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On the last day, William did try some damage control and expressed “profound sorrow” at the history of slavery in the Caribbean. Every royal needs someone to tell them the truth, a la the child in the ‘Emperor’s New Clothes’. Otherwise, they tend to believe that the naked hypocrisy of their self-serving narratives is, in fact, fact. In Jamaica, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge — Prince William is second in line to the British throne — realised that the reality show that is the royal family cuts little ice in the former Caribbean colony. As a poster held up by a young girl outside the British embassy said:“Kings, Queens and Princesses and Princes belong in fairy tales, NOT in Jamaica!”
Put plainly, William and Kate’s two-day trip to Jamaica has been a PR disaster. Before their arrival, leading politicians, academics and civil society figures demanded an apology from the British government and Crown for slavery, and reiterated the long-held demand for reparations. The tone-deaf royals, though, seem to believe they are still in the first season of The Crown. But 2022 isn’t 1937. The pictures — now heavily criticised on social media — of William and Kate waving and cooing in their designer clothes, to children who are behind a wire mesh fence, are a case in point. Neither rockstars nor movie gods, their celebrity and privilege is based solely on an accident of birth. And in a former colony, whose poverty is very much a part of the colonial legacy, the “white” gaze in the pageantry of unemployed billionaires has people incensed understandably.
On the last day, William did try some damage control and expressed “profound sorrow” at the history of slavery in the Caribbean. Profound sorrow, though, is not a formal apology and a royal tour is no substitute for reparations. Perhaps the loyal grandson ought to take a cue from his brother. The family business — being the symbol of a conservative order that holds up inequality — is providing diminishing returns. At least in Hollywood, there’s still some cache in being a fairy tale character.
This editorial first appeared in the print edition on March 26, 2022 under the title ‘No fairy tale’.
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