royalty, racism and blacks oh my!

‘Princes racist remark sparks anger’ screamed the headlines, ‘Harry’s racist video sparks outrage’ came the commentary from the news channels and now less than one month later comes ‘Harry’s Black remark’. Whatever your views on the earlier racial comment many, myself included believed it was blown out of all proportion, whilst yes it is an offensive word I personally viewed the context of the situation before forming an opinion. The latest remark however has prompted the ordering of the Prince to attend an equality and diversity course, no doubt as a public display of ‘slap on the wrist’ but has this gone too far?

After the Prince of Wales 60th birthday celebration last November Harry apparently told black British comedian Stephen K Amos you “don’t sound like a black chap”, oops! big no no. While I can’t account for Harry’s true nature ,do I believe harry to have been racist in this situation? No.
Why? because I have had people make inappropriate comments about my accent for ages. Surely then I should be livid,outraged purple with rage even. Am I not the victim of racial slurs too? Not at all, because the people making these comments were in fact black themselves. I have had it lobbed to me as abuse, “You think you’re a white girl” in confusion “You don’t sound black at all how come you talk like that” or in mild amusement. “ha ha you’ve got to hear this, say it again.” As far as I am concerned black people can be equally if not worse than the supposed white ‘snobby’ classes. They are the ones who look at you weirdly when you open your mouth and come out not with a street slangy dialect but speak rather well. In my personal experience instead of being proud and be happy for the fact that speaking well or posh or whatever you choose to call it is finally not only a product of the upper classes, I am made to feel as if I am trying to be something else because I don't ‘sound black’
What does it mean to sound white anyway? Such a ridiculous statement. I wasn’t aware that being coherent and grammatically correct meant I had suddenly shed my skin colour and am conforming to another set of rules, which are what exactly? the mind boggles, in equal measure what are black people then saying about themselves? that we sound dumb? that we are not meant to speak well, I am no rocket scientist but that just smacks of stupidity, and these are the very same people getting all hot under the collar and calling prince Harry a racist.
While I do agree and that there are sections of society that maybe still stuck in outdated colonial ways of thinking. I think it’s all to quick for some to pull out the race card.