Opinion: Will and Kate’s colonial nostalgia tour is about more than disastrous
But we should expect nothing less from a couple so sculpted by their royal duties that when they awkwardly posed with a lifesize model of Bob Marley at a museum on Tuesday it was almost impossible to tell who was the statue.
It really is testament to the unrepentant conservatism of the royal family that Harry and Meghan have opted out, while Will and Kate are wrapped in royal linen. But for this we should be eternally grateful.
The problem isn’t the disastrous photo-ops, which are so horrendous they evolved from offensive to farcical. Will’s grandmother wears gloves to shield her from the masses, whilst he and Kate greet children through a chain link fence.
The result of seeing so many ‘darkies’ in Britain was to try to keep Britain white by limiting immigration from the Empire. But the Caribbean was just as integral a part of the nation as the north of England.
I recently found the passport my dad traveled on to Britain from Jamaica in 1960. I only knew it wasn’t a regular British passport because the word Jamaica was on the front, and had a lower status. The Caribbean is the British equivalent of the American South — the only difference is an ocean that means Britain can pretend these are foreign countries they bear no responsibility for.
Independence was always a farce as the economies of the Caribbean remain dominated by the former empires. The region is kept afloat in part by tourism, which depends on friendly relations with the countries who are rich enough for the citizens to afford exclusive beach holidays.
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