Was racism present in the royal family BEFORE Meghan?!

[Inspecto]

Was racism present in the British Royal Family before Meghan arrived on the scene?

It matters to know the history because we all know how the royal family like to hold on to their traditions and are generally not fond of change.

The fact we think Meghan is the first person of colour in the royal family’s history goes some way to demonstrate the point… because she is not the first non-white.

The Little-Known History Behind the People of Color Who Joined the Royal Family Long Before Meghan (time.com/5946375/people-of-color-royal-family-victorian-era/)

The royals and racism — before Meghan and Harry

Buckingham Palace banned ethnic minorities from office roles, papers reveal

Why do you think the British Royal Family press teams might want us to forget that true history? Shouldn’t it instead be celebrated that there were people of colour in the royal family before Meghan? Why is the history hidden? What happened to the non-white royals who came and went before Meghan?

I would think they didn't give it any consideration.. Why would they, not many ethnic groups in their social circles

I may be unkind but would the royal family and their minions really give much consideration to the lower classes in general (more a class thing than a colour thing?)

I think that everyone would recognise racism in the form of slurs and stereotypes but for a person with limited exposure to people and situations, they wouldn't recognise racism as well as an ordinary person. Like a pp said, they wouldn't consider it as they interact with a limited pool of people so they wouldn't recognise others isms like classism or ableism either.

Clearly, you didn’t read the articles or know the history.

The other non-white royals in British history were part of the aristocracy and high (if not higher) class than the British royal family.

Among them were Princess Gouramma of Coorg…

@Inspecto you're right. I didn't. After the Time link didn't link I didn't bother with the rest.

I stand corrected.

I wonder if ignorance of the historical context means people don’t understand the racism issues happening now?

History has a way of repeating if we don’t learn lessons. Especially when the royal family hold on to their traditions and history like a lifeline.

Why do you think the British Royal Family press teams might want us to forget that true history?

The true history? What, that according to your sources "Queen Victoria adopted multiple children from the colonies in the 19th century as a "way to learn about her new territories and project a benevolent image of her family."

Because it's another embarassing example of colonialism, not a shining paragon of assimilation or acceptance.

Shouldn’t it instead be celebrated that there were people of colour in the royal family before Meghan? Celebrated? What do you feel there was to celebrate there? I can't see anything worth celebrating in those articles.

What happened to the non-white royals who came and went before Meghan? Went being the operative word. The Royal Family got bored with them as soon as they'd got what they wanted and they were discarded.

I can't really understand what you're driving at with your post, could you clarify? Are you saying that Megan Markle is the cause of racism in the Royal Family, and your proof that it didn't exist before is in those articles you linked to? Please please tell me that's not what you're saying.....

I am simply trying to understand the history and how it impacts the present.

Everyone talks as though Meghan is the first non-white person in the British Royal Family. The truth is that she’s not… why don’t enough people know the history? Why is there an ignorance about the historical context?

The point is, yes, from the historical evidence it seems like they were treated badly too. So isn’t history repeating?!

Why do you think the British Royal Family press teams might want us to forget that true history? Shouldn’t it instead be celebrated that there were people of colour in the royal family before Meghan? Why is the history hidden? What happened to the non-white royals who came and went before Meghan?

There's a big difference between Victoria welcoming people of colour from GB's colonies and assimilating them totally into c19th Britishness at the expense of their heritage and culture to the heir's son marrying a bi-racial woman.

Can you really not seen how these individuals were victims of colonialism?

Queen Charlotte may have had non white ancestry but if she did, it was with enough degrees of removal to make it unlikely that she took after them physically. Personally, I've always been inclined to think that the claims of her being a person of colour were unfortunately an example of racism and the age-old tradition of tearing women down if they don't conform to narrow beauty standards.

There isn't any reliable evidence that she was a person of colour and contemporary comments on her skin are steeped in the language of sexism and racism.

All the examples you give are, in my opinion, an attempt to 'colour-wash' the history of the Royal family so they can separate themselves from their colonial, elitist past.

It's really not a stretch to believe that Meghan encountered racism within the Royal family, even if it was 'unconscious', where they exist within a peer group of people who are raised to believe they are superior to everyone else and where these inherited beliefs are often given away by behaviour and attitude even if intellectually they know them to be untrue.

@GreenManalishi “Shouldn’t it instead be celebrated that there were people of colour in the royal family before Meghan? Celebrated? What do you feel there was to celebrate there? I can't see anything worth celebrating in those articles.”

Princess Sophia Duleep Singh (who was brown) was a suffragette at Hampton Court Palace. Shouldn’t it be celebrated that a non-white royal princess helped women win the right to vote?

That’s a huge story that Anita Anand has picked up on.

Everyone talks as though Meghan is the first non-white person in the British Royal Family. The truth is that she’s not…

Because those who were 'adopted' by Queen Victoria weren't actual members of the Royal family. Both legally speaking and socially - they had no legal right to the succession, the estates, wealth etc.

Meghan is the first, no one else has married into the royal family who was categorically not Caucasian and there's a particular emphasis on proximity to the Crown.

Is that an antelope I spy?

@DuchessDandelion “It's really not a stretch to believe that Meghan encountered racism within the Royal family, even if it was 'unconscious', where they exist within a peer group of people who are raised to believe they are superior to everyone else and where these inherited beliefs are often given away by behaviour and attitude even if intellectually they know them to be untrue.”

That’s reasonable and makes sense.

So I think that educating people about the history and all the nuances will help people understand the bigger picture problem.

So I think that educating people about the history and all the nuances will help people understand the bigger picture problem.

What nuances is it that you think will help this endemic hard wired issue?

Definately Harry is racist. Not just the maxi uniform but a couple of years later after he claimed to have learned from his mistake he referred to a colleague as a Pk.

I think most institutions, whether the British Royal Family or the Thai Royal Family have a streak of racism/xenophobia. It isn't unique to the British Royal Family by any means.

What about the Duleep Singh family?

They had legal and social status.

In Anita Anand’s book there’s a picture of the 3 princesses at Buckingham Palace for their debut to court. The picture is in this article too:

www.spectator.com.au/2015/01/sophia-duleep-singh-from-socialite-to-socialist/

They are gorgeous!

I’m amazed that history has forgotten this family. They were close to the crown too because many of the Crown Jewels came from them…

The Queen Mother for all the love and respect in general that she had in her later life was reported to have used racist language.

The Duke of Edinburgh was known for being racist, the lady in waiting has just been in the news as a racist. I don't think racism being rife in the Royal family should come as a shock to anyone.

Op do you really think the people you are talking about were treated as anything other than curios?

Do bears shit in the woods?

People are inherently selfish, so appealing to how they’ve personally benefited from non-white royals might help in the education process.

Women, it seems, have benefited from Princess Sophia Duleep Singh fighting in the suffragette movement. So, why not remember her?

How about the celebrated racist Prince Philip? Though that was later spun as 'gaffs' by our press!

Cool, one family versus centuries of colonialism good lord

And what has them being "gorgeous" got to do with anything?

Seems this family were the victims of colonialism too… but they’re important because many of the crown jewels were stolen came from them.

If being forgotten is a fate worse than death, then what is it to be forgetful?

Why not recognise they’re gorgeous? Recognising they’re gorgeous goes way beyond not recognising they existed at all.

How is it that these three gorgeous princesses struggled to find suitable marriage partners? Only one out of these three married, and that was in much later life too.

If being forgotten is a fate worse than death, then what is it to be forgetful?