ENOUGH!

So: Prince Harry and his wife have stepped down from duties as members of the British Royal Family, vowed to repay tax-payer's money spent on the house the Queen gave them, to spend most of their time in Canada and to be financially independant.

This is in response to the unfettered, unrelenting racist jibes Meghan, Duchess of Sussex has received from the moment the British press got wind that someone nearish to the British throne was courting a 'dusky beauty'. It was sort of polite, if totally clueless at the start: references to Meghan's "exotic DNA" and Princes Michael of Kent wearing a bejewelled 'blackamoor' broach when she met Harry's fiancee. It has got progressively worse; Harry broke with protocol and told the press he wouldn't stand for it, so they stepped up the snide comments and attacks.

I became increasingly annoyed. The usual arguments about "The Royals" weren't even dusted off- just rolled out in that particularly British way of envying anyone with more than them. I don't seem myself as a "Royalist" but it bothers me when ignorance about how they're funded and what they own, let alone how they might contribute to the country becomes currency. Finally, more and more people began to call out the racism directed against the duchess and then it REALLY began. Wypipo I know challenged black people's assessments of racism because they didn't experience it as such or they were "sure" the perpetrator didn't mean it. It came to a head when an acquaintance tried to teach me via Facebook the history of golliwog dolls. I'd bet that more black people know a lot more about racist symbols like golliwog dolls than wypipo. I KNOW that wypipo didn't have to navigate the "banter" generated by racist seventies TV "comedies" which made name-calling acceptable. They don't have to accept images designed to denigrate as "cultural artefacts" and have their objections dismissed as "over-sensitivity" or racism. 

Britain's bargain-basement "Shock Jock"; Piers Morgan who led the charge against any acceptance of any blame from the British press, because HE didn't think what was said was racist. He dismisses and berates anyone invited to his show who doesn't share his views, he talks over them like the show-off bully-boy who invites kids to his house where he feels most confident. Usually (comparatively) innoffensives like Phillip Schofield and Eamonn Holmes whined about not recognising the racism people of colour were identifying, Holmes went as far as to say that although he'd not met her, there was just something about Markle he didn't like... I wonder what that could possibly be. Meghan has been accused of manipulating her husband and "wrecking" the monarchy. Harry has said he won't play the same game that led to the death of his mother...

Something 'pinged' in my brain. It occurred to me that I give too many wypipo a free pass because they talk from a place of pure ignorance rather than malice. But they can kiss my black unruly ass from now on! I see that I've been enabling them to grow comfortable in an ignorance which elevates them subconsciously above me. Racists have become increasingly emboldened in UK since the Brexit referendum. Nobody thought those with racist views had really changed their minds, but it wasn't acceptable to voice those views until after the referendum. It feels like a slide back to the seventies. Citizens "concerned" about immigration aren't racists - even when it is obvious that is exactly what they are, but this "concern" casts a protective shield over them and allows them to talk crap unopposed. 

Some upper-class-twit-luvvie: son of James Fox, graduate of Harrow raised his ratings by spouting ignorant privaleged wypipo shit on BBC Question Time. He got slapped for it which boosted his ratings and got him onto another show where he was even more racist which generated more column inches and people who'd never heard of this twat have been discussing him for days.

So, I am angry. I am fucking angry actually. There are things about my life I feel it would be lazy of me to blame on institutional and casual racism, but I think about how different the life of the guy I sat next to at school or my room mate at university or some frankly talentless people with or for whom I've had to work and the bile rises. I'm not going to bite people's heads off when they say the things that I'll allow to trigger me from now on, but I WILL make them aware that it isn't OK and that if they don't knock it off it will be the end of positive interactions with me and I will reserve the right to wage all out war.