Member of Household resigns

[myrtleWilson]

Awful story just broken on twitter about horrendous racist questioning from Lady Hussey to Ngozi Fulani from Sister Space at yesterdays VAWG event.

Lady Hussey has resigned.

[Edited by MNHQ to correct typo at OP's request]

Definitely, and especially as some visiting dignitaries might not be aware that she is styled as some kind of unimportant appendage to state proceedings, like a yeoman warden at the Tower of London, or grenadier in a bearskin hat. Mis-speaking could result in lost trade deals and all kinds of damage.

Unfortunately, she is neither trained, nor somebody who knows that they are supposed to look decorative and resist initiating conversation. She is the equivalent of that dangerous role of the roving aide, without defined role or the rare over-powerful football agent, or the political aide, in the manner of Dominic Cummings - and we know what mess ups happened there.

Better if all official bodies and departments use trained staff.

Mandu Reid in today's Guardian on the incident and the royals' problem with race.

Thanks for sharing.

It took some time to realise that it was the very fact that the incident had been “witnessed” that made it significant, and forced the palace to respond swiftly

This reminds me of when Amy Cooper accused a black bird-watcher in Central Park of threatening her. He recorded her racist behaviour, and so many white people on YouTube and Mumsnet blamed HIM for recording her racism, rather then her for being a racist twat.

They didn’t want the incident to be witnessed, because it’s easier to deny.

I think that's quite a measured and sensible piece by Mandu Reid. She is right that Fulani did not mention Hussey's name. But there must have been witnesses.

He recorded her racist behaviour, and so many white people on YouTube and Mumsnet blamed HIM for recording her racism, rather then her for being a racist twat.

People on here were saying that? 😒

"I was wondering that. Why on earth is @F4chrissakes saying they were brought up in an era of even worse racism, as if they were the victim?"
Because I think the era in which I was brought up may have influenced my thinking. I've already been called out on here for being a dyed in the wool racist thanks. I'm no victim, I'm white after all. And I recognise that some of my thinking has been wrong. Kind mums-netters down thread have enlightened me, so hopefully my white supremacist bastard views have been tempered.

Yep.

Yes, it was really bad. Here’s the thread

www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/3920250-To-hope-this-racist-woman-loses-her-job?reply=96916067

And another one, that starts off with more objections to the term Karen than the racism.
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/4330594-Central-Park-Karen

I actually assumed she didn’t have her glasses on!

I’m sure she did know who Bush was since one assumes that’s who the visit was for - but having murmured pleasantries by mistake to my own son’s Godmother because I had no idea who was talking to me in a cafe til I groped for my specs, I am entirely projecting.

also assume Bush found it funny. But who knows.

I can't get excited about her not recognising George (presumably H given it was 30 years ago) Bush, at the time the most powerful person in the world. It's actually funny, I think. What happened the other day is different and isn't.

If someone is incapable of recognising the POTUS whilst attending a reception he was at, they should not be in that job. It's beyond pathetic

Given her pedigree and upbringing I assume she put herself on the same level as the royal family and didn't trouble herself with boring facts and knowledge, why would you when you're titled and everyone else is beneath you.

I wonder how many more gaffes there have been in the ensuing 30 years we don't know about culminating in racism.

The attitudes on this thread are utterly depressing.

Just been reading those two threads linked by Annnunciata and Squeezita. It's so striking the way the focus always veers off the issue of racism onto anything that the person on the receiving end can be 'blamed' or smeared with. And actually I've seen this kind of behaviour many times on threads, always by posters who say something like "Oh of course racism is wrong/that behaviour was wrong BUT [insert side issue]. And this is often what passes for 'nuance', when really it's just a way of saying that actually racism doesn't matter that much.

So rather than obvious overt racism (although I have seen that), it's this more insidious and often rather patronising way of creating a 'debate', usually by posters who either seem to think they're far more rational and enlightened than others, or at the other end of the scale, posters who seem frankly a bit dim - or want to appear that way - and play it off as "Oh well I'm sure it isn't meant badly. In my day..."

And then you get the deletions and MN both-sidesing and asking for peace and love when the whole thread is full of people just minimising and dismissing the whole issue. 😒😒😒

I can't get excited about her not recognising George (presumably H given it was 30 years ago) Bush, at the time the most powerful person in the world. It's actually funny, I think. What happened the other day is different and isn't.

It's funny up to a point. But actually, is that the image of the UK that anyone wants to project?

The idea that someone so close to the Queen that she is a trusted companion who is let loose on receptions for visiting heads of state would be so unabashedly ignorant is jarring. She was in her 50s back then. Is that old enough to hide behind age?

The question, 'What do you do for a living?' is not one anyone should ask a person who is a member of an American presidential party. How did she think that question was appropriate? Did she see no difference between a reception for an American Presidential party and members of the Young Farmers Association? Did SH not know who the quickly assembled reception was for? Did nobody think to give a little description of the honoured guests and their positions to the household members who were mingling among them? The idea that the royal household could approach a reception for the world's most powerful man with such amateurishness is really gobsmacking.

It bespeaks an underlying arrogance, the arrogant attitude that the RF (or the British upper classes) are so far above everyone else that they don't have to bother prepping the people who will be mixing with the American President.

There's arrogance in the racist incident too - in the touching of Ms Fulani's hair, in the massive entitlement that lies behind the persistent questioning of an invited guest, and in the patronising "Oh, I knew we'd get there in the end".

So agree mathanxiety

Age is NO excuse. I'm old but you can bet I'd be informed and know who I was talking to at an official function like that. Lady SH obviously considers herself equal to a member of the RF and no need to bother finding out about those beneath her.

It's all summed up in this book....

www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/51877169-and-what-do-you-do

"And what do you do....?" By Norman Baker, ex Minister and Member of the Privy Council.

I wonder if Lady H ever met Barack Obama? God knows what she might've come out with!

She's worked at the palace for decades. Surely, surely if she had form for this others would have come forward?

People like her are smart enough to only show this side to those they perceive as inferior to them. She would never have dreamt that a black woman heading up a charity for abused black women would have the nerve to challenge her publicly. It backfired on her and her goose was cooked.

'People like her are smart enough to only show this side to those they perceive as inferior to them.'

Public events, microphones everywhere??

As I said if she was a racist, if she made any racist comments others would have come forward but nope, it's all a bit tumbleweed isn't it.

Horrified at anyone defending racism due to age.
Racism is abhorrent and there is never an excuse.
I think it sadly assays much about those around her that she was racist, ignorant of others yet has not only been in the inner circle yet it was her job effectively
,

Well someone has come forward now, so that's good isn't it?

Why would Hussey have access to or be near microphones? She was a lady in waiting, her role was to provide companionship to the Queen when she was alive, and to support to Camilla at this event.

Sad that the experience of one black woman, corroborated by witnesses is not enough for you. Even her own Godson Prince Willian said the right course of action was taken.

What’s tumbleweed is white silence to victims of racism.

"You don't sound like a black chap"? (Prince H to comedian Stephen K Amos).

Or take your pick from any of the late Duke of Edinburgh's racist comments gaffes.