Counter-Currents
Ngozi Fulani, who recently suffered perhaps the most royal microaggression in world history.
1,262 words
Forget Pearl Harbor! Henceforth, November 29, 2022 shall be reckoned as the day that went down in infamy. On this fateful occasion was the microaggression heard around the world.
Stop the world! Somebody got offended!
There was a fateful encounter at Buckingham Palace between Baroness Susan Hussey, lady-in-waiting to the royal family, and Ngozi Fulani (née Marlene Headley), founder of the Sistah Space charity. As the Hull Daily Mail described:
Ms Fulani detailed the encounter, which happened 10 minutes after she arrived in the Palace’s Picture Gallery, on social media, which included the remarks: “‘Where are you from?’ Me: ‘Here, UK’. ‘No, but what nationality are you?’ Me: ‘I am born here and am British.’ ‘No, but where do you really come from, where do your people come from?’ Me: “My people”, lady, what is this?’ ‘Oh, I can see I am going to have a challenge getting you to say where you’re from.'”
Ms Fulani, who founded Sistah Space in 2015 to provide specialist support for African and Caribbean heritage women affected by abuse, wrote: “Mixed feelings about yesterday’s visit to Buckingham Palace. 10 mins after arriving, a member of staff, Lady SH, approached me, moved my hair to see my name badge. The conversation below took place. The rest of the event is a blur.”
Oh, my golly! Asking people where they’re from is a canonical example of a microaggression! Usually it’s Asians who get this, or so the story goes. Where I live, Asians get along with us pretty well; they’re fellow gentes de razón, to borrow a phrase — and aren’t known for getting huffy over innocuous questions or other First World problems. If I went to Japan to sample some of Jared Taylor’s recommendations of the local cuisine, it wouldn’t bother me if someone asked what country I was from. Moreover, I’d find it pretty silly if anyone assumed I was a fellow Asian.
Unfortunately for Lady Susan Hussey, she was speaking with a member of the most thin-skinned race on the planet. It’s as if they’re born with a chip on the shoulders. These people make bellyaching practically an Olympic sport. That’s because these spoiled ingrates have learned that it gets them what they want. Collectively telling them to put a cork in it might work wonders.
So does the Baroness get cut any slack because she’s 83 years old, apparently not hip to the unwritten taboos of political correctness, unaware that she was supposed to walk on eggshells in the exalted presence of her betters, and was merely trying to open a conversation with no intent to cause offense? Of course not. Ngozi Fulani took on an African name (the first is of Igbo origin, and the last represents a different tribe), likes to wear African-inspired clothing, and she has the kind of medusa hairstyle that would merit federal protection in the United States, so a little curiosity about her background might be understandable. She could’ve said “I was born in London and my parents are from Barbados” and left it at that, or even “I’d prefer not to discuss it.” However, taking things in stride would’ve missed a golden opportunity to get her kicks by becoming indignant. As the article further stated:
Responding to messages of support, Ms Fulani wrote: “Standing there in a room packed with people while this violation was taking place was so strange, especially as the event was about violence against women. That feeling of not knowing what to do, will NEVER leave me. Almost alone in a room full of advocates.”
Now, this is where the hauteur gets surreal. The Sistah Space charity which Ms. Fulani founded serves the needs of domestic violence survivors among her community. She’s therefore surely quite familiar with shocking brutality; some of the worst of what human nature unfortunately has to offer — macroaggressions, if you will. Although she’s well aware of what an atrocity actually is, she describes what was objectively nothing more than a minor faux pas (at the very most) as a “violation” and a lifelong trauma. Such high-flung histrionic hyperbole like this takes kvetching to a fine art!
You can buy Beau Albrecht’s Space Vixen Trek here.
I don’t doubt that she’s indignant. It’s just that the response is grotesquely disproportionate. It turned a nothingburger into a cataclysm, or (to paraphrase a German idiom) made a thunderclap out of a fart. Reading between the lines, I have to wonder if Ms. Fulani came into the encounter with some preconceived bad attitudes, the sort of thing our liberal friends might call prejudices. It seems as if she regarded the Right Honourable Lady Susan Hussey, Baroness of North Bradley, GCVO like some kind of insolent waitress who displayed insufficient deference.
I’ll add that pretty much everyone else on the planet would’ve been delighted above the Moon to get invited to Buckingham Palace. It’s time to face the fact that blacks will never be happy living among us, no much how the government caters to them. Why bother trying? What are we getting out of it?
The aftermath
Getting one’s kicks over becoming indignant is one thing. These days, broadcasting it to the world is far more rewarding yet. After her tender feelings were hurt, Ms. Fulani took to Twitter about it. This spun up the usual sort of viral tempest in a teapot. Just over five hours later, the Baroness resigned from her duties, which she’d held since 1960. For her tireless work for the late Queen as Woman of the Bedchamber, she’d earned the Royal Household Long and Faithful Service Medal. Since the widow was resolutely soldiering on at the age of 83, it’s probable she had every intention of serving the family she loved until the very end. Because of cancel culture, and the bad societal habit of taking clowns seriously, it was not to be.
Since then, the Microaggression Heard Around the World hasn’t stopped bubbling through the news cycle. For one thing, there’s the headline “UK has never looked uglier and that’s why I’ll never stop talking about racism.” (Feast your eyes on the pictures and decide for yourself.) According to other accounts, the Baroness deeply regretted causing offense; others yet indicate that she tried to smooth things over. Still, that wasn’t enough. This wasn’t about to end with the “injured party” saying this was much too unimportant to ruin a career. Buckingham Palace, of course, cranked up the obsequiousness to eleven:
Certainly, Prince William’s spokesman was unequivocal. ‘Racism has no place in our society,’ he said. ‘The comments were unacceptable and it is right that the individual has stepped aside with immediate effect.’
Other than that, the headline “King Charles ‘Horrified And Humiliated’ By Camilla After Racist Incident At Queen’s Event” sort of speaks for itself. If the article is to be believed, the King of Freaking England got upset because his bird the Queen Consort of Freaking England failed to intervene personally. (That’s her job?) If the backstairs gossip on which that article was grounded is true, then I’ll speculate that King Charles voluntold his old friend the Baroness to resign. Now His Majesty has invited her back — not his family’s faithful lady-in-waiting who helped raise him and who lately got thrown under the bus, but rather Ngozi Fulani. Really, Chuck? I couldn’t make up this codswallop if I tried.
By now, do we really need any more evidence that Enoch Powell was right? With all the pearl-clutching afoot, it’s only a matter of time before there are demands to rename Buckingham Palace because it has “buck” in it. Thereupon the royal family will apologize profusely and aptly change the “B” to a “C.”
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26 comments
Just grotesque, all of it. Poor little old lady worked her whole life to serve the “royal” family and in the end gets thrown out like trash for asking an entirely polite question and I seriously doubt she touched that baboon’s hair.
This is just a version of a chimp-out.
At my office last week a coworker apologized for having chosen two white people for jobs after the interviews were over. Mind you, no POC even applied. I literally laughed out loud when she said it.
I figure she’s pretty devastated by losing the job she’s had since 1960. It’s just rotten.
It’s astonishing how these Western countries with systemic oppression against BIPOC’s and other marginalized communities keep allowing BIPOC’s and other marginalized communities to push them around. Are they unaware of the tremendous power these oppressive systems of white supremacy afford them?
Although I think “cuck” has been overused, the last two sentences were gold.
They just keep coming by the millions, all so they can be oppressed. How weird is that, right?
I rescind any charitable thought I ever had about Prince William (like thinking he was better than his brother) with immediate effect.
As it is now, they don’t deserve to be the country’s pretend-rulers.
Prince William sold out his Godmother faster than a Jew dives for a nickel
When the Negros finalize their takeover of England the BBC won’t have to change its acronym.
They’ve already done it!
The Historical Event as narrated by The Guardian :
Prince William’s godmother quits palace over comments to black charity boss
Former lady-in-waiting to queen issues apology after Ngozi Fulani questioned over where her ‘people’ came from
Ngozi Fulani, left, at a reception at Buckingham Palace Photograph: Kin Cheung/PA
Caroline Davies and Hannah Summers
Wed 30 Nov 2022 16.18 GMT
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The late queen’s lady-in-waiting has resigned and apologised after a black guest at a reception hosted by the queen consort was left feeling traumatised and violated after she questioned her repeatedly about where she “really came from”.
Ngozi Fulani, the founder of the charity Sistah Space, claimed Susan Hussey moved her hair to reveal her name badge and persistently questioned her over where her “people” came from, despite having been told she was a British national.
A spokesperson for the Prince of Wales, who is Lady Hussey’s godson, said the comments were unacceptable and that “racism has no place in our society”.
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The encounter on Tuesday at a violence against women and girls reception was witnessed by two other women: Mandu Reid, the leader of the Women’s Equality party, who is of mixed heritage, and another black female charity representative.
Hussey, 83, the widow of the former BBC chair Sir Marmaduke Hussey, had recently been appointed one of the ladies of the household. She is a close friend of the king. Her daughter, Katherine Brooke, has just been appointed as one of Camilla’s new queen’s companions.
Buckingham Palace described the remarks as “unacceptable and deeply regrettable”. Hussey has offered her “profound apologies” for hurt caused and resigned her honorary position with immediate effect.
Fulani wrote on Twitter: “Mixed feelings about yesterday’s visit to Buckingham Palace. 10 mins after arriving, a member of staff, Lady SH, approached me, moved my hair to see my name badge. The conversation below took place. The rest of the event is a blur.”
She then described the conversation:
Lady SH: Where are you from?
Me: Sistah Space.
SH: No, where do you come from?
Me: We’re based in Hackney.
SH: No, what part of Africa are YOU from?
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Me: I don’t know, they didn’t leave any records.
SH: Well, you must know where you’re from, I spent time in France. Where are you from?
Me: Here, UK
SH: NO, but what Nationality are you?
Me: I am born here and am British.
SH: No, but where do you really come from, where do your people come from?
Me: ‘My people’, lady, what is this?
SH: Oh I can see I am going to have a challenge getting you to say where you’re from. When did you first come here?
Me: Lady! I am a British national, my parents came here in the 50s when …
SH: Oh, I knew we’d get there in the end, you’re Caribbean!
Me: No Lady, I am of African heritage, Caribbean descent and British nationality.
SH: Oh, so you’re from …”
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Buckingham Palace said: “We take this incident extremely seriously and have investigated immediately to establish the full facts. In this instance unacceptable and deeply regrettable comments have been made. We have reached out to Ngozi Fulani on this matter, and we are inviting her to discuss all elements of her experience in person if she wishes.
“In the meantime, the individual concerned would like to express her profound apologies for the hurt caused and has stepped aside from her honorary role with immediate effect.”
Lady Susan Hussey with Queen Elizabeth II and her racing manager John Warren at Royal Ascot in June 2021. Photograph: Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty Images
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The comments were condemned widely on Twitter. Replying to messages of support, Fulani tweeted: “I think it is essential to acknowledge that trauma has occurred and being invited and then insulted has caused much damage.
She wrote: “There was nobody to report it to. I couldn’t report it to the Queen Consort, plus it was such a shock to me and the 2 other women we were stunned into temporary silence. I just stood at the edge of the room, smiled & engaged briefly, with those who spoke to me until I could leave.”
She added: “It was such a struggle to stay in a space you were violated in.”
She told the Guardian the first “no no” was Hussey moving her hair.
“Here I am in this place as part of the 16 days of activism, experiencing non-physical violence – you feel like you have the right to approach me, put your hand in my hair and insist I don’t have the right to British nationality. In a space like that, what do you do?”
She said she had “never felt so unwelcome or so uncomfortable”.
She said: “I was almost forced to say that I’m not really British. I don’t know what she meant by ‘my people’. It was incomprehensible for her to consider that I have British citizenship. When she heard my parents were from the Caribbean she said: ‘Finally we are getting somewhere’ … It was overt racism.
Of Hussey’s resignation, she said: “It’s tragic for me that it has ended that way. I would have preferred that she had been spoken to or re-educated.”
Reid, who witnessed the encounter, said it left the three women “shell-shocked”. They were invited as guests, she said. “We were made to feel in a way like trespassers.
“It was pretty shocking, because we didn’t feel welcome. We didn’t feel that we belonged. We felt our legitimacy in a way was challenged and questioned. It’s the last thing I’d expect when I have been invited.”
She suggested the palace household could benefit from cultural competency training of the sort run by Sistah Space. “You can’t, on the one hand, wang on about the Commonwealth and embracing the Commonwealth family, and yet people like us, the three of us, are treated as if we don’t belong.”
Describing it as an example of “institutional racism”, she said: “They have to take responsibility for it. They’ve got to show leadership. Not only in their own realm, but they have to take leadership for the country and for the Commonwealth they claim to preside over.”
She said: “It’s about the culture within the institution of the royal family. We’ve got a new king now who has a chance to actually signal that he wants to do something better, to do something different.”
It is not the first time the royal institution has faced claims of racism. In their interview with Oprah Winfrey, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex made claims of racism against the family, which were denied by Prince William.
Analysis
Lady Hussey’s racist remarks will take an already bruised palace two steps back
Caroline Davies
One can only imagine how many Commonwealth countries must view what allegedly passes for small talk at a reception
Lady Susan Hussey attends a service at Chelmsford Cathedral in 2014. Photograph: Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty Images
Wed 30 Nov 2022 19.09 GMT
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The resignation of Lady Susan Hussey after making “unacceptable and deeply regrettable comments” to a black female guest at a Buckingham Palace reception will undoubtedly cast a gloomy shadow over the beginning of the king’s reign.
No matter that Lady Hussey, 83, who served six long loyal decades as lady-in-waiting to the late Queen – and who was nicknamed “No 1 Head Girl” by royal staff – is not a key aide in the king’s private office. She is a close friend of Charles, who made her a godmother to his eldest son, William.
Her new job title, announced only last week, was as one of three Ladies-of-the-Household, there to assist at palace functions and the like. Nevertheless, it is a public-facing, honorary role.
For a royal family still bruised by allegations aired on TV by the Duchess of Sussex regarding matters of race, which have been vehemently denied, any whiff of controversy on the subject will be greeted with abject horror.
More especially, this is already an acutely sensitive time for the House of Windsor. The long-awaited Netflix documentary on Harry and Meghan is, reportedly, finally due to air next week.
If the couple’s interview with US TV host Oprah Winfrey – in which they claimed an unnamed member of the royal family speculated on the skin tone of their first-born, Archie – is any yardstick, Buckingham Palace is right to be braced. And they remain so for the publication of Harry’s candid memoir, Spare, in the new year.
There will be huge disappointment at this latest controversy. The reception at which Ngozi Fulani, chief executive of the charity Sistah Space, was subjected to interrogation over where she was “really from” was a key event in the new Queen Consort’s diary. It had been billed as a “new high-water mark” in Camilla’s violence against women and girls (VAWG) work, and a platform from which she would deliver her first major speech in her new position.
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Coverage of the event has been overtaken by headlines on the fallout from Hussey’s comments and her resignation.
The incident also threatens to overshadow the first day of the Prince and Princess of Wales’s visit to Boston to promote William’s Earthshot environment prize, due to culminate in an award ceremony and a possible meeting with the US president, Joe Biden.
It is just two weeks since the king welcomed the South African president, Cyril Ramaphosa, to Buckingham Palace with a state banquet during which he spoke of “acknowledging the wrongs” that shaped the pasts of the two nations.
South Africa is part of the Commonwealth, of which Charles is head. One can only imagine how many Commonwealth countries must view headlines such as that generated by what allegedly passes for small talk by a trusted aide at a palace reception.
Sorry, I don’t think this is very readable.
Maybe you’ll prefer this:
https://vdare.com/posts/the-dangers-of-asking-black-ladies-where-are-you-from
How is it not very readable??
It was the format, after publishing the text it appeared on my screen with all the letters mixed up.
They invited the Igbo-Appropriator back? Cuckingsham Palace indeed!
When your King surrenders because he fears a newspaper and he invites in a rabble from the gutters in place of his noblewomen you need a new King. May this provide and opportunity for an entirely new line. Weren’t the Tudors forged from a pretender who had the guile to claim he was nobility and then the balls to back it up with force of arms?
This is too painful to read about anymore. Off with these cuckholded traitors heads.
For the last fifty years or so its always been doubtful if Prince Charles would rise to the occasion and now we know. I’m British myself and the same age as him. I have always like the guy but his and his son’s impression of Quisling rather lacks our traditional stiff upper lip. Pity
“No, hun, I mean where are your people from when you’re shaking us down for free sh*t?”
I’ve never had it confirmed, but in my many years of living in a vibrant neighborhood I’ve become convinced that blacks from a young age are taught to look at whites as easy marks that you can exploit. Now, the targeting for violence and swindling seem like a no-brainer, but more times than I can count I’ve been asked either for a cigarette or change after a brief and pleasant exchange with a stranger. Because I’m a decent person, I hold doors open, smile and say hello when making eye contact, etc. but what almost always seems to follow is a “Hey man, you got a quarter?” or something similar. I even had a young boy who would ask me to do a trick on my skateboard and then follow it with a request for a dollar or a quarter. He was too young to conceal his deceit(the sly smile was a dead giveaway) and I could tell his game so after giving him some change once or twice I told him no, politely of course. The next time I skated by he yelled honky and other names at me. Anyone else notice this as often as I do?
I couldn’t agree more. I almost delight in saying no when asked for change by negroes. Thankfully, it rarely happens where I live.
It’s kinda cruel, but I once was walking with a friend who smokes, when panhandler asked him for a cigarette, to which he replied, “I’ll sell you one for a dollar.” The guy fished in his pockets then said he didn’t have one. So my friend said, “No problem,” smiled pleasantly and walked away while tapping the cigarette back into the pack.
Lol. The guy he said it to wasn’t black, unfortunately, but I think that would be a great tool to keep in one’s arsenal, especially for the right contemptful and entitled Person of Darkness.
In Omaha we have a problem with panhandlers at intersections on the medians. I bought 500 fake $1,000,000 bills with Trump’s face on the front from Amazon for about ten bucks and I would draw a little speech bubble that said “Make America Work Again” to hand out to them.
Brutal. Lol
Shellshocked I’m telling you!!!
Poor Ngosi, I can understand her traumatization and the word “shellshocked” has seen no more apropos use since it was coined in World War-I, than here. Being traumatized was bad enough but being captive in the castle while being violated is even worse. In fact the WW-I trench soldiers, for whom the word was devised, had it easy compared to the: dare we say it, Enslaved violation of Ngosi.
There is One possible temporary remediation; and it won’t preclude the justice of a financial recompense for poor Ngosi,
I think it would be appropriate for Buckingham Place to apologize by serving Ngosi Foolani for a year. Prince William, heir to the throne, can serve as her Uber car driver for one year!
He will wear his Royal get-up while doing this and it would indicate a level of service not seen since the service of the Roman Emperor Valerian towards the Sassanian (post-Persian) King Shapur-I. The Emperor and a small retinue went out to negotiate with Shapur and was captured. Valerian had to serve as his personal footstool to help him mount his horse. He’d wear his official attire as Roman Emperor while serving as footstool for the rest of his life. It’s one of the most notable examples of humble service in history.
Clearly, Buckingham Place has to do something palliative and quickly. The Netflix miniseries about the persecution of almost-Queen Megan Markley is out now.
According to Nigel Farage, it was a set-up, Marlene Headlay carrying a tape recorder (hence the transcript).
Fulani was either wired or she used her cell phone (which you’re not supposed to bring to Buck Palace) and had a friend scribble down what was being said.
In related news, the MSM are seriously asking if Meghan’s new Netflix series could bring down the monarchy. If the self-serving complaints of a second-rate American actress can lead to the collapse of the House of Windsor, then the foundations must already be eaten away by dry rot.
The Brits need to replace this monarchy with one that will work for the real British people.
I’d say just abolish the monarchy altogether but, in order to purge the island of non-British, you will need a leader who is invested with absolute power to instruct the government.
Looks like the royals still have some clout. The woman here pissed off the wrong person with her whining about racism…
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11536883/Watchdog-assessing-claims-against-palace-race-row-accusers-charity-string-allegations.html
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