The Queen Is Dead. Decency Is Not.

It has come to my attention that the Queen of England, more so, the Queen of the British Empire and the British Common Wealth has died.

Now, how does that affect me, a Brazilian raised in America who now resides in Canada? Not much. In truth, Queen Elizabeth’s death has little to do with my day-to-day responsibilities. Her life, spanning back to the 1920s, if I’m not mistaken, has had little to no consequence to mine and I was born in 1990. (64 years difference!)

The lady died at the ripe and overdue age of 96. She was four years short of becoming a centenarian. That does not bug me one bit. Anyone who lives to see 80 has lived much, perhaps too much, and any years beyond that are a gift on top of the miracle of life itself.

Her life was one of luxury, royalty, fame, affluence, and influence. Although her seat of power had been sapped of its executive effectiveness long before she took over, she knew her name, more so her bloodline, meant and still means much to those who consider themselves subject to her reign. A reign now passed on to the next monarch, King Charles (73).

And listen, the long history of British Imperialism is something I will continue to critique and condemn until the day God calls me to the beyond. I will, without a shadow of a doubt, and with a healthy comprehension of historical context and respect for the facts concerning events researched, under the resolute guidance of humility and learning, continue to condemn the evils of colonial and imperial greed, racism, nationalism, and devastation until I die.

Great Britain, the chief of all imperialist nations, and its disgruntled landed neighbors, namely, Spain, Germany, Belgium, France, and others who ventured west and southwest in the Atlantic to “discover and conquer” “uninhabited” lands have much to answer for. In fact, to this day, I believe they are still answering for their national and international atrocities of centuries past. The inequity, inequality, and disparity between colored and white peoples of the world today were heavily exacerbated in these last four to five hundred years of human history alone. Lest we forget that Britain is what it is today because of what it did to the Americas, the Pacific, and the African nations centuries ago.

One cannot plunder for centuries only to end up broke in the end. Britain is rich. Ridiculously so.

Britain is rich with the spoils and fat of its previously conquered peoples and the nations it now still holds a heavy gavel over.

Regardless of that marred and devilish history, we must not, in the face of today’s events (as I am writing this on September 8, 2022, the day the Queen was declared deceased) build within ourselves this insatiable lust to tear a woman down in her deep sleep, well knowing she was the least busy cog in the machine we now know as Imperialist Britain.

If anything, she was either an incompetent imperialist monarch or one divested of desire to conquer more lands or promote expansionist sentiments in the lands already conquered.

Queen Elizabeth II, knowingly or unknowingly, is the last or rather, the penultimate of her kind. Once Charles expires, which from the looks of it, may be sooner than we think, the cultural identity of imperialist Britain will die with him.

The next level of successors is too ingrained within a post-modern, justice, and socially conscious culture to proceed in conquering that which has no need to be conquered or ruled; in practice or theory. They will be called monarchs, yes, but they will not behave as monarchs. Social media influencers have more influence and authority than British monarchs. Our world is heavily influenced, still, by capital gains, and between King Charles and Christiano Ronaldo or Kim Kardashian I believe Coca-Cola would side with the two younger cash cows; whose appearances in branded material or slogan slapped billboards have a greater effect on our psyche and financial decisions than the moorings of a dried grape looking Anglo-Saxon ruler who is two years and six days shy of a heart attack.

Regardless, the noise on social media is focused on maligning a dead woman, a woman many of them cared very little for while she lived, and a woman who they spoke nothing of just yesterday. These reactionaries are very much impressed with the attention they garnish from mob rule or rather mob misrule in throwing tomatoes, dislikes, and misplaced bitterness at the grave of a woman who isn’t even buried yet.

The comments and thoughts are many, and many of them varied as well, but they fall under the same cloud of “racist old lady is dead and everyone is happy about it,” or “who else remembers this video about this racist old lady?”

Insert video with or without context.

Again, I am not dodging nor excusing the queen’s misgivings, misjudgments, or mortal sins. I am challenging the echoes that only sound loudest once the aim of their ire is dead.

Where were these sentiments when she was twenty years younger? In her 70s, fully capable of engaging with some of these criticisms, perhaps with her wit in one hand and a lance in the other? The lady was not a dunce. She was very intelligent and from what I’ve read, somewhat impatient about idiocy at home and abroad. So I’m sure a formal critique or a formal presentation of dissent would not have been ignored.

So why now?

The metanarratives that ebb and flow through social media, giving credit to just about every opinion imaginable as if every thought were itself a conviction which in turn becomes an unrefutable truth claim that must be respected, accepted, and celebrated even if it contradicts every law of reason, logic, common sense, physics, and table etiquette conceivable.

Boomers with access to social media, Gen Xers, Millennials, Gen Zeds, and whatever that monstrosity is that comes after Gen Zeds, have access to social media and by access alone they, myself included, believe that every post, this one included, is as valid or more valid than opposing or similar ones.

All this to say that the ire against the dead queen does not stem from honest dissent, honest anger, honest inquiry into wrongs, or an honest desire to have healthy dialogue that can lead to change.

The lady’s corpse has yet to cool and people are demanding a chunk of her flesh not knowing they don’t even eat human meat. The vitriol and invective are coming from a place many people cannot even verbalize when asked to give a reason for why they believe and think the way they do. They think they are challenging white supremacy by channeling mob mentality tactics on social media in the wake of a woman’s death.

We must, at this moment, reflect on her life, pay respect where it is due, and when the time is right, our heads screwed on properly, and our arguments clear as day, we can present them to one another with solutions to the ills we condemn so as not to just breathe hot air into one another’s face on Twitter.

Let the queen die in peace. Let her body rot in her grave. She will. So will we. Let her face God in the beyond and present to Him her accomplishments which He will laugh at with the greatest amusement. There are no records of the incarnate God ever laughing but I believe He will be splitting atoms at some of the hubris He’ll have to listen to at the end of days. Her only saving hope is the Grace, Mercy, and Benevolence of the Brown Skinned Messiah her earthly kingdom turned into a white man and in the process made others believe He, too, was white like her and her lineage. She’ll be shocked. Wish I could be there to see it.

Nevertheless, dismiss, if at all possible, the initial, and potentially the second wave of misguided disgruntled comments launched at a woman who was at the end of something we are soon to see the desolution of, namely, an empire.

The puppet show has grown somewhat boring and outside of a museum, it seems dated. Speaking of museums, it is time Britain returns every bit of archeological find they “discovered” and “readily hid” in their museums for safe keeping from Africa and other non-African nations.

There is much to be said about a person who is mourned almost singularly by white people and shunned almost singularly by people of color. More than I can ever say in one article.

I won’t ever say, “Long live the Queen/King…” of whichever nation. I pray they die sooner and that monarchy dissolves into a liberal democracy instead.

But here, here, to the now dead queen, Queen Elizabeth II, I will say, you have lived long and I pray your life has taught your progeny to live with humility, honor, altruism, philanthropic goals, and a heart turned toward people, not stones, not mythical bloodline superiority theories, or God-given permission(s) to reign supremely over God’s people.

I pray your life has taught the next king or queen (sans Charles) to love and serve, well.

And when the time comes, when the Brits realize that their next monarch, King or Queen, will look more like a member of one of their previously or currently subjugate nations, namely, a brown or black monarch, they will sooner demolish the institution than allow a person of color to reign over Anglolandia.

You’ll see.

Then, yes, we can put pen to paper, fingers to keyboard, to bring this devilish greedy kingdom to an end; once and for all.

Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves; ensure justice for those being crushed. — Proverbs 31:8 NLT

Display image by Bank of Canada Museum.

Originally published at http://olivettheory.com on September 9, 2022.