Susan Hussey, Baroness Hussey of North Bradley, once Lady-inWaiting

[mrceral]

Thanks for offering your perspective. Yes, it's a whole host of issues (that everyone in the black community faces) and the misogynoir in the discourse about Meghan is unacceptable and problematic for that reason. It further divides people and that is not right, not for Meg, not for the average person.

It's apples an oranges. If, as several domestic violence victims have stated, Ngozi (not the charity, but accounts specify it is the woman herself) turned them away for not being "black enough", then how can it not be racist? Ngozi is doing to others what she claims Lady S did to her: seek out the specific details of where "their people come from" before engaging further.

They are serving one subset of the population, I get it. There's just something profoundly ugly in making someone feel like a "mutt" when they are trying to escape a frightening abuse situation. It is utterly dehumanizing.

Edit: I missed one quote

Which is her fault for taking it to social media. She is a grown woman who can see the way issues around this matter (BRF and race) explode on platforms. She wanted the engagement and clout but wasn't mature enough to brace for the fact that once the story is out, you can't control the narrative nor the reaction.
It's awful and, of course, my heart goes out to any DV victims who now can't access resources they need. They're the ones most hurt by all of this now.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts. It has given me a lot to consider.

Thank you for the response!

I don’t know enough about her organization to say anything with confidence, but oftentimes organizations will be strict about who they serve because once you go into a grey area, you can quickly exceed your capacity to serve. That being said, I have no idea what their criteria were or how they applied it. I’m mixed race and I’m sure I’d be upset if I were turned away, but I also try to look at it from the perspective of the organization.

I’d like to do more research but there doesn’t seem to be much information about the organization that pre-dates this incident.

 

[scarlet555]

Let's put it this way:

Asking somebody where he or she is from, is NOT racist.
But a charity that only helps women of one race and not women of an other race is clearly racist.
Ngozi Fulani runs such a charity.
So there ....

Q.E.D.

When asking money for charity and non-profit organization-you have to focus/target on a particular group that have not yet had organizations assisting them in order for your organization to be considered, because so many non-profit organizations exist, the more specific your target group-whether it be education/domestic violence/child abuse-these organizations already have funding, to create a new organization, you have to be specific for your cause. Is that racist? So it’s not as QED as it seems IMHO. Government agencies will grant you money for your organizations if you have the scientific studies backing your organizam ion. If there are studies that find that a particular group of women have more disparities, and you are given money by the government (usually) to run such an organization, is that racist?

LS doesn’t represent the whole BRF, her actions are her own. One action certainly doesn’t define you, if you’re still alive you will have the chance to evolve or redeem yourself, I would hope, if you want, but you owe nobody anything in the end.
In the same token, Fulani being a friend of Cringe and likely had recordings ready-still doesn’t excuse LS’s actions. It doesn’t mean one nasty conversation makes you a horrible person. But with cringe’s accusation and certainly it would not shock anyone racist a-holes exists within or without the BRF, LS had to go-I don’t know her so I’m not too sad to see her go.
This is assuming the ‘transcripts’ are true and exists-which I believe they do.

 

[scarlet555]

Thanks for the extra info you have come up with - an interesting ding-dong in the replies to this Unherd article! I particularly like last line of the article : “Better to die standing than live on your knees”. Amen to that!

This line is better served against the monarch than for the monarchy lol lol lol

 

[scarlet555]

All you and I have are opinions based on social media and our imagination. That’s why I said it’s difficult to judge unless you’re there. That’s also why I weigh Will’s judgment better than ours.. he has more information. His staff do not need to say “what if she thought…” they can ask the lady and they acted on this more complete picture than we do.

And fwiw I do not think there’s anything inherently bad by asking “where are you from?” I assume nothing about her intentions so they very well could have been good. But the way she asked was not appropriate. On any topic, if you do this to a stranger this is rude. Imagine: “how old are you?” “No how old are you really?” “You don’t look like it. How old are you really?” “I knew you’d finally say it.” 1st time, no problem but the way it was handled was rude. If Will’s staff talked to her, I give them the benefit of the doubt too that they heard something that they didn’t like and took action on that.

Asking someone where they are from is not racist, but insisting on knowing could be….

 

[rose60610]

I think there’s just a lot of extreme opinions out there on this and I don’t think it needs to be extreme. I don’t think the lady was racist, and it’s totally fine to ask someone -anyone- where they’re from, certainly in a place like the UK with lots of immigrants and expats. It was very clumsy of her to keep persisting in her questioning (like I said this applies to any personal matter when you’re talking to a stranger) but I would not consider that a fireable offense on its face. I’m guessing much of the story of why she was pushed out happened when she spoke to the staff about it. Either she was mortified to have caused a ruckus unintentionally and felt it proper to step down or she was not cooperative and was forced to step down. I’m inclined to believe it was the former and of course no one would beg her to stay. I don’t know her or the other lady to assume either one had malice.

This. And since Lady Susan, a woman over 80 years old, had to step down over this perceived slight, then I'd also like to see many non-senior bastards on popular networks, info-entertainment shows, morning shows, and some popular talkshow hosts get canned posthaste also.

 

[scarlet555]

This thread worries me a lot,
It reminds me of the OJ Simpson trial…. Lol

 

[Chanbal]

I guess Nana's opinion belongs here.

 

[Traminer]

I guess Nana's opinion belongs here.

I daresay it does.
It really does.

And: Three cheers for Nana Akua

The child of Ghanaian immigrants, Akua was born in Newcastle upon Tyne.

Her family moved to the United States when she was 11 years old.

Nana Akua - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Bagatha Christie]

I can respect that biracial women have their own unique challenges especially with identity that I as a monoracial black woman cannot relate to. Without sounding like I am engaging in the oppression olympics - you are aware that monoracial black women (especially of darker skin) experience not only colorism, but featurism and texturism in the black community too? All the while having to face that and racism in the larger white society. I am sure this is not limited to the black community but the Indian one as well.

featurism, texturism, and colourism are about whether someone is stereotypically considered pretty or ugly surely?
In the issue of domestic violence I’d say it’s less relevant as victims and abusers can be any level of conventional attractiveness. You can’t be too pretty to be a victim of abuse.

To me turning women away because they are the wrong shade is pretty close to denying their version of events.

Add on - I think the abuser’s behaviour is determined by their own sadism and need for control not anything about the victim. Whatever they look like the victim will wind up not being good enough because the abuser wants to control them. Granted if someone has body issues already that’s an easier battle for the abuser but as I said I think it’s too overgeneralising to turn biracial women away because they ‘have it easier.’

Right, a charity serving one group and not another doesn’t make it exclusionary, it simply is what they do to stay aligned to their mission.

There is a veterans charity that only serves post-9/11 veterans - no one would say they’re anti-veteran. But suddenly when an organization serves specific races, it’s racist? Make it make sense.

Also I hope everyone who feels sympathetic to Lady Hussey is also sympathetic to the women who the charity can’t serve now because it’s been forced to suspend operations after harassment by Lady Hussey’s defenders.

I find suspending the services of the charity to be a deeply cynical move personally and suspect it might have more to do with Fulani drawing attention to herself now she’s touring the news circuit to give interviews and trying to parlay herself as media personality. She’s apparently the only paid person but the volunteers can’t function without her? Even after an enormous growth in donations? How are battered women more endangered by the social media abuse of Fulani and the organisation than by staying with their violent men?
Talk about punishing the wrong people.

That’s not to let the royals off the hook- they probably spend more more on their breakfast table than the average refuge gets in a year YET that’s not what’s getting talked about at all.

 

[Traminer]

I guess Nana's opinion belongs here.

When I think of Nana Akua, then the terms "common sense" and "witty" come to my mind.
When I think of that other person, whose name I seem to have forgotten, that person with a fake name and a fake costume and some transcript of doubtful origin, then some other word comes to my mind.
I am not sure which word, but I think it starts with an m and ends in -alice.
And no, it is not Alice.

 

[Traminer]

I find suspending the services of the charity to be a deeply cynical move personally and suspect it might have more to do with Fulani drawing attention to herself now she’s touring the news circuit to give interviews and trying to parlay herself as media personality. She’s apparently the only paid person but the volunteers can’t function without her? Even after an enormous growth in donations?

I just wonder:
So the one side is touring the news circuit.
And the other side?
Nobody asks what the other side might have to say.
And which side does the decent thing in this case?

 

[Bagatha Christie]

I just wonder:
So the one side is touring the news circuit.
And the other side?
Nobody asks what the other side might have to say.
And which side does the decent thing in this case?

I am sure journalists are asking to talk to S too but it is not in her own best interests to talk to anyone.

Talk and she could dig herself in further and be more ostracised from the royals whereas I don’t think it’s unreasonable to assume that i she takes the blame and keeps quiet then the royals will pay her back some way in the future. These personal aides are always falling on their swords then popping up again in some lucrative position.

F on the other hand this is her 15 minutes on the world stage and she’s going to try and capitalise on it. I mean it’s not incomprehensible- I’d love to get paid crazy money to be a talking head too. I have lots of opinions

I mean to be fair lady S has had a plum job as a lady in waiting which seems to be a Party greeter and queen’s buddy for 40 ‘years of service’ and her only qualification was she was posh

 

[Molly0]

The Ladies in Waiting position is unpaid, right?

 

[Traminer]

The Ladies in Waiting position is unpaid, right?

So it is.

 

[Traminer]

her only qualification was she was posh

Let us agree to disagree on the point that this was her only qualification.