The British royal family once led an empire based on white supremacy that caused suffering that continues today
The passing of Queen Elizabeth II has sparked a long-needed discussion about the role of the monarchy and the legacy of the British Empire. This empire included 15 countries for which the queen was the head of state, including my family’s Jamaica, as well as 40 other Commonwealth members, of which she was the leader.
Take a glance at a map of the world by gross domestic product per capita and it will be obvious that the poorest parts of the world are where the Black people live, the richest the white West, with a ladder of relative suffering in between. The racist paradigms through which the West views the world tend to blame poor people for their poverty. Many observers call corruption an affliction of those in the underdeveloped world, and blame it as the main cause of continued inequality.
Apparently, the queen had a special place in her heart for Africa, so we should look no further to explore the brutal legacy of empire. At least 17 African countries were part of the British empire—from Nigeria in the west and Kenya in the east to South Africa. Decades after independence, these countries remain underdeveloped, lagging behind the former mother country on every metric. We can see this clearly in not just poverty data but in the effects on health and life expectancy.