Princess Michael of Kent has apologised for wearing a racist brooch to royal Christmas.
According to The Telegraph, a spokesperson for the wife of Queen Elizabeth’s cousin said she was not aware the brooch in question was racist.
As per the statement:
“The brooch was a gift and has been worn many times before. Princess Michael is very sorry and distressed that it has caused offence.”
A source added there was “no malice” intended in wearing the piece.
The brooch itself – a piece of ‘Blackamoor’ art – was first spotted by Lainey Gossip in a photo taken of Princess Michael as she entered royal Christmas.
For years, debate has surfaced about the racist nature of ‘Blackamoor’ art. Appearing in paintings, jewellery and textiles, the ‘art’, according to a piece penned by Anneke Rautenbach for NYU, typically shows men “commonly fixed in positions of servitude—as footmen or waiters, for example—the figures personify fantasies of racial conquest.”
As Lainey Gossip puts it, “this is a piece of jewellery made out of slave imagery”.
Save for Princess Michael, the royal family has not commented on the saga.
For more on Princess Michael of Kent, the racist brooch and a history of racism within the royal family, click here.
Listen: The Mamamia Out Loud team on Meghan Markle at royal Christmas.
Top Comments
I am not stupid enough to question why she owns this. We all know the sordid history of the royal family and its role in oppression, colonisation and all round bigotry. Yet we all also know that is not sigular to this particular royal family. Those things are make up some strange list of ‘must do’ for all ruling classes.
What baffles me is the fact that it was in rotation. This is a woman whose entire existence revolves around the way she presents herself to the world. In the case of so many of these women, it was literally the only kind of education they got. So how does a woman, whose whole life has been spent cultivating an image of herself, suddenly find herself donning a brooche so socially unacceptable it warps our opinion of her?
She means to do it that’s how. On top of all this, how many people did she encounter that didn’t mention that brooche wasn’t the best call? How many would had to say nothing for this to be an accident?
The thing is, this is just indicative of the true attitude towards race that permeates the upper classes in England. It’s a same attitude that I would go as far to say, has been adopted by other Anglo-Saxon colonies that were established in the name of the Queen.
"Depicts men in a position of servitude" sounds like an average day in the life for the acerage bloke in the age of gynocentrism.
There is always one woman hater turning up hey Richard, to tell us how badly men have it nowadays because men can't treat women like trash