The newly born British royal baby, Master Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor, son of Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex and his biracial American wife, Duchess Meghan Markle, has faced his first dose of racism only two days after he was born on Monday, May 6, 2019.
The 7th heir to the throne and eighth great-grandchild of the Queen of England was depicted as a monkey in a tweet posted by British broadcaster and comedy writer, Danny Baker who hosts a weekend radio show on the BBC’s 5 Live channel.
British royal baby Baker’s tweet on Wednesday which has been deleted showed a couple holding hands with a chimpanzee wearing clothes with the caption “Royal Baby leaves hospital”. This created a swift social media uproar with screenshots of his deleted tweet being shared widely.
“Sorry my gag pic of the little fella in the posh outfit has whipped some up. Never occurred to me because, well, mind not diseased. Soon as those good enough to point out its possible connotations got in touch, down it came. And that’s it,” he immediately tweeted his apologies after the uproar.
After his apology, the BBC announced his sack in a statement saying: “This was a serious error of judgment and goes against the values we as a station aim to embody. Danny’s a brilliant broadcaster but will no longer be presenting a weekly show with us.”
The 61-year-old presenter took offence and tweeted: “The call to fire me from @bbc5live was a masterclass of pompous faux-gravity. Took a tone that said I actually meant that ridiculous tweet and the BBC must uphold blah blah blah. Literally threw me under the bus. Could hear the suits knees knocking.”
He also tweeted explaining his racist post saying it was “supposed to be joke about Royals vs circus animals in posh clothes but interpreted as about monkeys & race, so rightly deleted. Royal watching not my forte. Also, guessing it was my turn in the barrel.”
This is not the first time he has been fired by the BBC and he has always returned. In 1997, he was fired for encouraging football fans to “make a referee’s life hell” after awarding a controversial penalty in an FA Cup tie. He later denied inciting fans.
Master Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor’s name was revealed to the public on Wednesday. He is the first child of royal heritage with black descent. His maternal grandmother, Doria Ragland, is African American.
