MovieChat Forums > The Crown (2016) Discussion > Condescending speech she gave to those A...

Condescending speech she gave to those Africans?

posted 8 years ago by cdz6969
72 replies | jump to latest

I'm not going to go back and quote word for word, but .. When they were on vacation in Kenya or Tanzania prior to her father's death, she gave a speech and came out and said something along the lines "When we (British) first came here, this was a such "savage" place, now with our railroads and electricity, we've made it a nicer. You're welcome"

Is that just an example of the British being British?

Jesus would support Universal Health Care

[–] liscarkat (17165) 4 years ago

She was just telling the truth. When the British arrived, the Africans were primitive Bronze Age savages. Colonialism had its flaws, but overall the colonial states were better off under British rule than they have been since it ended.

[–] Retromogul (1082) 3 years ago

[deleted]

[–] TheArgentinian (6671) 3 years ago

Racist scum.

[–] PrimeMinisterX (8472) 3 years ago

Well-reasoned argument. Please, enlighten us some more.

[–] UdoConstantini (117) 3 years ago

I'm certainly not defending British colonialism or their condescending attitudes towards their "charges", but I the the OP has a slightly faulty memory here. Elizabeth didn't say that Kenya was a savage place. She was actually talking about Nairobi, that it had developed so quickly from a "savage" (really, nobody should ever use that term about humans and their communities - I think it has now been replaced by "undeveloped" or some such) place unto a thriving metropolis. I think that is a significantly different comment from calling the whole country savage.

[–] Retromogul (1082) 3 years ago

Her speech - which she had not written or bothered to look at - ultimately implied that Kenya had been a "savage" and primitive country prior to colonisation and it's transformation into a "thriving metropolis".
Obviously that was once the "benign" justification for subjugation under the British Empire; helping to "raise" the so-called "savages" into a model civilization...as if to suggest they were not civilized until being oppressed by White rule, slave labor, and the exploitation and theft of their resources...

[–] UdoConstantini (117) 3 years ago

Thank you for replying to my comment yet completely ignoring what I wrote. She was referring, not to Kenya, the country, but to Nairobi, the city. The term, "metropolis", refers to a city. Like I said above, I am not defending British colonial rule, but I am suggesting that Elizabeth's speech in the show is being distorted to make it into what it was not. Maybe she felt that Kenyans were savages and the noble British civilized them. I don't know. Clearly that is what Retro wants to imply so that s/he can launch a diatribe. But that IS NOT what the speech said. It is SO TIRESOME to have a discussion with people who simply refuse to acknowledge plain facts.

[–] Retromogul (1082) 3 years ago

You don't make any sense at all. Nothing was distorted, the speech implied what it implied (that the British Empire brought civilization to the so-called "savages") and the people reacted in turn. Again, the speech wasn't written by her but by some out-of-touch subordinate.
How am I racist by simply pointing out how the speech was interpreted and received? Try harder...

[–] Popcorngal (4483) 3 years ago

I just saw the scene, I felt bad for the king, when Phillip called his crown a hat, but that was colonial ignorance for you.

[–] liscarkat (17165) 3 years ago

"Never since the heroic days of Greece, has the world had such a sweet, just, boyish Master. It will be a black day for the human race when scientific blackguards, conspirators, churls and fanatics manage to supplant him."

George Santayana (referring to the British Empire)

[–] liscarkat (17165) 3 years ago

She was right. They were savages. Railroads and electricity might have made their lives nicer, if they had been smart enough to take advantage of them.

[–] [deleted] 2 years ago

White Man's burden was a common attitude.

[–] Golfaddict666 (491) 2 years ago

It’s true, they’d still be shitting in holes if it weren’t for us humanizing them