After yet another scandal, are British royals finally addressing racism?

The royals are once again battling allegations of racism inside palace walls, after an honorary aide resigned and apologized following complaints that she repeatedly asked a Black British charity boss where she was “really from.”

The aide, identified as Lady Susan Hussey in British media, served as the late Queen Elizabeth II’s lady in waiting for more than 60 years and is a godmother to Prince William.

Ngozi Fulani, who runs the domestic violence charity Sistah Space, was attending an event hosted by Camilla, Queen Consort, intended to address violence against women, and to celebrate the work of campaigners and charities who tackle the issue.

But the experience Fulani endured overshadowed Camilla’s message. “I have to really question how this can happen in a space that’s supposed to protect women against all kinds of violence,” she told the BBC.

Photo: Twitter @Sistah_Space

Questions of how the palace confronts racism have swirled since Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, told Oprah Winfrey last year that someone in the family expressed concern over the skin tone of her unborn baby.

According to Christopher Andersen's book ‘Brothers And Wives: Inside The Private Lives of William, Kate, Harry and Meghan’, Charles is the unnamed royal who allegedly asked what color Archie's skin was after he was born.

In the interview with Oprah, Harry admitted racism was "a large part" of why they had decided to leave the UK and step back as senior royals.

Shortly after, a set of documents discovered at the National Archives by The Guardian, revealed that the Queen banned “coloured immigrants or foreigners” from serving in office roles in the royal household.

This racist rule was in place until, at least, the late sixties. However, ethnic minorities were  allowed to work as servants.

Furthermore, a year before, people in the UK and everywhere, complained that the Buckingham Palace had no official response to the murder of George Floyd and the global Black Lives Matter Movement.

This could be justified given the protocol that states royals must remain neutral and stay out of politics. So for them to explicitly endorse the Black Lives Matter movement could be tricky.

However, they could have made a general statement in support of racial equality and inclusion, just to name an example.

William and Kate, for instance, engaged with numerous anti-racism organizations after George Floyd’s death, but other members who represent the monarchy never spoke up.

However, Hussey’s swift departure, and Kensington Palace’s immediate response, has been noted by some onlookers as a sign that the monarchy is learning from past mistakes.

“A few years ago this incident would have been dismissed and Ngozi would have been regarded as too sensitive,” Diane Abbott, a Labour MP and the first Black woman elected to the House of Commons in 1987, told CNN.

However, Abbott added: “I would like to see them have more Black people in the royal household. I would like to see them genuinely open their arms to Meghan Markle, and I would like to see them use their role to try and encourage a genuinely multiracial society.”