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  • wild edgeswild edges Posts: 10,497
    Apparently the body of a baby has been found at a recycling centre in Cambridge. The police are looking for the mother now. That just seems a bit harsh though because they don't specifically state that they can't recycle babies.
    If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
  • Have your little ones been particularly trying today @wild edges ? 

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • FairygirlFairygirl Posts: 55,117
    I don't know if anyone else has seen the item about the lady who runs a facility for abused women and girls, who was questioned by an aide at the palace about where she was from.
    FFS.
    That's the polite response I'm writing. I don't think my blood can take much more instances of being boiled these days   >:)
    It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....



    I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
  • floraliesfloralies Posts: 2,718
    Prince William's Godmother apparently @Fairygirl, she has done the right thing and stepped down from her duties.
  • FairygirlFairygirl Posts: 55,117
    Personally, I don't think that's enough. She should be made to fully apologise for her disgraceful comments to that woman. 
    It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....



    I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    edited November 2022
    I think Ms Fulani’s response to the resignation is very level-headed and wise. 

    https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/ngozi-fulani-racism-susan-hussey-buckingham-palace-b2236213.html

    I also think that it’s time for the role Queen Consort’s Companion to be treated as a professional post with appropriate training .., not an honorary role for old ladies from the landed gentry.  

    We do not know whether the person was being intentionally rude 
 she is 83 and possibly not as astute or acute as she could be. 

    I had an elderly Uncle J who had been in the British Army in Kenya. He was served in a bank by someone with traditional tribal scarring on his face which Uncle J thought he recognised as being similar to someone he’d worked with in Kenya and who had in fact travelled to the UK in 1954 to be a guest at Uncle Js wedding (in his regalia as chief of his tribe). 

    Uncle J had no idea that the chap in the bank would be appalled and insulted when he asked him about his tribe.

     And the chap in the bank had no idea that an old man was desperate to be back in touch with the family of someone he’d regarded as a special friend, and was excited to think he recognised the tribal marks. A real clash of cultures, but also a generational thing. 

    As I said, I think Ms Fulani’s response shows a great deal of insight and wisdom. 



    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • B3B3 Posts: 27,505
    I don't understand why it is offensive to ask someone where they're from and at the same time it to be offensive not to respect their diversity. You can't have it both ways.
    Accents fascinate me. I have even been known to ask white  English people where they came from. If they are offended, they're probably people I wouldn't want to know anyway
    In London. Keen but lazy.
  • I think it’s a case of ‘it ain’t what you do, it’s the way that you do it’. 

    Younger generations perceive things differently.  

    The phrase ‘your people’ sounds discriminatory to someone from a non-white British background 
 it sounds too much like the pejorative ‘you people’ which has been used since the 1950s to tell people to go back where they came from. 

    However to someone with an English Public School background ‘your people’ is just another way of saying ‘your family’, as in ‘are your people visiting to take you out this weekend?’  




    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • LG_LG_ Posts: 4,360
    Have you read the conversation, @B3? It was way more than asking where she was from. 
    'If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.'
    - Cicero
  • B3 said:
    I don't understand why it is offensive to ask someone where they're from and at the same time it to be offensive not to respect their diversity. You can't have it both ways.
    Accents fascinate me. I have even been known to ask white  English people where they came from. If they are offended, they're probably people I wouldn't want to know anyway
    The lady is British born and bred, and works for a charity in Hackney. Seems likely that she would have a British accent?

    As @Dovefromabove said, it's the way the questions are asked. Lady Hussey's line of interrogation does not sound like normal social chit-chat to me; it's more like a suspicious immigration officer implying she's not actually British ("where do you really come from?", "you must know where you came from").
    Plus, pushing aside a stranger's hair to read their name badge is just plain disrespectful.

    Having said that, it may also be possible that she's just used to speaking to younger people in an abrupt manner and interrogating them on personal issues but has generally been tolerated so far because of her age (a few of my own relatives come to mind...).


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