The knives are out for the royal family

[justasking111]

It may be deserved in some cases, however it would seem the gloves are off as far as the media are concerned. They have lived high on the hog for centuries so what is new?

Am scratching my head here is it shoot the royal family season or a smoke and mirrors exercise designed to distract us from something more important??

I would hate to be in the PR business with the RF just now.

I don't know, would the service users at Smart Works or the women who ran the kitchen at Grenfell been so at ease with her if she was plastic?

Probably had to be on best behaviour and a bit star struck. She oozes plastic.

They didn't look remotely star struck to me but if you are determined to look for the negative everywhere...

SheStoopsToConker 🙄 Are you that naive? Anyone can put a nice face on for a couple of hours.

How can you prove a negative?

Anyway, back to the real story - the BBC are saying they've seen court documents that show Andrew travelled with Epstein and Virginia Giuffre. The palace are denying everything.

Surely that's the story to be discussed rather than bitching about a woman's appearance?

Yes he’s a pervert, yes we’ve all known for years, and yes he’ll get away with it.

But he shouldn't get away with anything. Being royal doesn't make you above the law (unless you're the Queen 😒). He should be questioned the same as anyone else.

the BBC are saying they've seen court documents that show Andrew travelled with Epstein and Virginia Giuffre. The palace are denying everything.

The palace need to be very careful here. If there is proof then all a denial will do is totally undermine any respect or trust left for the monarchy. Are they really going to sacrifice the institution for a creep like Andrew?

Are they really going to sacrifice the institution for a creep like Andrew?

They = The Queen
Andrew = The Queen's son

So yes, she might.

The problem is, it’s a he said/she said. There’s probably no way to verify Andrew had sex with VG. It wasn’t illegal at the time it occurred, so it’s down to a lack of morality.

I think Andrew has two choices: invite a proper investigation or completely retire from public life. I think if he just tries to fudge along his big brother will make the decision for him eventually.

See more celebs tweeting claiming racism. This just winds people up even more. It's as though they are saying that you ignorant peasants can't possibly have thoughts and opinions that are not prejudiced. Not them though no - they are far too evolved for that, they operate in a different realm.

I have no doubt MM experiences racism and that some of her critics are racist. Conversely I think a lot of people (including myself) were initially very supportive of her because she was bringing something other than 'stale, pale, male' to the powerful elite. We welcomed the diversity.

And the overuse of this woke new term dog whistle...

It reminds me of the Jamie Oliver situation from a few years ago. He was preachy about healthy food for children ,- his general message was fine but he was criticised for being patronising and condescending about it. H and M have gone one giant step further by actually being completely hypocritical about their message. But it just goes to show that she is getting a similar reaction to what white males have faced.

And the overuse of this term woke, and virtue signalling and all the other derogatory terms used to demean and shut down argument and analysis without actually engaging. Dog whistle is not a new term, it has been around since the 1980s when Bush’s political strategist started to employ the tactic to get messages, usually implicitly racist ones, to their target audience, without being explicit, because an explicit message would switch off / offend most of the audience. It is a well used tactic from the populist playbook being used by the right. As you say not everyone reading the media coverage will be responding in racist terms but some most definitely will and it is a dog whistle to them. www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-politics-46922909/dog-whistles-the-secret-language-politicians-are-using You can absolutely bet that the strategists who advise Johnson, Farage etc are very well acquainted with the tactic as are the tabloids........

I love the manipulation of him bringing up Diana. What does him taking four Private Jets have to do with Diana? So he can never be criticised because of Diana?

The DoS's friends are just making the situation a hundred times worse. Allegations of racism are so far off the mark.

I realise sensibilities are different in the US but I genuinely don't think Brits see Meghan as black. I don't think Meghan sees Meghan as black. She's a California girl through and through. That, I think, is what people here see. She could be blonde and blue eyed, it would make no difference.

Of course Meghan sees herself as black her mother is black why wouldn't Meghan consider herself as such?

I read somewhere that she joined an all-white sorority at University

Obviously she knows what colour she is genetically. What I mean is the culture she was brought up in and seems to identify with.

Maybe it was the popular girls sorority not that I know anything about US sororiries but Meghan has never denied her black heritage and considering her white family come across as arseholes she probably identifies more black than not.

Denying it and living it aren't the same. I don't think M wants or expects to be defined by her colour, nor should she. My point is that her facial heritage is less relevant to her popularity than some people want to believe.

Racial, not facial

Apparantly on her "resume", which at one time was available on the internet but disappeared around the time she got engaged to PH, Meghan described herself as "Caucasian".

MrsJAYY Of course Meghan sees herself as black her mother is black why wouldn't Meghan consider herself as such?

This sort of thinking is something that really annoys me. My mother is Han Chinese, and like a lot of Hapa (half Asian) people, I can pass for white European. Some look less, some look more so. I don't "see myself as Asian" because my mother is Chinese. Sometimes I think of myself as more European, sometimes more Asian, but I am fully neither. Asian people can tell I'm part Asian but not Europeans. I honestly find it quite offensive if people try to tell me what I should "identify" as.

Oh, and "woke" people are generally so desperate to show how un-racist they are, that they often forget that there are more than two races in the world.

Unfortunately, the States traditionally socially operates under a “one drop” rule which leaves people like MM and Barack Obama in kind of a weird place, as they were raised by white people (Doria wasn’t around for whatever reason). Barack tried very hard in college to get in touch with his black roots, I can’t say either way about Meghan.

It seems a bit more nuanced in the UK