2022.12.05 13:50World eye

英王室、人種差別問題に強硬対応 過去のスキャンダル教訓に、

【ロンドンAFP=時事】英王室で新たに浮上した人種差別問題は、最悪のタイミングで訪れた。昨年に王室内の人種差別を告発したばかりのヘンリー王子は間もなく、ドキュメンタリー番組や新著を通じて王室の内幕を暴露する予定だ。(左から:写真はヘンリー王子、妻のメーガン妃、ウィリアム皇太子、キャサリン皇太子妃)
 今回の問題は、先月29日にバッキンガム宮殿で開かれたレセプションで起きた。王族の側近を長く務めてきたスーザン・ハッシー氏(83)が、英国生まれの英国人である黒人女性のヌゴジ・フラニ氏に対し、「本当はどこから来たのか」と繰り返し尋ね、同氏が英国人だということを受け入れようとしなかった。
 ヘンリー王子の兄で王位継承者のウィリアム皇太子と妻のキャサリン妃が米国訪問を開始する中、フラニ氏はこのやり取りをツイッターに投稿。チャールズ国王は直ちにハッシー氏を王室から追放し、ウィリアム皇太子も、自身の代母(洗礼式の証人)であった同夫人との決別を強いられた。
 フラニ氏は1日、英BBCのインタビューで、ハッシー氏の発言は「私に自分の英国籍を否定させようとする試み」だったと批判。SNSなどでは、多くの有色人種の英国人が、同様の差別的発言を受けた体験を共有した。
 今回の騒動は、チャールズ国王が9月に死去した母エリザベス女王の後を継いで以降に起きたものとしては最も深刻なものだ。ハッシー氏は単なる側近の一人ではなく、60年にわたりエリザベス女王の侍女を務めた人物だった。
 だが、チャールズ国王とウィリアム皇太子は即座に騒動の収束に動き、一部の黒人コメンテーターから称賛された。
 王室は特に、昨年のヘンリー王子夫妻による告発から教訓を得たようだ。黒人の母を持つメーガン妃と王子は、同妃が妊娠中だった赤ちゃんについて、ある王族から人種差別的な発言があったと暴露した。
 これに対し、ウィリアム皇太子は「私たちは人種差別主義の一家では決してない」と反論。一方で王室は、この問題に「内々に」対処するとした。王室はその後、職員の人種構成に関するデータの公表も開始。王室には多様性の面で改善すべき点があることを認めた。
 ウィリアム皇太子夫妻は現在、ボストンを訪問中で、米カリフォルニア州に住むヘンリー王子夫妻も来週ニューヨークを訪問予定。いずれも米東海岸を訪れるものの、王子兄弟が面会する予定はない。
 ヘンリー王子夫妻に対しては、王室から離脱した後、自身の立場を利用して金稼ぎをしているとの批判が上がっている。米動画配信大手ネットフリックスは夫妻のドキュメンタリー番組を間もなく配信する予定。来月には、王子の自伝「スペア」の発売も控えている。
 メーガン妃が王室入りした際、ハッシー氏は王室儀礼の教育担当に任命されたが、ある伝記作家によると、メーガン妃はこの申し出を拒否したという。同夫人はウィリアム皇太子とヘンリー王子の母ダイアナ元皇太子妃に対しても同じ教育役を務めていた。
 NGO「人種平等委員会」の元代表で評論家のトレバー・フィリップス氏は英紙タイムズへの寄稿で、「カリフォルニアからは、メーガン妃が『だから言ったでしょ』と高笑いするのをこらえている音が聞こえてくる」と書いた。【翻訳編集AFPBBNews】
〔AFP=時事〕(2022/12/05-13:50)
2022.12.05 13:50World eye

UK royals show ruthlessness in latest race row


The timing could not have been worse for Britain's royal family, not long after one racial reckoning involving Prince Harry and ahead of a new publicity blitz from the maverick spare heir.
Harry's elder brother Prince William -- the heir to the throne -- has been forced to part ways with one of his godmothers after she used racially charged language to a black British woman at a palace reception on Tuesday.
King Charles III moved rapidly to evict Lady Susan Hussey from the royal household after the hurtful exchange was revealed on Twitter by Ngozi Fulani -- while William and his wife Kate were flying to Boston.
When Hussey started to quiz her about her origins, the UK-born Fulani said she tried to give the 83-year-old courtier the benefit of the doubt.
But it soon dawned on me very quickly that this was nothing to do with her capacity to understand, the charity campaigner, who works with survivors of domestic abuse, told BBC radio on Thursday.
Hussey repeatedly asked Fulani where she was really from, refusing to accept her explanation that she was British.
But this is her trying to make me really denounce my British citizenship, Fulani said, as many other Britons of colour shared similarly demeaning experiences on social and traditional media.
It is the most serious controversy yet since Charles succeeded his mother in September. Hussey was not just any courtier -- she was at Queen Elizabeth II's side for six decades.
But she was unceremoniously dumped as Charles and William moved rapidly to draw a line under the row, earning plaudits from some black commentators.
- 'Shocking' -
Labour MP Diane Abbott, the first black woman to sit in the House of Commons when she was elected in the 1980s, said it was really shocking that a black Briton's identity could be interrogated in this way.
But she told Times Radio that Buckingham Palace had made progress on race issues in the past 10 years.
Back then, they would have said she (Fulani) was oversensitive and just dismissed it, said Abbott.
The palace appears to have taken lessons on board particularly since last year, when Harry and his mixed-race wife Meghan accused an unidentified royal of racism with regard to their unborn baby.
Then, William retorted: We are very much not a racist family. But the family said the matter would be dealt with privately.
The royal household has also begun publishing data on the ethnic breakdown of its staff, admitting it has more to do to ensure due representation.
Yet from their new lives in California, the duke and duchess of Sussex have been portraying themselves as modernising outsiders who tried to take on a reactionary establishment.
Ironies abound as the feuding brothers both find themselves on the US East Coast -- with no plans to meet.
William is set to award an environmental prize in Boston inspired by former president John F. Kennedy's Moonshot ambition in the 1960s.
Next week, Harry and Meghan are due to attend an awards gala in New York held by the human rights foundation of Kennedy's brother Robert.
- Meghan vindicated? -
His daughter Kerry Kennedy says the couple will be recognised for taking a heroic stand against structural racism within the British monarchy.
But for their critics, Harry and Meghan are cashing in after quitting royal duties. A new Netflix documentary is imminent, and the prince's autobiography Spare is due out in January.
UK public opinion had been turning against them, at least until the row over Hussey erupted.
When Meghan entered the family, the lady-in-waiting was assigned to educate her in royal protocol, a role that Hussey also served for William and Harry's mother Diana.
Meghan rejected the offer, according to one biographer.
The stifled horse laugh you can hear emanating from California is the noise of a duchess trying not to guffaw 'I told you so', commentator Trevor Phillips -- a former head of the Commission for Racial Equality -- wrote in The Times.
There is further irony in the row erupting in the week that saw new data from the 2021 census confirm that Britain is more racially diverse -- and less Christian -- than ever before.
Charles himself has a lifelong commitment to multi-culturalism and religious diversity while the government is led by the country's first prime minister of colour, Rishi Sunak.
Phillips added: A mindset that colour codes British identity is not just distasteful and anachronistic, it is unambiguously racist.

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