Tag Archives: British royal family

Hey, Andrew … so long!

As a general rule I don’t normally give a rat’s rear end about Britain’s royal family, but this growing awareness of one of the royals’ involvement with a convicted sex predator has me curious and wondering whether he is ever going to redeem what is left of his shattered reputation.

Stand up, Prince Andrew. I am talking about you!

Andrew is a reported friend of Ghislaine Maxwell, the former girlfriend of the late predator Jeffrey Epstein. A jury found Maxwell guilty of multiple counts of sex trafficking. Jurors believed the testimony of young women who said that Maxwell conned them into sexual encounters involving Epstein when they were underage girls.

Epstein strung himself up in a New York City jail cell in 2019. Maxwell is about to pay a steep price for her involvement with him; but what about her involvement with Andrew?

Another woman has come forward to allege that she and Andrew had sex multiple times when she, too, was a girl. Andrew denies it. Sort of. He said he didn’t have a “sexual encounter.” Does that deny any form of intimacy? Hmm. Maybe not.

The royal family has pushed Queen’s second-oldest son aside. He is taking no part in any public activities involving the royals. My hunch — and that’s all I have — is that Her Majesty the Queen and those closest to her believe the worst about the heir to the throne.

I get that the world maintains a fascination with the British royal family. Andrew has been in full public view his entire life. Now, though, the world is seeing another side of Prince Andrew’s alleged former life.

It ain’t pretty.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

One is African-American; the other isn’t?

This blog post features two prominent Americans who have something in common. It’s actually, though, about the media and the way they have covered these two individuals.

One of them is the young woman pictured above: Meghan Markle, the fiancée to Great Britain’s Prince Harry. They’re getting married in May at Windsor Castle.

The other person is the fellow you all know: Barack H. Obama, the 44th president of the United States of America. He’s now a private citizen.

Their commonality? They both are African-American. Markle’s mother is black; her father is white. Obama’s mother was white; his father was black.

Here’s the head-scratcher that gives me cause to post this brief blog item: Why do the media decline to refer to Markle as an African-American woman who’s marrying into British royalty? The media made a lot out of President Obama’s standing as the first African-American ever elected to the presidency. And, yes, Obama’s election in 2008 was a big deal partly for that reason.

To be fair, I am not consumed by the Meghan-Harry romance. I don’t follow it as closely as millions of other Americans. So perhaps the media have made the African-American reference many times beyond my earshot.

Still, someone might have to explain to me why the media are treating these two celebrities so differently. Is it because Markle’s racial heritage is not part of the larger story, while it was a part of Obama’s story?

I am all eyes and ears.