The Microaggression Heard Round the World

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 ^[2]), founder of the Sistah Space charity. As the Hull Daily Mail described ^[3]:

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 ^[4]! 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 ^[5] 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 ^[6] that would merit federal protection ^[7] 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!

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 ^[10].” (Feast your eyes on the pictures and decide for yourself.) According to other accounts ^[11], 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 ^[12]” 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 ^[13]. 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 ^[14]? 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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