honeybadgerpress.ca

Monarchy is Archaic

Individual monarchs not racist but institution different story

As published in the Guardian 15 Nov. 2022

Unfortunately, Bloc Quebecois leader Yves Blanchet correctly describes the British monarchy as a “racist” and “archaic" institution. That admission does not support his separatism or validate his presence in Canada’s parliament.

Post Media editorialists correctly note the anti-slavery activities of queen Victoria and queen Elizabeth’s efforts to end South African apartheid. However their inductive reasoning presents both a misleading conclusion and a narrow view of British history.

Certain monarchs may not have been racist but the institution of British royalty was employed to sanitize and justify centuries of imperial racism and violence in Scotland, Ireland, Africa, the Caribbean, India, and the Middle East and elsewhere.

The crown’s complicity in this profitable oppression lies in the refusal of individual monarchs to defend those people whose territory or resources were seized and exploited for British benefit at local expense.

Queen Elizabeth herself often counselled her subjects against dwelling on the past. British royalty has ample reason to discourage determined scrutiny of its actions and worse, failures to act.

Until royalty fully acknowledges its official role in Britain’s long history of imperial violence, it will remain stubbornly unaccountable and thus, archaic.