Buckingham Palace Banned People of Colour From Office Roles.
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Today’s revelation merely confirms the deep and profound bigotry of the Queen, her courtiers and the entire clan.
The ban on Black people working in office roles was made possible by an arcane law, known as the “Queens Consent”, which was negotiated to exempt Queen Elizabeth II, from laws banning discrimination, on the basis of race and gender, that were passed in the 1960s by the Labour government.
The documents found by the guardian, reveal how the Queen’s financial manager informed civil servants that “ it wasn’t the practice to give clerical jobs to “ coloured immigrants and people from the commonwealth”
That the Queen has been exempt from laws banning racism would have made it impossible for Black and Asian staff, who were treated badly, to take the palace to the court of law.
According to the newspaper, it’s unclear when the practice of not recruiting Black and Asian to clerical roles ended, as the palace refused to answer questions about the ban and when exactly it was revoked.
Today’s revelation puts the spotlight back on the royal family on its history and its attitudes to race and race relations, in the aftermath of the Duke and Duchess’ interview with Oprah Winfrey.
It also puts a spotlight on the actions of Prince Charles, who is well known for writing cabinet ministers and lobbying for changes to legislation deemed unfavorable to his interests.
The royal family’s history is inextricably linked to the British empire, which is replete with the violent expropriation of land all over the world and the subjugation of Indians, West Indians, Arabs and Africans.
It is also in light of these fresh revelations that we must come to terms with the fact that the late Prince Phillip’s lifelong bigotry wasn’t an isolated case, but symptomatic of a wider malaise. We must also appreciate that the royal family is the whitest and most conservative of institutions, which is having a very hard time, adapting…
