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A snaggle-toothed man got up on a the stage at the Tusk Trust Gala in 2017 and said (https://www.royal.uk/duke-cambridge-gives-speech-tusk-trust-ball):
"...For many of you, you will have heard me talk about the illegal trade before. It is barbaric, it destroys livelihoods and communities, and it supports organized crime. The world is a worse place for it, and we must stamp it out. I have always argued that, while the problem is serious, it is beatable. The good news of the past two years points to this. Tackling this problem would provide a much needed morale boost to young people who share our concern about the natural world, and are faced with serious environmental problems to tackle in their lifetime. Many of these are much more complex than the illegal wildlife trade, so if we cannot tackle that, then it begs the question whether we will succeed with the even harder problems. Young people have to be encouraged, and they have to know that taking action can achieve results. Because, believe me, there are many other challenges that we face.
In my lifetime we have seen global wildlife populations decline by over half. Africa’s rapidly growing human population is predicted to more than double by 2050 – a staggering increase of three and a half million people per month. There is no question that this increase puts wildlife and habitat under enormous pressure. Urbanization, infrastructure development, cultivation – all good things in themselves, but they will have a terrible impact unless we begin to plan and to take measures now. On human populations alone, over-grazing and poor water supplies could have a catastrophic effect unless we start to think about how to mitigate these challenges. We are going to have to work much harder, and think much deeper, if we are to ensure that human beings and the other species of animal with which we share this planet can continue to co-exist. When we look back, we have a mixed track record in this regard, but I am always optimistic when I observe how young people in particular, all over the world, are motivated to reverse the trends of the past...And this is what your support for Tusk means. Widening their scope to engage, inform and educate, and to do this with great expertise in the continent of Africa. Africa remains the last great stronghold of some of the planet’s most stunning wildlife. As Sir David Attenborough expressed so eloquently last year at the Tusk Conservation Awards, there is quite simply nowhere else on earth that can offer such richness – it is the greatest natural show on earth...."
This man was none other than Prince William, the Duke of Cambridge.
Let's respond right quick:
How can the descendant of the MOST barbaric empire on earth dare point a finger and allude that the victimized descendants of peoples that his forefathers invaded, raped, mutilated, and colonized are barbaric??? How dare he employ that word, knowing that it is a synonym for "savage"--and that the word "savage" (when used in the context of Africa) has a horrid, loaded history??? People have died because of such rhetoric and ideologies! Talk about a micro-aggression...
Yeah, killing animals for no good reason, other than to sell their body parts is terrible, but it sounds funny coming from a man like him.
It sounds funny coming from a person forefathers did things like this TO OTHER HUMAN BEINGS in Nigeria:
Don't you think these people account to more than "a mixed track record"??? Jacking up wild life and our lives wasn't so bad when you were actively profiting from it through colonialism for your industrial revolution and economy. But now that other people (BIPOC) have joined into to try to profit somehow, all of a sudden it's bArBaRiC.
The caucasity!
You and your European posse steal most of our wealth from us, and have the audacity to tell us to not to try to make the most of the shillings you left behind??? Africans and other peoples from the non-western world in the illegal wild life trade aren't all there because they enjoy slaughtering animals. That's more y'all's speed: (https://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/29/world/africa/american-hunter-is-accused-of-killing-cecil-a-beloved-lion-in-zimbabwe.html).
Curiously, Willie didn't mention depopulation on the Asian continent where the two countries (China and India) that hold A THIRD of the world's population are. He mentioned the depopulation of the African continent (which, technically speaking, is UNDERPOPULATED for its landmass size).
Perhaps he did this because:
He wanted to dog-whistle the People of Non-Color whose zeal for protecting the environment (or being vegan--yeah, I said it) is predicated on a desire to avoid having to identifying where they stood on the white supremacy issue (of eliminating the tHrEaT of Africans).
These kinds of folks are all for genocide, but they don't wanna look like the bad guys, after all: you could mess around and lose your job for that these days: WRM (White Reputations Matter)!
To the pouting People of Non-Color:
There, there! I get it: It's tough being a white supremacist these days, isn't it? You were just doing what systemic racism and your parents taught you to! And now they're trying to penalize you for it??? How uNfAiR! My goodness, look at those bags under your eyes! You must be losing sleep because you don't know which whites you can trust anymore! (The paranoia is crippling isn't? LOL: Welcome one aspect of blackness.)
It's almost as if... white solidarity has ceased to exist!!!
And, in it's place, we have... Well...reverse meritorious manumission??? Or something???
FOR SHAMEEEEE!
All is lost!
Woe is you.
LMAO, let the wailing and gnashing of teeth commence!
zmnjxkclosbafjkewffibfenifnbhahahaahhhahaaha
Pathetic.
Anyway,
He knew he was talking to other afrophobic/anti-black racists that would be largely receptive to that message
He knew there would be little to no backlash from African leaders for what he said
And there wasn't. The main people to push back on his speech were a few journalists, me (here), some regular-degular Black Americans, who have been primed enough to understand the imbedded racism in what he said.
He knew that no one expected him to have any real solutions. So he gave this shallow one. He knew that if he just threw out "a cautionary tale" that it would be enough to support the propaganda that would have him painted as an "informed" and "concerned" citizen of the earth.
As a literal and ideological descendant of the (arguably) most successful colonizers in the world, he couldn't help but truly believe what he was insinuating, could he?
This is ironic, because somehow, after being having the least industrialized nations, Africans are often treated as if we have the greatest potential to harm the planet. Somehow, after being starved more than any other continent of its resources, life, liberty, pursuit of happiness, and autonomy, Africans in Africa are still cLeArLy the "fat" that humanity needs to trim to stay "lean" and clean. How inhumane!
*Nigerian Accent*
Thunda fiya him dere!
Let's be frank:
If Willie wanted to depopulate so bad, then didn't he do his part?
Why didn't he lEaD bY eXaMpLe?
Why did he bother having children?
Hypocrite.