From Ike Anya, Abuja, Nigeria
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!I approached your editorial on the British royal family with interest (FT View, March 11) and found your analysis and recommendations worth reflecting on.
I was, however, surprised that you did not mention at all a core challenge that the monarchy in 21st century Britain faces: the paradox of a supposedly modern, ethnically diverse and meritocratic country having at its pinnacle, a largely homogenously white family and institution to which many of its citizens cannot hope to enter except by marriage.
I am not a republican, as the repository of royal family esoteric facts and trivia still lives in my head from the books on the subject that I devoured as a child in Nsukka in Nigeria in the 70s.
And yet, try as I might, I struggle to find a credible response to this challenge. In a world where it is (quite rightly) now unacceptable to say to a young girl “you cannot aspire to be a chief executive” how can we continue to say to young black and Asian-British children, you can aspire to be anything you want but not king or queen, not prince or princess, not earl or duke, except if you acquire it by marriage.
The racial homogeneity of the royal family is not just reflected in the family itself, but also largely in its officials and courtiers and more tellingly, in the friendships and close social circles of members of the royal family across generations. This is a core challenge, which most of the commentariat, itself quite homogenous, ignores.
I would not presume to speculate on the heterogeneity of your editorial writing team, but a missed opportunity such as this might lead the less trusting to speculate. Ike Anya Abuja, Nigeria
