Prince William and Kate of House Cambridge were in Stratford, London today for a visit to celebrate schools reopening. They met with teachers who shared their experiences with lockdown and the challenges faced over the last year. The visit also happened to be timed with the rollout ofMentally Healthy Schools, providing mental health resources in education settings, and Will and Kate spoke with educators on how this initiative is making mental health a priority in school curriculums. Um, that’s awkward. You know, considering that the royals’ (mis)handling of Meghan Markle’s mental health issues have been an international headline all week.

The other day, when Prince Charles stepped out for an engagement, and was asked by reporters on site about Prince Harry and Meghan,他笑了起来and offered no comment. William, however, took a different approach today:

I’m actually surprised he answered and didn’t keep walking, which is the usual British royal stiff upper lip way of doing things. And he may not have said much but there’s so much to take away from the fact that he did respond and how he responded. I wonder whether or not he regrets it. There is NO way that the Kensington Palace comms team did not instruct the media to refrain from asking these kinds of questions. That’s standard practice. This journalist just went for it. And William couldn’t help himself.

Given that he’s not accustomed to spontaneity, he doesn’t get to regularly exercise that muscle. The British royal family in general is so slow to modernise, and they haven’t updated their training, it’s no surprise that his answers are not …ideal. Which is putting it lightly.

William told us that he hasn’t spoken with Harry but he “will do”. It’s been five days since your sister-in-law told the world that she had suicidal thoughts and your brother talked about his hurt. And now you’re telling the world that, nah, I just haven’t gotten around to it yet…? The safest way to answer that question would be to be consistent with what the Queen said in her statement. “Harry and Meghan are loved members of our family, always.” Like I said, I get it that in the spur of the moment, he may not have been prepared – but that’s the POINT.

Why aren’t you prepared?! These people have everything – including a communications team, allegedly specialists in their field. The job of comms specialists is to walk their clients through everything ahead of time, develop with them a skillset, a toolbox from which to pull when they’re out in public, especially during times of crisis.

Because what they really need is for the temperature to cool. And the temperature isn’t going to cool when William has just given the media a reason to blast out the headline, “WILL AND HARRY STILL AREN’T TALKING!” instead of “WILLIAM SAYS HE STILL LOVES HIS BROTHER”. Right?!

然后，yikes，答案的种族主义问题。“我们非常不是种族主义家庭”，回答威廉。我的意思是......历史，你知道吗？历史可能不同意。但也是，这不是你想回答的问题，而你从一个点到了b！它值得更多的时间，更多的关注，更细微的差别 - 折腾这样的反应，然后是一个增加的不尊重层，你知道，殖民主义和皇室家族的含有境内的境地。时间最近发表了一块“the monarchy’s troubled history with race“这是一个引物对该机构的问题past, and the fact that they’ve never had to reckon with it.

周围和到处都是，我们都在估算它。这些谈话的人们在白人至上和殖民主义中被融化的人，这些谈话已经发生，皇家殖民者已经发生了，这些谈话已经发生了。所以威廉的答案今天粗心，不是好看的。If we’re using the excuse that he didn’t have time to think about it, well, I go back to media training and coaching and how inadequately he’s been prepared, and has now found himself in a position where he can’t just coast through on charm. But if you really want to answer, even though it’s probably not an appropriate moment to be addressing these things in this manner, a better one would have been not to be all, no, my family isn’t racist but to denounce racism in no uncertain terms. To be actively anti-racist. “Racism is deplorable, we should all condemn it, we should all be anti-racist”, with emphasis on “anti-racist”, because then, at least, the VERY least, he would have shown he’s been doing some of the reading.

You see how 15 seconds can give away so much?

现在？当然，每日邮件都会变得一切都像，“威廉说皇家家庭不是种族主义者所以在这里，他们不是种族主义者！”但这并不是王室必须说服的人，是吗？他们必须说服的人是那些通过指出这种评论来反应的人，就像我们真的在说英格兰未来之王的儿子和一天的男人，那么白色，白色是他的家庭是否是种族主义的权威？这不是一个皇家法令的f-cksh-t，他可以发布并称之为一天。特别不是当拨打这次对话的人关于英国王室的种族主义的人是一个颜色的人！以威廉的话语为决赛，最终是英国皇家家庭是否是种族主义者是种族主义者，也是他们本身的种族主义者！

So… when are they all going to class? We’re all, hopefully, going to class, right? Particularly this past year? Learning from people while trying to unlearn what’s been branded on us in the past, asking questions, getting uncomfortable and honest, in pursuit of growth. Royals can go to class too, can’t they? Isn’t it time for them to show up for class?