Throne Speech 45: NO SARRY DEY!

For the past few days I’ve been thinking – brooding, really – about the news from the Palace that King Charles will be offering neither apology nor reparations to his “subjects” during his upcoming Caribbean tour, which includes his attendance at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting to be held here in about three weeks.

Well, I didn’t believe that any sane person was expecting compensation from the Crown or the British Government. (We know that only Alister bothers to beat the reparations drum anymore and Watch Night has faded into near white.) But I also didn’t believe, as the song claims, that “sorry seems to be the hardest word.”

As a friend put it when the word came out, “we have scraped the last penny out of the piggy bank” to ensure the venues (at least) are ready to host the king.  And not even an apology?

Government buildings that house public-service workers remain habitable for half-day and government roads on which the permanent residents dodge craters all day have gone unattended. And not even an apology!!!

Security for natives and night workers is slack, as the Iron Grip turned out to be rather soft on crime. But confidence has been restored in the operation to keep the monarch safe. So much so that locals are virtually banned from celebrating Independence 45 outside the confines of “official” activities, while the entertainment spots, fete promoters, taxi drivers, and tourists alike are expecting a COVID-like lock down that will keep us away from “the routes” on which royalty might travel. And not even an apology, Jack?

I remember, back in the Queen’s Jubilee Year, being prepped (as a parliamentarian) to meet her visiting representatives: her youngest son and his wife.  The good lady coaching us demonstrated how to shake hands and curtsey and laid out the protocols to show proper respect to Her Majesty’s “heirs and successors.”  And I listened and watched, appreciating her knowledge and professionalism, but knew full well that I would not be curtseying to anybody, at all. 

Subsequent events have caused me to reflect on that act of assertion. Among them has been the treatment of Meghan Markle by the Royals and the Brits who consider themselves “royalists.”  And if there had remained the smallest doubt about the source of their hostility to this mixed-race woman, it was removed when we learned that senior members of the Royal “Family” had worried about “how dark” Meghan’s baby would be.

I know it was subsequently “smoothed over” by calling the speculation “an unconscious bias” rather than the plain old racism it was. But, again, any residual doubt about the good intentions of the English was ripped away last month when “Lady in Blue,” a sculpture of a black woman, by a black woman, was mounted in Trafalgar Square.

This 10-foot woman looks like everything Meghan is not: big, black, bold, arresting. And if you thought the vitriol toward Harry’s wife was bad – with one man openly telling me he “hopes she suicides soon” – then you have no idea how bad “bad” can get. 

But as I read the racist remarks and processed the fascist outrage over the sculpture – including by media people – I wondered if these gammons knew their country had enslaved and/or colonized millions of black people in Africa and the Caribbean and grown filthy rich because of their free labour and plundered resources. I wondered if they’d forgotten, or ever known about, the thousands of West Indians, including women, who served in the British armed forces during World War II.

So who are they now calling “ugly?”  And who are they now telling to get out and go home?  Surely not the descendants of the people whom –  their Government and the Palace have agreed – they owe neither reparations nor apology.

My biggest regret, right now, is that the parliamentary Oath of Allegiance had not been changed during my time in the Lower House.  But my loyalty to Antigua and Barbuda and its people are not mere recitation from a paper.  And out of that loyalty I simply cannot celebrate the presence – ceremonial or otherwise – of a monarch who can acknowledge that my people have been wronged by his people, but cannot bring himself to apologize for their wrongs from which he benefitted and we lost.

I did not curtsey then; but going forward I do not believe I can even stand for anyone considered to be the king’s representative, nor for his anthem. This lady in blue can’t do it anymore. Instead, I’ll just follow the lead of the king and, in our own language, declare no sarry dey!