Tea at Trianon: The Racialization of Society

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Monday, May 22, 2023

The Racialization of Society

The entire Bridgerton thing is stupid, since there were no black aristocrats in England, and the political battle to abolish the slave trade was in full swing. It detracts from the struggle against slavery to show black people as being part of the British elite. From The Spectator:

Imagine it. Imagine if an image of a fine, upstanding, elite black family – the Obamas, say – was publicly described as ‘terribly black’. We would hate that, wouldn’t we?

The vast majority of people would feel incredibly uncomfortable, if not outraged, with public chatter on the selfishness of black women, the scourge of black fragility, or the dangers posed by angry black men.

So how has it become entirely normal to see such commentary in relation to white people? Are sweeping racial generalisations okay when talking about white people? Why?

Adjoa Andoh’s comment on the whiteness of the Windsors has caused a storm. It was during ITV’s live commentary on the coronation that the Bridgerton actress observed that the ‘rich diversity’ of the audience in Westminster Abbey had been replaced by a ‘terribly white balcony’. ‘I’m very struck by that’, she said. (Read more.)