Respectfully. what does being “white” have to do with any of this? I am white and I can see that the British Monarchy had more than a noble hand in the destruction of cultures and outright murder of innocents. You lost me in your first paragraph and I stopped reading, but then reconsidered that maybe you had a point to make. Nope. You didn’t. Then you invoked being white again as some kind of catch all for your own narrow world view. When are writers like you going to wake up and recognize that being born is not a conscious choice? More than that, when will you ever understand that the movement toward righteousness in America, especially, would not have happened as quickly without camaraderie between countless people of all races? I had no choice in being born white anymore than another traveler on this blue marble who may have been born with different skin. Some of us “whites” actually care about the human race and are conscious about our place in the world. If this world. We don’t need you to pump out dreck like this that cuts through the complexity of our world with the intellectual weight of a smoke ring.
I really like this. I was also thinking about how historically the death of a monarch or pope was treated with lots of derision and commentary from the working classes, much to the horror of the middle/upper classes. Feels like a similar impulse except we all have a potentially much larger platform now!
I have been feeling this way too. My professor is Jamaican and so we talked a lot about this (head of state in their government as a representative for the crown in 2022! Ha the legacy of her family and that crown is heavy and people need to understand what that actually means) in our class and their move to be completely free of Englands grip. I think a lot of people—particularly Americans because we are very wrapped up in us—don’t really link those past crimes to how so many countries operate and peoples trajectories are linked back to her family’s empire. I’m not going to dance on her grave but people can deal with this news how they feel they need to.
The Queen had no power politically, she was only a symbol of tradition and ceremony. Her life was decided by Prime Ministers, Bureaucrats, and the Media. She was told where to go and what to do. So was her father, her grandfather, her great grandfather, and great great grandmother. A constitutional monarch is only a symbol, not in a position to criticize or make a decision.
It is her signature on India's Independence. It is her signature on Canada's sovereignty, along with many other countries in the Commonwealth, which her signature created.
You are judging her with today's rose coloured glasses and laying everything from history at her feet in the 20th Century. - Is blaming you for everything your ancestors did and judging your character based on their behaviours over the last 200 years appropriate?
Where we start in life is up to the decisions and actions of our parents and grandparents, where we end up is 100% up to us - she represented us as the British Empire unravelled - so why judge her harshly?
There is much to agree with in this article. That the British monarch, particularly the longest serving in history, represents the 1,000 year assault on peoples across the globe to enrich themselves at other’s expense isn’t shocking. It is rather racist to act like this just adversely affected people of color. It doesn’t and at least you mentioned in passing the folks that suffered the longest, the Irish. But the vast abuse of those thought of as savages, the people whose land was stolen to enrich the British and other western colonizers, is shocking. And a number of theses now independent nations politicians revere her is crazy. But what is most offensive here, and it happens daily, is the author’s use of ‘White people believe this …’ refrain. No, they don’t. White people, just like black or brown are not monolithic. Would the author say, ‘Black people do this or that?’ No. So untimely the author is a racist. And this just isn’t right. You can’t rail against the behavior of others and then do it yourself. ‘They deserve it’ doesn’t cut it.
Respectfully. what does being “white” have to do with any of this? I am white and I can see that the British Monarchy had more than a noble hand in the destruction of cultures and outright murder of innocents. You lost me in your first paragraph and I stopped reading, but then reconsidered that maybe you had a point to make. Nope. You didn’t. Then you invoked being white again as some kind of catch all for your own narrow world view. When are writers like you going to wake up and recognize that being born is not a conscious choice? More than that, when will you ever understand that the movement toward righteousness in America, especially, would not have happened as quickly without camaraderie between countless people of all races? I had no choice in being born white anymore than another traveler on this blue marble who may have been born with different skin. Some of us “whites” actually care about the human race and are conscious about our place in the world. If this world. We don’t need you to pump out dreck like this that cuts through the complexity of our world with the intellectual weight of a smoke ring.
*some white people*
I don't like being categorized into one group, as I am sure you don't either.
I really like this. I was also thinking about how historically the death of a monarch or pope was treated with lots of derision and commentary from the working classes, much to the horror of the middle/upper classes. Feels like a similar impulse except we all have a potentially much larger platform now!
I have been feeling this way too. My professor is Jamaican and so we talked a lot about this (head of state in their government as a representative for the crown in 2022! Ha the legacy of her family and that crown is heavy and people need to understand what that actually means) in our class and their move to be completely free of Englands grip. I think a lot of people—particularly Americans because we are very wrapped up in us—don’t really link those past crimes to how so many countries operate and peoples trajectories are linked back to her family’s empire. I’m not going to dance on her grave but people can deal with this news how they feel they need to.
The Queen had no power politically, she was only a symbol of tradition and ceremony. Her life was decided by Prime Ministers, Bureaucrats, and the Media. She was told where to go and what to do. So was her father, her grandfather, her great grandfather, and great great grandmother. A constitutional monarch is only a symbol, not in a position to criticize or make a decision.
It is her signature on India's Independence. It is her signature on Canada's sovereignty, along with many other countries in the Commonwealth, which her signature created.
You are judging her with today's rose coloured glasses and laying everything from history at her feet in the 20th Century. - Is blaming you for everything your ancestors did and judging your character based on their behaviours over the last 200 years appropriate?
Where we start in life is up to the decisions and actions of our parents and grandparents, where we end up is 100% up to us - she represented us as the British Empire unravelled - so why judge her harshly?
There is much to agree with in this article. That the British monarch, particularly the longest serving in history, represents the 1,000 year assault on peoples across the globe to enrich themselves at other’s expense isn’t shocking. It is rather racist to act like this just adversely affected people of color. It doesn’t and at least you mentioned in passing the folks that suffered the longest, the Irish. But the vast abuse of those thought of as savages, the people whose land was stolen to enrich the British and other western colonizers, is shocking. And a number of theses now independent nations politicians revere her is crazy. But what is most offensive here, and it happens daily, is the author’s use of ‘White people believe this …’ refrain. No, they don’t. White people, just like black or brown are not monolithic. Would the author say, ‘Black people do this or that?’ No. So untimely the author is a racist. And this just isn’t right. You can’t rail against the behavior of others and then do it yourself. ‘They deserve it’ doesn’t cut it.