Vocal Voices

I normally wouldn't bother with this, where Lady Susan Hussey has had to resign from her Palace position for repeatedly questioning where Ngozi Fulani (birth name Marlene Headley) comes from; but this reply on another forum had me in stitches.

"If I walked around wearing a kilt and giving my name as Jock MacTosh I would not be surprised if someone asked me which part of Scotland I was from. She changed her name to an African name, she speaks with a false African patois and dresses like an extra from Zulu, then feels offended when someone asks where she’s from? Give me a break!"

Ah but it was the repeated questioning you know. I assume because she refused to answer.

It is highly offensive if you keep asking the same question when the person has refused to answer.

Apparently.

I have worked in quite a few foreign countries and because I am white and speak English I have been asked many time where I come from as it could be any number of other English speaking countries such as the USA, Canada, Australia or New Zealand.

I always took it that the person asking the question was interested to know and to become informed, and not that they were being racist in any way.

Maybe Ms Fulani / Headley (as well as the media) should look in a mirror about being so quick in throwing down the race card.

I am proud to let people know I come from Lancashire and have the accent to prove it when I speak.

I think there might well be an agenda here, as apparently this lady tweeted at the time of the Meghan Markel row ('re the Oprah interview) that Meghan was a survivor of domestic abuse by the Royal Family...........

Perhaps Kaz.

WM I've also been asked, many times, where I come from. 25 years working all over Europe, they want to know. Also many of them speak English but can't place my accent. Mainly because I don't really have much of an accent which you can label as somewhere in the UK. Only when I'm really mad and start using local words and then locals know immediately where I come from. But others will not.

I never took offense even when they wanted to know in greater detail just where in the UK I was born.

Guess I don't look for offense.

I was talking about this at work today, as Emma is obviously dual heritage and she was saying why did Lady Hussey want to know?

So I said to Nicola are you pure English or do you have Scots, Welsh or Irish heritage and she said I have a lot of Scottish. There you go job done.

Then I said to Emma, so how do I ask you the same question and she still said but why would you want to know.

Kaz wrote:I think there might well be an agenda here ....

Yes, I was beginning to wonder that, as she's now "milking it".

I don't see any problem in asking someone you've just met where they're from, as it's one way you can start a conversation with them.
If I met someone white who sounds like they're Eastern European, for example, I'd ask them which country they were from as a friendly starter. If they then said they were in fact UK born and bred, I'd apologise and move the conversation on elsewhere.

But where Hussey was out of order was that she (allegedly) interfered with the lady's dreadlocks which were obscuring her name badge, and then seemingly adopted that haughty, autocratic tone of interrogation that ladies of a certain age (and yes, I know a few! ) adopt as default. She's 83 and probably knows no better. It's right that she resigned (or was made to walk the plank) and hopefully it'll serve as a warning to others of her ilk.

miasmum wrote:I was talking about this at work today, as Emma is obviously dual heritage and she was saying why did Lady Hussey want to know?

So I said to Nicola are you pure English or do you have Scots, Welsh or Irish heritage and she said I have a lot of Scottish. There you go job done.

Then I said to Emma, so how do I ask you the same question and she still said but why would you want to know.

There will come a point when she will ask a question about someone in similar vein. When she does the answer is obviously, "But why do you want to know?". People ask these kinds of questions. Well some do, I'm often called indifferent because I don't. If someone wants to tell me, fine, if not? I take them as they are.

But I recognise that other people do actually want to know. Nothing wrong with it.

TheOstrich wrote:

Kaz wrote:I think there might well be an agenda here ....

Yes, I was beginning to wonder that, as she's now "milking it".

And so is the media. We are now nearly four days in and it is still front page news, but only one side of the story is being presented. Lady Hussey is a racist, the monarchy is institutionally racist, and "we" are racists.

This kind of coverage is not helping race relations one iota - it is doing the opposite.