the world’s leading broadcaster. In 1986, when he arrived in the post, before going on to oversee the most painful and historic of internal change processes, he decided to meet the staff.
We all knew that he was a Conservative Party plant, a grandee sent to reshape what the Tories believed was the leftist BBC to its way of thinking and being. He was called “Duke.” Actually, he was a baron and had close ties to the Palace. Chairmen do not come ranking any higher than that.
I was still on the lower rungs of the BBC management ladder, but a rare thing – a producer from the Caribbean with a growing professional track record. Not surprising, then, that I was on
