Race: royally kicked into the public domain

Unit 4A on the Edexcel course frequently asks students to consider whether race remains a problem in the UK today. Today’s papers are ripe with stories to add fuel to the fire on both sides of the argument.

You’d have to have been hiding on the dark side of the moon to miss the story about Prince Harry.

From today’s Observer:

“A secret video showing Prince Harry making racist remarks and mocking his grandmother has been discovered.

The prince, who is third in line to the throne, made the comments in footage shot while training as an officer at the Sandhurst military academy in 2006, a year after being forced to make a public apology for wearing a Nazi swastika at a fancy dress party.

In the film, the 24-year-old prince calls an officer from the Pakistani army, who was on the course with him, “our little Paki friend” and, when he sees another officer cadet wearing a camouflage veil, exclaims: “Fuck me, you look like a raghead.” He also mocks the Queen - the commander-in-chief of the British army - during a pretend mobile phone call.

Last night, St James’s Palace issued an apology for Harry’s behaviour in the film, obtained by the News of the World.”

In the Sunday Times there is a story about how one member of the government fears that the worsening economy could spark racial tension:

“There are fears that as the downturn bites, simmering tensions between the white working classes and immigrants on Britain’s estates could boil over.

“It could go either way,” she said darkly. “You either end up as a fragmented society, or you come out of it stronger.””