'White-saviour parody': William and Kate's Caribbean tour SLAMMED for being 'tone deaf'
Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, Prince William, and Kate Middleton, have recently received backlash from the audience. Royal observers slammed William and Kate's Caribbean vacation, claiming it as a succession of "tone deaf" PR events that smacked of "colonialism". The row was jumped on by Harry and Meghan's cheerleader-in-chief Omid Scobie to rabble-rouse on social media, led by BBC royal correspondent Jonny Dymond.
Jonny Dymond wrote a piece about the Duke and Duchess' visit to Trench Town in Kingston, Jamaica, where they were greeted by thousands of shouting well-wishers, which he described as "defeat plucked from the jaws of victory." However, the sight of William and Kate sticking their fingers through the links of a metal fence along a football field to greet villagers on the other side has become an enduring image on social media. The Cambridges have been accused of "white-savior parody" after England star Raheem Sterling did the same thing.
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The BBC correspondent wrote online saying, “Palace staff must be wondering how the defining image of the Cambridges’ trip to the Caribbean was not the explosion of joy and pleasure that greeted the couple in downtown Kingston. But instead, what looked to many as some sort of white-savior parody, with Kate and William fleetingly making contact with the outstretched fingers of Jamaican children, pushing through a wire fence. It was a bad misstep for a couple who are surprisingly media-savvy.”
“This tour was an opportunity to try to show the monarchy can modernise – hold themselves accountable where appropriate, be eager to listen and learn, mindful, open to change,” Omid Scobie, co-author of Harry and Meghan's biography 'Finding Freedom', said, adding, “Instead, even the media royalists are writing how out of touch parts of the trip have come across.”
This tour was an opportunity to try and show the monarchy can modernise—hold themselves accountable where appropriate, be eager to listen and learn, mindful, open to change. Instead, even the media royalists are today writing how out of touch parts of the trip have come across.
— Omid Scobie (@scobie) March 25, 2022
Jan Moir of the Daily Mail called the tour a “disaster”, saying she was “dying of embarrassment... for our country, for the Cambridges.” She wrote, “The very idea that the Royal Family should sally forth, in all their finery and jewels, to far-away lands to meet people they expect to bow and curtsey to them or pay homage at the very least, is an increasing absurdity.”
Jonny Dymond also mentioned the Mail's exclusive story about how the royal couple had to abandon their initial engagement in Belize due to a dispute over indigenous land rights.
Dymond added that the couple's decision to leave a Jamaican military commissioning parade in the Queen's 1960s open-top Land Rover, which was meant to be a “charming homage ... just felt like a clunky reminder of a more deferential time.” However, much was positively received in the Caribbean, particularly William's keynote address in Jamaica, when he went further in airing his “sorrow” at the “abhorrence” of slavery than any other member of the Royal Family.