naomi - // She certainly didn't take the time to explain. She opted to create controversy instead, which for someone who claims to want to educate, is a strange choice. //
Along with the other enthusiastic critics of Ms Fulani, you appear to be shifting your position.
Yesterday, this thread and its companion thread were full of people gleefully repeating instances where they believe Ms Fulani had been less than truthful either in her presentation of herself, or her organisation.
I put forward the notion that such a position appeared to be looking for more and more evidence to show that, because ms Fulani was not as she to be, then that made her instrumental in the palace's knee-jerk reaction in 'sacking' Lady Hussey, who actually resigned immediately, with a sincere apology for any distress she had caused.
I did ask one of the protagonists exactly why he felt the need to pursue this course, since it really didn't influence or affect the situation we are supposed to be debating.
I received an abusive one-word answer, so I remain unenlightened on that aspect.
Now, a new day, and Ms Fulami is now condemned for a different reason - she didn't assimilate the rudeness of Lady Hussey, and use it as a platform to launch a lesson in civics, which would have benefited Lady Hussey moving forward.
But let's just think about this for a moment.
If you were confronted by someone basically calling you a liar for saying you are British, and then accusing you of being evasive when demanded to reveal your racial origins to the satisfaction of a complete stranger, how would you react?
Would you take a deep breath, and decide that education and a time to allay ignorance is the order of the day?
Or would to you take the perfectly normal and reasonable action of being offended, and getting irate, and defending yourself, because instinctively you act first and think about being noble and educational second?
I suggest that virtually all of us, in that situation, would have done as Ms Fulani did at the time, without the luxury of a few days to think it over and decide from a distance what would be the 'right' thing to do.
We all have things that push our buttons, that makes us human.
For someone with immigrant parents who has experienced racism frequently and up close, I would imagine that having your ethnicity challenged rudely by a stranger out of the blue would probably push those buttons, it would for me.
So let's not try and say that Ms Fulami should have seen Lady Hussey's arrogance and rudeness as a springboard for a quick lesson in the demographics of not every British person having white skin, and accept that she was offended, upset and angry, and acted accordingly, and so would we in her situation.