Reference :- The Sky Reply may be banned after this post about Lady Susan Hussey , the deceased Queen's favourite Lady-in-Waiting , who has been lambasted for asking a black woman where she came from . If not , we may be brave enough to raise another controversial issue in a future post .
It's now in the news everywhere . The deceased Queen of England spent 60 years of her reign with an appalling racist as her closet companion , from all accounts. The Queen was a nice person , and not in the least racist herself . How could such a thing happen ?
The Queen was well loved , and clearly quite intelligent. It seems incredible that she chose a racist as her closest companion and was unaware of this for six decades . Perhaps there has been some mistake ?
One of our editorial staff at The Sky Reply , Gabbo , is entirely indigenous , and sports the full complement of melanocytes in his epidermis . Gabbo has faced a lot of racism in the past , and still often does . I asked his opinion on the Lady Hussey matter .
" What is your opinion on the Lady Hussey matter ? " , I said .
" I don't know a lot about it . ", Gabbo said .
" Is it offensive to ask somebody where they came from ? " , I said
" Are we talking about asking someone from Ireland or Scotland or France , or where ? New Zealanders seem a bit touchy about that sometimes . " Gabbo said .
" I am talking about asking a black person " , I said .
" It all depends on the tone of the question . " , Gabbo said .
" How so ? ", I said .
" If I was surrounded by folk who had invited me to a gathering to pay me honour , and the interlocutor was smiling warmly , that would be fine . If I was feeling unwelcome as a stranger in a public bar and the question was asked in the manner of Peta Credlin cross examining Daniel Andrews I would find that deliberately offensive and threatening ." , Gabbo said .
" Well that Lady Hussey woman sure sounded offensive when the news reporters read out the transcript ", I said .
" You can make ' Have a nice day . ' sound offensive if you decide to read those words a certain way ", Gabbo said .
" Be that as it may Gabbo , Lady Hussey was persistent with her questioning ." , I said
" She is 93 years old , a bit out of touch with the latest social conventions and was trying to make conversation . I can excuse some ineptness. " , Gabbo said .
" If she is a silly out of touch 93 year old then she shouldn't be trying to start conversations with black people . " , I said .
" That sounds ageist to me . " , Gabbo said .
"Don't patronise me . Your mob may think you are funny , but you are a still a young fool with much to learn , Gabbo " , I said .
That certainly put him in his place .
Your comrade , Ken
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