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Prince Philip 'wasn't racist': King’s College London slammed for apologizing over duke's tribute pic

College staff complained of the 'harm' caused by Prince Philip's photo due to his record of 'racist' remarks

King’s College London reportedly found itself embroiled in controversy after an email along with a picture of Prince Philip was sent to all the staff members. The email was sent after the Duke of Edinburgh’s death in April. It included a photo of him opening the Maughan Library of the university with Queen Elizabeth II in 2002. The 99-year-old had been serving as the governor of the university since 1955.

Though the email reportedly did not contain anything offensive, employees were upset because of Philip’s alleged racist past. Soon after the email was forwarded, the college received a number of complaints, which forced associate director Joleen Clarke to issue a statement apologizing for it. Clarke said after getting complaints from the university’s Anti-Racism Community of Practice, “The picture was included as a historical reference point following his death. The inclusion of the picture was not intended to commemorate him. Through feedback and subsequent conversations, we have come to realize the harm that this caused members of our community, because of his history of racist and sexist comments. We are sorry to have caused this harm.”

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The reason behind the staffers’ anger was this email, which was sent after the Duke’s death on April 9, “As the nation marks the death of HRH Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, we thought you might like to see this photo of the duke at the official opening of the Maughan Library in 2002, which some colleagues will remember.”

Reports have stated that before his death, the Queen’s husband has made several comments in the past that were insensitive towards some people or communities. In 1986, he visited China where he interacted with British students and told them, “If you stay here much longer you'll all be slitty-eyed.” The same year, he reportedly said, “If it has four legs and is not a chair, has wings and is not an airplane, or swims and is not a submarine, the Cantonese will eat it.”

In 1988, he allegedly asked a student in Papua New Guinea, “You managed not to get eaten then?” Philip was also believed to have a low mindset about women as in 1984, he said to a Kenyan woman, “You are a woman, aren't you?” Once he was reportedly caught saying, “I don't think a prostitute is more moral than a wife, but they are doing the same thing.”

But royal expert Hugo Vickers has dismissed the accusations of racism against Philip as he said, “Prince Philip and the Queen have spent their whole lives in service helping the Commonwealth. He may have said things at certain times to get a rise out of people, but he was the least racist person. In fact, he was very engaged in questions of equality and multi-racial societies going back to the 1950s. I don’t think these people at King’s College know what they are talking about, frankly.”

Tory MP Sir John Hayes also criticized the university’s apology, saying, “King’s College London is at the extreme end of the spectrum when it comes to inhibiting free speech. We need to flush out people in our universities who are determined with an almost Maoist zeal to close minds in places which ought to be bastions of free and open debate.”

Toby Young, of the Free Speech Union, stated, “The irony is that if it wasn’t for people like Prince Philip putting their lives on the line to defend liberty and democracy, university lecturers wouldn’t now enjoy the freedom to attack people like him. When a war hero dies, shouldn’t these republican firebrands just say “Thank you for your service”, and save the political point-scoring for another day?” While King’s College London added, “As we previously highlighted in an official university statement, Prince Philip had a long and valued association with King’s. We valued immensely, and remain very proud, of his friendship and support for King’s.”

Meanwhile, Twitter was also full of reactions on the whole scenario as one user tweeted, “#defund universities.” Another user said, “Oh my god! This is getting more and more silly! Prince Philip wasn’t racist!” “Oh for F*** sake why are staff at kings college London getting oversensitive for over a prince Philip email,” a person added.