Prince Harry’s Hate Crime

by Richard Spencer

I guess I’m supposed to be shocked and dismayed by the clips, released this weekend, of Prince Harry using some rather mild racial language and generally acting like a buffoon while his First Mechanized Brigade’s tours Iraq. But for some reason I wasn’t much offended at all.

Sure, it’s best not to call a member of your own brigade “our little Paki friend,” nor should a royal heir be spending his time, as they say, taking the mickey out of the Queen. Still, the prince was engaged in exactly the kind of clowning around that one would expect of a healthy young man of 24. (Just put the bloody camera away, Harry – this kind of thing seems hilarious at the time but always ends up in disaster.)

See for yourself:

But fear not! Even if this Takimag editor doesn’t see what all the fuss is about, the national Equity and Human Rights commission is on the case. And the Ministry of Defense has launched a formal inquiry and released the following earnest public announcement: “This sort of language is not acceptable in a modern army.” I for one want the people charged with defending my country to be a bunch of mean, surly, cut-throat sons of bitches, but then I’ve always been out of step with the protocols of a “modern army” in which the deadly use of force is reserved for “humanitarian intervention,” “peace keeping,” and making sure Afghan women receive an undergraduate education. Perhaps some more taxpayer funded diversity training in the schools will result from the “Paki” imbroglio? All we can say for sure is that, in the words of Brendan O’Neill, “the old elite and its outdated manners (as personified by the Royal Family) has been well and truly usurped by a new elite and its new-fangled manners (as personified by quangos issuing guidelines on what words we may and may not use these days).

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January 14, 2009

Richard Spencer is editor of Taki's Magazine.

Copyright © 2009 Taki's Magazine