The British Monarchy

[tolmie's hairdoo]

Poor lady, a lifetime of service, sacked because she asked a genuine question of someone in traditional African dress, who chose not to understand or appreciate that the continued probing wasn't the actions of someone trying to dismiss her Britishness; but to recognise and understand their truer heritage.

At a function trying to recognise some of the atrocities committed against young women in some of these countries.

A victim of a generational disconnect, not the actions of a racist, who are much more covert in their disgusting views of someone's skin colour.

We've jumped the shark at this point.

People can and are born British, but still champion their roots and must take every opportunity to do so, especially when an old lady who has probably visited more African countries than most, is trying to engage in genuine, polite conversation, however clumsy?

As always, I don't walk in the shoes of someone of colour, but that's my personal view from this side of the white fence!!

 

[ChicagoBlue]

Over here, because of my accent, people ask me all the time where I'm from. Not content with the town I live as an answer, they ask again, where, which country and where in the country?

My wife the same, once they know that her parents came over from Germany, they want to know where in Germany.

Why is this any different to Lady Whatsername enquiring where this womans people were from? Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya? Perhaps with her travels with the Queen, she had some personal knowledge and interest in African countries. Much like many do here with their questioning of me, because they still have family in the UK or had family move over. Perhaps they were familiar with the country from a vacation or have had their kids study/work there.

I'm annoyed with the palace and their pandering response to this.

Where is the racism in asking where a persons family are from during polite conversation? How the hell do these people manage at something like a wedding with a table of strangers, do they not talk to each other?

Should I be offended when people ask me?

Perhaps I'm just far too tolerant and don't have a misguided agenda in life.

I fly internationally, with international crews, and am a U.S. pilot with an English accent!! Not only do I get it all the time, we ALL have the conversation constantly!!

Recently had a flight where all 3 pilots on the flight deck and half the FAs had foreign accents! We had a Brit, Belgian and a Kraut German upfront (all 3 of us with “foreign” spouses!) and the discussions about America and the World Cup were very interesting! No one got their knickers in a twist over a misspoken word here or there, because everything was pleasant and taken IN CONTEXT.

Imho, this old lady’s comments were removed from the pleasant context in which they were intended, then critically dissected.

If all of our words or actions were treated that way, we would miss 90% of life trying to parse everything so no one was ever “offended.”

 

[Elbow beards]

What no one's mentioned is the woman's name, Ngozi Fulani, quite clearly a foreign name. She looked at her name badge and enquired where she's from.
When I first met a work colleague,she told me her name, straight away I said "oh, are you greek?" she pointed out it was Italian. She was English,born and bred in Yorkshire, she didn't feel the need to take offence that I was enquiring about her heritage and we had a good conversation about her roots.

 

[Tim of the Oak]

So the 83 year old has given her profound apologies and lost her job. Fulani said that’s not enough. I’m not sure if Fulani would be satisfied with a public flogging or does she want more extreme retribution (and compensation)?

I am happy to report that Fulani has recovered sufficiently to appear on Breakfast TV.

 

[heslops barnet]

So the 83 year old has given her profound apologies and lost her job. Fulani said that’s not enough. I’m not sure if Fulani would be satisfied with a public flogging or does she want more extreme retribution (and compensation)?

I am happy to report that Fulani has recovered sufficiently to appear on Breakfast TV.

I give up or am I just getting old?

 

[Tim of the Oak]

I give up or am I just getting old?

It’s a joke and “the Palace” have gone along with it.

I help with some volunteer groups. I asked a young woman on Wednesday where she came from. I thought she was going to say another part of Britain (as some of the volunteers are students) but she said Lisbon in Portugal. We had a good chat about Portugal and I learnt that Lisbon life had a faster pace, a bit like a smaller London. Maybe I won’t ask in future.

 

[J.G.Blue.]

sometimes Its difficult, I was working for an old lady in our local village (in shropshire) when a courier driver turned up with a parcel asking if we knew where the house number on the parcel was, he was Black but also had a really strong Birmingham accent,
We had a bit of a chat & the old lady said to the driver "your not from round here are you" which I thought was a fair comment because of his accent but the driver looked shocked & said something about racists & walked off back to his van shaking his head,
I still dont know if the old lady was being racist or just interested in where the bloke came from?

 

[Berts Neck]

I was born in Manchester but my parents are not English. I became a GP and was often interested in people's backgrounds/names and would quite often ask them about their heritage as firstly, it relaxed them, and having travelled extensively perhaps share some anecdotes. Not once did anyone compain or fail to answer. Showing an interest is different to racism. In fact my surname is very non English and many people ask me where it comes from and this issue made me think, if I was an obnxious bugger I could call the police, get the shopworker sacked, whatever. In my life that never crossed my mind, just nice people, showing an interest.

 

[The perfect fumble]

There is certainly some agenda(s) at work I agree, even if it's as basic as the media whipping up a shit-storm to generate clicks/views and sell papers.

There are thousands of news stories everyday, this one on the surface is a nothing story, it doesn't contain any of the usual elements for clicks, it has no celebrities, there's nothing salacious about it, it's not even that interesting, yet it runs and runs.
So the news story is not the story, it's why it's the news story that is the story.

 

[heslops barnet]

I was born in Manchester but my parents are not English. I became a GP and was often interested in people's backgrounds/names and would quite often ask them about their heritage as firstly, it relaxed them, and having travelled extensively perhaps share some anecdotes. Not once did anyone compain or fail to answer. Showing an interest is different to racism. In fact my surname is very non English and many people ask me where it comes from and this issue made me think, if I was an obnxious bugger I could call the police, get the shopworker sacked, whatever. In my life that never crossed my mind, just nice people, showing an interest.

Unfortunately a sign of the times we now live in……