I was born and raised in Washington, D.C. On June 2, 1953, when I was eight years old, I went across the street to a neighbor’s house and watched the coronation of Queen Elizabeth on the neighbor’s black and white TV. We didn’t get our first TV until I was eleven years old.
I don’t know how many people are alive today who can watch another British monarch being crowned, but one of them won’t be me. I tuned in a minute ago and watched about 30 seconds while the crowd in Westminster Abbey was singing a hymn which is the musical rendition of the 103rd Psalm and then I turned it off.
Frankly, I find the whole thing disgusting and the celebration of the link between religion, political governance, and whiteness more than I can stand.
Yea, yea, I know it’s all about tradition, and we should be grateful that in an age of turbulence, that we can take a moment to reflect on things about the world which, thanks to God, remain the same.
Know what remains the same thanks to the history and behavior of the British Crown? The fact, as we have found out in the last eight years thanks to Donald Trump, that racism and racialist hatred continues to infect the minds and behavior of too many people in the United States.
Take a look at the map above. It shows the territories that comprised the British colonial system at the end of World War I. The British colonial system became something called the ‘Commonwealth of Nations’ in 1949 because most of the British colonies had become independent states or would become independent governments over the next decade.
But how did all these territories and all these hundreds of millions of human beings become ‘subjects’ of the British Crown in the first place? This happened because Britain sent out military forces which invaded lands and subjugated indigenous populations all over the globe. And it just so happens that in most of these situations, the people who suddenly found themselves as ‘subjects’ of the British government weren’t white.
How do you justify taking over land and resources by force of arms and nothing else? You justify it by declaring that you – the conqueror – are better and they – the conquered – are not quite as good. Not as smart, not as developed, not as civilized, not Christian and most of all, not white.
It’s called racism and it was invented by the British to justify going around the world and looting resources which didn’t actually belong to them. But why concern yourself with legalities? After all, the British developed an entire legal system known as the Common Law, and if the ‘natives’ living in Africa and Asia didn’t like living under their British masters and being told what they could and couldn’t do – tough sh*t.
And along with this lovely legal system, the British also brought along their religious beliefs, which justified everything and anything that white people did to control the non-white people in all these colonial lands.
We have a bunch of these sh*theads actively engaged in American politics today. They call themselves ‘Christian nationalists,’ and they openly court the MAGA vote. Where do you think this obnoxiously stupid and racist trope came from? It sure as Hell wasn’t from the ‘Negro’ spirituals and jazz that came up from New Orleans.
When the CNN camera panned all the guests standing and singing some hymn inside Westminster today, I noticed that just about all the faces were white. Now it turns out that 85% of the current British population happens to be white, but worldwide the white race comprises around 15 percent of everyone alive today. I don’t notice that the ‘yellow peoples’ ever came to America, captured a bunch of Apache Indians, and took them back to China or Japan as slaves.
Racism is the curse of Western Civilization which white governments spread throughout the entire globe. And whether you know it or not, this is what’s being celebrated today in Britain and what is being shown throughout the world thanks to CNN.
Like I said above, I find the whole coronation disgusting and the oath which Charles will swear is even worse. It goes like this: "I Charles do solemnly and sincerely in the presence of God profess, testify, and declare that I am a faithful Protestant, and that I will, according to the true intent of the enactments which secure the Protestant succession to the Throne, uphold and maintain the said enactments to the best of my powers according to law."
Know what? To quote Grandpa, Charles can ‘chob en drerd’ (read: stick it up his rear end) and take himself, his horse, and the Westminster Horse Guards with him too.
Comments