Dr. Malik Zulu Shabazz, Queens, New York, Dec. 2, 2006. (AP Photo/Adam Rountree) / Portrait of Queen Elizabeth II in London, Sept. 12, 2022. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
The passing of Queen Elizabeth on Sept. 8 has erupted a swell of emotion. Some have expressed sadness at the death of the 96-year-old Queen, the longest-lived British monarch, but many have been outspoken about the racist history the monarch presided over in the countries in the Caribbean and in Africa.
Attorney Malik Zulu Shabazz is wondering by Black people are grieving her loss. In a social media video, he went after what he called “handkerchief-dead uncle Toms” who are crying over the death of Queen Elizabeth.
Shabazz has served as chairman of the New Black Panther Party. As of 2013, he has been the national president of Black Lawyers for Justice, an organization he co-founded in 1996 to advocate for victims of constitutional rights violations and other injustices specific to Black people.
In the posted video, Shabazz said, “God damn the so-called Queen. I know you, Uncle Tom, will hate this but this is real talk. Do we see the white Jews of Germany crying when Hitler died? Why must the Negro cry when one of these slave or colonial masters dies?”
He continued, “The bloody British empire has the blood of at least 100 million Blacks murdered by the British crown since 1650. The Transatlantic slave trade– that’s your queen…” He spoke of the British “illegally” invading African countries such as South Africa, Ghana and robbing African countries of their “gold, diamonds, worth $10 trillion.” He concluded, “You handkerchief-head Uncle Toms, be quiet.”
Many have long complained that the British royal family continues to turn a blind eye to its racist past. Even some of Royals have said this.
During Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s tell-all interview with Oprah Winfrey in March of 2021, they spoke of racism in the monarchy. And they called for Britain to confront its racist past.
Harry told Winfrey racism was “a large part” of why the couple left the UK. They also claimed a member of the royal family had “concerns” over how dark their son Archie’s skin would be before he was born.
But the monarch has yet to address such incidents as Britain’s slave trade in the 1500s when the monarch publicly supported Captain John Hawkins, who captured 300 Africans and exchanged them for hides, ginger, and sugar in 1562, Insider reported.
The cloud colonialism that hangs over Queen Elizabeth’s legacy in Africa is thick, even though she once boasted about visiting Africa.
The Queen once declared, “I think I have seen more of Africa than almost anybody.”
She made her first official overseas visit to South Africa in 1947 as a princess and ultimately visited more than 120 countries during her reign, many of them on the African continent, CNN reported.
A Carnegie Mellon University professor of Nigerian descent caused an uproar and backlash from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos over her blasting of the British reign in Africa. Linguistics Professor Uju Anya described the late queen as the monarch of a “thieving raping genocidal empire.”
“This is someone supposedly working to make the world better? I don’t think so. Wow,” Bezos tweeted in response.
Anya stood by her tweet: “May everyone you and your merciless greed have harmed in this world remember you as fondly as I remember my colonizers.”
She wrote, “If anyone expects me to express anything but disdain for the monarch who supervised a government that sponsored the genocide that massacred and displaced half my family and the consequences of which those alive today are still trying to overcome, you can keep wishing upon a star.”
Carnegie replied to the furor over her tweets. The school’s official statement reads: “We do not condone the offensive and objectionable messages posted by Uju Anya today on her personal social media account. Free expression is core to the mission of higher education, however, the views she shared absolutely do not represent the values of the institution, nor the standards of discourse we seek to foster.”
Dr. Malik Zulu Shabazz, then-chairman of the New Black Panther Party, speaks out against police brutality at a rally in Queens, New York, Dec. 2, 2006. (AP Photo/Adam Rountree) / Portrait of Queen Elizabeth II in London, Sept. 12, 2022. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
