The View’s Whoopi Goldberg said on a recent episode of the show that the British royal family should apologize for its use of slaves in the past.
Goldberg does not acknowledge, however, that it was Britain in 1833 that used forty percent of its national budget to buy freedom for every slave in its empire. The sum of money was so much, that the Slavery Abolition Act was not paid off until 2014.
“We cannot ignore the fact that Britain ran ramshod [sic] over India for years… Let us not forget, when we talk about what needs to happen, all the folks that need to apologize,” said Goldberg.
Whoopi Goldberg has called on the Royal Family to apologise for slavery.
The actress blasted the UK's historic ties to the slave trade and the empire on The View.
"Britain ran ram shod over India for years." pic.twitter.com/2qsgcMsQ80
— talkRADIO (@talkRADIO) March 25, 2022
“Listen, this is not new. And I suspect Charles, when he was in Barbados, had some idea because he went on and apologized as he was releasing the hold that Britain has,” she continued. “So perhaps somebody is listening, and it’s the new group of folks – I don’t know if it’s Charles, William, but one of them is supposed to be the person.”
The topic came up following Prince William and Kate Middleton’s visit to Jamaica for Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee.
Protestors in Jamaica demanded that the family apologize for the British Empire’s past.
An open letter by the Advocates Network, signed by 100 people, states that there are “60 reasons why you [William and Kate] should apologize and begin a process of reparatory justice.”
“We see no reason to celebrate 70 years of the ascension of your grandmother to the British throne because her leadership, and that of her predecessors, have perpetuated the greatest human rights tragedy in the history of humankind,” the letter said, according to Newsweek.
“Her ascension to the throne, in February 1952, took place 14 years after the 1938 labour uprisings against inhumane working/living conditions and treatment of workers; painful legacies of plantation slavery, which persist today,” it said.
“During her 70 years on the throne, your grandmother has done nothing to redress and atone for the suffering of our ancestors that took place during her reign and/or during the entire period of British trafficking of Africans, enslavement, indentureship and colonialization,” the letter concluded.
