Photo: Mark Cuthbert/UK Press/Getty Images.
A member of the royal family wore an offensive piece of jewellery for lunch with Meghan Markle at Buckingham Palace on Wednesday.
Princess Michael of Kent, who is married to the Queen's cousin Prince Michael, was arriving at Queen Elizabeth’s annual pre-Christmas lunch when she was spotted wearing a brooch with racist connotations.
The brooch was in the "Blackamoor" style, a genre of jewellery or small sculptures depicting dark-skinned people, mostly men, which was popular in the Early Modern period. The "decorative" items usually portrayed people in subservient roles, such as servants or slaves.
Nowadays, this style of jewellery and art is widely considered highly racially insensitive at best and at worst just straight-up racist. There have been petitions to have Blackamoor statues and figurines removed from hotels and other buildings in recent years.
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It's not the first time Princess Michael has been called out for racism, either. More than a decade ago, in 2004, she reportedly told black diners to "go back to the colonies" in a New York restaurant. In a bid to prove she wasn't racist shortly after, she revealed she had pretended to be "a half-caste African" a few years prior.
"I even pretended years ago to be an African, a half-caste African, but because of my light eyes I did not get away with it, but I dyed my hair black," she said in an interview on ITV1 the same year.
Markle and Princess Michael were reportedly not sat at the same table during this week's lunch, but they will have likely come face-to-face and been introduced at the intimate gathering. Neither woman has commented on the incident, but many have condemned Princess Michael on social media after noticing the brooch in the paparazzi photos.
Shout out to Princess Michael of Kent for always being hideously racist. Can’t wait to see what the UK papers have to say about her choice of brooch today.
— J9 _(ツ)_/¯ (@azarikajb) December 21, 2017
ummm, did anyone else clock this? notorious racist princess michael of kent wearing a Moor broach while attending lunch with Meghan Markle. pic.twitter.com/Cd8E5gSmyX
— Allison Kotzig (@allisonkotzig) December 20, 2017
Princess Michael of Kent met Meghan Markle at the Christmas lunch wearing a brooch depicting — and fetishising — Africans in subservient roles. To put it bluntly, a piece of jewelry made out of slave imagery. ? https://t.co/acTzUB34C3 pic.twitter.com/zqH9W0EwPz
— Royally_Petite (@RoyallyPetite) December 21, 2017
I wonder how Princess Michael of Kent plans to express her racism on Harry's & Meghan's wedding day .... https://t.co/ftTwgXCuZb
— Shaista Gohir OBE (@ShaistaGohir) December 22, 2017
Perhaps someone should remind her it's 2017, not 1717.
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