All eyes are on the Royal family and Buckingham Palace. A history of discrimination has been swept under the rug for years but now that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are free from the Monarchy, the pair have revealed a bit of their sad experience in Royalty. The Guardian uncovered a paper trail showing a history of intentional discrimination.
Buckingham Palace Exposed
The Guardian has just published a report on the long history of racism and discrimination in Buckingham Palace. They uncovered many documents detailing that head courtiers banned "coloured immigrants or foreigners" from being allowed to serve clerical roles in the royal family until the 1960s.
In the report, the documents reveal "how in 1968, the Queen's chief financial manager informed civil servants that 'it was not, in fact, the practice to appoint coloured immigrants or foreigners' to clerical roles in the royal household, although they were permitted to work as domestic servants." On top of this, it was found that during the 1970s the Queen and her aides negotiated with the government to allow the Royal households to be exempt from laws that prohibited discriminatory practices so employees could not sue or hold them accountable.
What was uncovered can be directly linked to the long-running British empire, "which subjugated people around the world. Some members of the royal family have also been critised for their racist comments." One document found that the Palace was aware of the possible ramifications of being exposed for their practices.
A Home Office civil servant found that: "They were particularly concerned that if the proposed legislation applied to the Queen's household it would for the first time make it legally possible to criticise the household. Many people do so already, but this has to be accepted and is on a different footing from a statutory provision."
The Palace has been quietly criticised for years but managed to escape responsibility or change. Apparently, The Sunday Times' Andrew Morton found in 1990 that "a black face has never graced the executive echelons of royal service - the household and officials [and] even among clerical and domestic staff, there is only a handful of recruits from ethnic minorities."
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A Buckingham Palace spokesperson confessed to The Independent in 1997 that it was not "carrying out an officially recommended policy of monitoring staff numbers to ensure equal opportunities." They later adjusted their admission and said "The royal household and the sovereign comply with the provisions of the Equality At, in principle and in practice."
In a statement to E! News, the Palace said "second-hand account of conversations from over 50 years ago" may not be relevant to current operations. The same day The Guardian released their report, the Palace released the exciting plans for Her Majesty's Platinum Jubilee in one year.
The Guardian hoped the report and documents revealed would help refocus the attention of the public on the Royal family's "historical and current relationship with race." We will have to wait and see if the Royal family will address the issues raised and attempt to mend them or continue to hide the embarrassing pattern.
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