Is there still the assumption, as there was just a few short years ago when the British Empire was still an active force, that dark foreigners are inherently inferior, and therefore have no place within the royal family ?
Is it right to have these sorts of family values and traditions at the heart of a state ?
Because there weren’t any African, Asian or subcontinent ancestors in Britain a hundred years ago and prior. You do understand that royalty, especially the British form, involves having very highly placed parents?
You’re welcome to check back in another hundred years and see if George XIII has ‘M’Boko’ or ‘Tsiang’ in his absurdly long given name. I wouldn’t bet against it.
The UK is overwhelmingly white. That probably has a lot to do with it. I don’t know if the upper classes and more or less diverse than the population as a whole.
I imagine eventually a black or asian person will marry into the royal family, and welcome they should be. Until then, we’ll let this happen naturally.
Would you ask the same of every other racially homogenous family? Not just whites, but say… my 100% Asian family why there are no Blacks, Whites, Hispanics, Native Americans, Inuits, Pygmies, Aborigones… etc on our family tree?
Probably for the same reason that there are no white Asian or African royals. Because the UK royal family is European. Btw. there is a half-chinese in the Danish royal family (Alexandra).
I assume the OP is asking why nobody of Asian or African ancestry has married into the royal family (or at least they haven’t as far as I know), not why the royal family is white. And I think this is a matter of Europe ancestry, not being European.
Kind of a nit pick, but there were plenty of African, Asian and subcontinent (I assume youi mean India and Pakistan) ancestors in Britain 100 years ago. It’s likely that Africans have been in Britain since Roman times. Indians and Pakistanis more recently, but certainly more than 100 years ago.
I had thought of starting a Thread way back during the Royal Wedding hoopla asking what public opinion in the U.K. would have been if William had wanted to marry a black girl.
In addition to wondering about public reaction, would the Royal family have happily allowed him to marry whoever he happened to fall in love with? Or would there be any family attempt to strongarm him into breaking off the relationship?
The royal family certainly wouldn’t be unique if they’d tried.
Solomon broke the color barrier back in the day
Sorry, I assumed context there - I meant in the royal lineage.
I have long had the impression, from reading sites such as the Dope, that mixed race relationship on TV shows and the like are still a big deal in the USA. There is considerably less shock about such a relationship in the UK.
Now, clearly the Royals are something different, and William marrying a black or Asian girl would certainly keep the media in jobs, but I doubt it would cause outright scandal. And I’m quite sure no one much would care if Harry chose a non white spouse.
There’s clearly a huge assumption in this statement that the Royal family is racist. I think that’s a pretty wild judgement.
Like most of us, the Royals tend to marry from within their own social circle - in their case, the aristocracy and the privileged. In the UK that tends to be white people, who also constitute about 90% of the general population. The pot will no doubt melt somewhat as time goes on.
But wouldn’t they be “out of line” by marrying a Commoner? How many non-white non-Commoners are there?
What do you think Kate Middleton is?
Well… if you have any nice aunties we could start a new branch…
Well, I didn’t really say that’s how they are now, perhaps they are reformed and modern characters - one would hope so wouldn’t one ?
But it’s within my Grandfather’s lifetime, and certainly within the lifetimes of the older royals, that the British Empire was about bringing civilisation to the childish and racially inferior natives.
Was this a view forced upon them, that they didn’t really believe but merely found useful, or was it the mainstay of their lives as ulers of empire ?
The family has just barely gotten to the point where a bride doesn’t have to physically prove she’s a virgin. I think the point where she doesn’t have to prove she’s pure northern european is a ways off.
