“Horrific abuse” was directed at Hackney charity head Ngozi Fulani on social media after she was “insulted” by racist comments at Buckingham Palace last week, it has been disclosed.
Lady Susan Hussey, Prince William’s godmother and former lady-in-waiting to the Queen, resigned last week after she repeatedly asked the British charity head where she and “her people” were “really” from.
Since then, thousands of tweets supporting Lady Hussey were posted, accusing Fulani of “overreacting”, and calling her a “troublemaker activist”. Users also shared pictures of Fulani wearing an Africa-shaped necklace to try to justify Lady Hussey questioning her origins.
Fulani responded in a statement: “My team, family and I have been put under immense pressure and received some horrific abuse via social media.”
Fulani said: “Incidents like this not only cause emotional harm to those involved but do also have wider repercussions within the community.”
She added: “I have experienced first-hand what happens when a black woman faces adversity and has to overcome additional barriers when trying to report it. This is at the heart of what we do at Sistah Space, and it has reiterated to me just how important the work we do is.”
Buckingham Palace released a statement last week. They said they “take this incident extremely seriously”, and apologised on behalf of Lady Hussey, who has not yet expressed a comment.
The Palace is said to be currently in conversation with Fulani, but further details have not yet been released.
At the time of the incident, Fulani tweeted: “I think it is essential to acknowledge that trauma has occurred and being invited and then insulted has caused much damage”. She also told the Independent that this issue is “bigger than one individual. It’s institutional racism”.
In her statement, Fulani also said that despite the online “abuse”, she and her team also received a “huge amount of support” on social media platforms.
Hundreds of tweets have supported Fulani and recalled other allegations of racism within the Palace. Many recall the accusations made by Megan Markle last year in her interview with Oprah Winfrey, when she said questions were asked over the skin colour of her son Archie before he was born.
Fulani and Sistah Space said that they would not comment “any further at this stage”. They said that they would now “be focusing on the remainder of 16 Days of Activism“, the reason they were initially invited to the Palace.
The online attention has come alongside the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s visit to New York to receive this year’s Ripple of Hope Award for Human Rights from the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights organisation in recognition of their campaigns for racial justice and mental health.
Last night, the Sussexes attended the award ceremony, where president of the association Kerry Kennedy told Extra: “They’ve stood up, they’ve talked about racial justice and they’ve talked about mental illness in a way that was incredibly brave.”
After accepting the award, the Royals said: “Together we know that a ripple of hope can turn into a wave of change.”
