Princess Michael of Kent found herself under fire after she wore a ‘blackamoor’ brooch to the Queen’s Christmas lunch at Buckingham Palace, attended by Prince Harry’s mixed race fiancée Meghan Markle.
The royal, who is married to the Queen’s cousin, Prince Michael, could clearly be seen wearing the jewellery on her coat as she drove through the gates on Wednesday.
She was not sat at the same table as Miss Markle, 36, who was attending the event for the first time, but would have been introduced to her at the intimate, private gathering.
The royal bride-to-be, whose former lighting director father, Thomas Markle is white, and mother, Doria Ragland, is black, has often spoken about the racism she experienced both as a child and as a grown woman.
Princess Michael of Kent found herself under fire yesterday after she wore a ‘blackamoor’ brooch to the Queen’s Christmas lunch at Buckingham Palace, attended by Prince Harry’s mixed race fiancée Meghan Markle
The royal, who is married to the Queen’s cousin, Prince Michael, could clearly be seen wearing the jewellery on her coat as she drove through the gates on Wednesday (pictured)
Bride-to-be Meghan flashed her dazzling engagement ring from the front seat of Prince Harry’s Land Rover as she left the Queen’s annual Christmas lunch
Blackamoor are a genre of figurines, small sculptures or jewellery which depict largely men, but sometimes women, with black skin.
Extremely popular in the 18th Century, they are now considered to be highly racially insensitive and the word blackamoor has been condemned as a term of abuse for anyone with a dark skin.
Last night there was no comment from the princess, who lives in an apartment at Kensington Palace, just a stone’s throw from Harry and Meghan’s cottage in the grounds.
But she was roundly condemned on social media with comments ranging from: ‘Has no-one noticed the Blackamoor pin that Princess Michael of Kent is wearing.? Really? Meghan Markle official meets the family and is greeted by THIS?’
Another attacked her for her ‘racist jewellery’, while a third added: ‘I hope the Queen is going to ban this racist, horrible woman from any further gatherings. This woman is an embarrassment to the Royal Family.’
It is not the first time that the royal, dubbed Princess Pushy, has found herself at the centre of a racist row.
In 2004 she was accused of insulting a party of black diners at a smart New York restaurant by allegedly telling them to ‘go back to the colonies’ in a row over noise.
The princess strongly denied the allegations, claiming to have said she would be ‘ready to go back to the colonies’ during a dispute about noise with the other table.
But she subsequently went on to make a series of toe-curling remarks in a television interview about the incident.
Talking of her extensive travels through Africa she said: ‘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.
‘I travelled on African buses. I wanted to be a writer. I wanted experiences from Cape Town to right up in northern Mozambique. I had this adventure with these absolutely adorable, special people and to call me racist: it’s a knife through the heart because I really love these people.’
The invite to the Queen’s lunch was the first time that Meghan will have met much of Harry’s family, and the invitation is a further sign that she is well and truly part of the royal establishment
Harry and Meghan released the official engagement portraits, almost a month after announcing their plans to get married
Blackamoors first emerged during the Middle Ages when Europeans first encountered the Moors, dark-skinned Muslims from North Africa and the Middle East who came to occupy various parts of the continent.
The African figure is typically depicted with a turban, dressed in lavish jewels and are commonly fixed in positions of servitude—such as footmen or waiters. They are usually carved from ebony or painted black in the case of porcelain.
While they became an art form in the 17th and 18th centuries, particularly in Italy, many believe the figures suggest ‘racial conquest’.
Bi-racial Miss Markle has told how she feels compelled to speak out about racism after being subjected to years of prejudice by people unaware of her heritage.
She claimed that some who believed she was Caucasian even made distasteful ‘black jokes’ in front of her.
She has also told of her anger and hurt at hearing her mother called ‘the ‘N’ word’ when she was pulling out of a parking space.
‘My skin rushed with heat as I looked to my mom. Her eyes welling with hateful tears, I could only breathe out a whisper of words, so hushed they were barely audible: ‘It’s OK, Mommy’,’ she said.