Yesterday, Queen Camilla hosted a reception at Buckingham Palace as part of her work with the United Nations’ 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence. Camilla has done work with women’s shelters and rape crisis centers in the UK – that’s one of the big issues in her patronage portfolio, violence against women. The headline from the reception was supposed to be about Queen Camilla hosting other notable royal women, including Belgium’s Queen Mathilde, Crown Princess Mary of Denmark and Queen Rania of Jordan. Ukraine’s First Lady was also in attendance, along with representatives from British organizations and nonprofits who work in this area.
One of the attendees was Ngozi Fulani. Fulani is CEO of Sistah Space, described as “Specialist support for African & Caribbean heritage women affected by abuse.” Fulani posted on social media about what happened to her at the reception:
— Sistah Space (@Sistah_Space) November 30, 2022
— Sistah Space (@Sistah_Space) November 30, 2022
I actually got nauseous reading that dialogue. The first part of the conversation happens all the time, to everyone brown and Black. I’ve had similar conversations throughout my life – “where are you from? No, really, what are you?” Most people drop it after one or two questions. The palace aide who spoke to Fulani was clearly contemptibly racist and solely focused on being offensive as possible.
Hours after Fulani posted her account, Buckingham Palace announced that “a member of the household has resigned and apologized after ‘unacceptable and deeply regrettable comments’ were made to Ngozi Fulani.” No, I want to know the person’s name. I want to know if the person was a long-time member of Camilla’s staff. I want to know the person’s position. I want to know what Camilla has to say about this. Oh, Omid Scobie named the person – Lady Susan Hussey. Hussey is very well-connected and it speaks volumes that she felt the need to treat a Black woman like this.
STATEMENT: pic.twitter.com/9q1M25V5Cf
— Omid Scobie (@scobie) November 30, 2022