Whoopi Goldberg joins calls for royal family to apologise for slavery: ‘Let us not forget’
Whoopi Goldberg joins calls for royal family to apologise for slavery (The View/ABC)
Whoopi Goldberg joined calls for the British royal family to apologise for slavery on The View, as the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s tour of the Caribbean continues to draw criticism.
Prince William and Kate are currently on a week-long tour of the Caribbean, which has triggered protests and calls for the royal family to make reparations for its role in slavery.
Speaking on The View, Whoopi Goldberg explained how Jamaica was urging the royals to “redefine their relationship with the island… and make reparations for their colonial past”.
“Well!” Goldberg, 66, joked, “there’s a list!”
Co-host Sunny Hostin added: “The Brits are calling this the charm offensive, and they need to call it that. The Brits rarely, especially the royals, rarely talk about their history of enslavement. They rarely talk about how they got their wealth off the backs of Black people.”
Hostin explained how the royals founded a slave-trading company, “and they transported approximately 90,000 slaves to British-owned plantations in the Caribbean”. She also noted that after slavery was abolished, the UK took out a loan to compensate slave-owners that was only paid off in 2015.
Goldberg added that “Britain ran ram shod over India for years… Let us not forget, when we talk about what needs to happen, all the folks that need to apologise.”
Goldberg referenced Prince Charles’ visit to Barbados in 2021, in which he condemned Britain’s role in slavery as the country formally removed the Queen as its head of state.
“Listen, this is not new. I suspect Charles, when he was in Barbados, had some idea because he went on and apologised as he was releasing the hold that Britain has,” she said.
“So perhaps someone is listening, and it’s the new group of folks – I don’t know if it’s Charles, William, but one of them”.
PRINCE WILLIAM AND KATE FACE PROTESTS IN JAMAICA: #TheView panel reacts to Jamaican protesters calling on the crown to redefine their relationship with the island, the country, and make reparations for their colonial past. https://t.co/P0cOo1NIS3 pic.twitter.com/YVHw1ml2Ov
— The View (@TheView) March 23, 2022
The debate came after Prince William expressed his “profound sorrow” at Britain’s role in the slave trade while in Jamaica. He did not, however, apologise for it.
William and Kate’s tour of the Caribbean, which began in Belize and will finish in the Bahamas, has been met with distaste as many are looking for a formal apology and reparations for slavery.
During his speech at a dinner on the fifth day of the couple’s tour, William said: “I strongly agree with my father, the Prince of Wales, who said in Barbados last year that the appalling atrocity of slavery forever stains our history.
“I want to express my profound sorrow. Slavery was abhorrent. And it should never have happened. While the pain runs deep, Jamaica continues to forge its future with determination, courage and fortitude.”
A group of 100 Jamaicans, including activists, musicians, lawyers and doctors, wrote an open letter to William and Kate calling for Britain to “apologise and begin a process of reparatory justice” at the beginning of their tour.
The letter read: “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 colonisation.
“We are saddened that more progress has not been made given the burden of our colonial inheritance. We nonetheless celebrate the many achievements of great Jamaicans who rejected negative, colonial self-concepts and who self-confidently succeeded against tremendous odds.
“You have the unique opportunity to redefine the relationship between the British Monarchy and the people of Jamaica. If you choose to do so, we urge you to start with an apology and recognition of the need for atonement and reparations.”
