Oh Harry, I really was rooting for you.
I still am, to be fair. I’m a massive fan of your refusal to maintain the Royal Family’s conspiracy of silence or to accept their disrespect towards Meghan.
But Sunday night’s chat with ITV’s Tom Bradby contained two concerning mis-steps.
In defending Lady Susan Hussey over the incident in which she appeared to use racially offensive language towards Sistah Space founder Ngozi Fulani, you inadvertently legitimised the people whose heads are in the sand over the Palace’s race issues.
The actions of Lady Hussey, accused of moving Ngozi Fulani’s hair out the way and subjecting her to an interrogation about where she’s “really” from, do constitute racism Harry.
Asking where “your people” come from suggests that because of their skin colour or appearance, they cannot genuinely be from the UK.
“Concerns and conversations” about baby Archie’s skin colour before his birth? They too represent the kind of rhetoric that ordinary people recognise as being way out of line.
To be fair to you and Meghan, you didn’t use the R word in your interview with Oprah Winfrey last year. You simply told the story. It was everybody else who correctly interpreted the offensive nature of the comments.
But you are on dangerous territory when you suggest – the other mis-step – that the comments represent “unconscious bias” and not racism.
It allows individuals to escape accountability. To hide. To weaponise your perspective, given your status and your enlightenment.
Yes, we all have biases. We all make snap judgments based on our flawed set of beliefs. What we don’t all do, however, is act on these biases in a way that hurts other people.
Lady Hussey chose not to educate herself. She simply blundered with Ngozi Fulani.
We’ve heard enough remarks over the past few decades from your family, the most famous in the world, to know that Lady Hussey’s comments were just a snapshot of the culture (Google ‘Royal Family and examples of racism’) you grew up around inside Buckingham Palace.
From Prince Philip referring to the Chinese as having “slitty eyes” and fuse boxes looking as though they’d “been put in by an Indian”, to Princess Michael of Kent making a public apology after she was accused of wearing a racist brooch to lunch with Meghan.
Ordinary people will have recoiled in horror at you and your brother arguing over a continent (‘Africa is my thing!’) as though it is a Christmas present.
The world is changing. It is moving towards accepting that unconscious bias is frequently used to excuse systemic discrimination.
While this column is a big supporter of yours, you’ve muddied the waters with Sunday night’s interview. Just as you’d tell a friend where he or she had got it wrong, it is important for people to do so now.
The words and positions of allies are never unquestionable – however high their status. What would appear to be the case here is that your understandable desire to be reconciled with your brother and father has diluted your position.
The trouble is, it is too important an issue for ordinary people not to address it.
