Photo: Getty Images
Prince William is trending on Twitter after getting called out for comments he made about the war in Ukraine during a visit to London's Ukrainian Cultural Centre on Wednesday (March 9).
"Everyone is horrified by what they are seeing. The news every day, it's almost unfathomable to actually witness, to see it," the Duke of Cambridge says in video clips from the event. "For our generation, it's very alien to see this in Europe. We're all right behind you." He was originally quoted to have said that people were used to seeing war like this in Africa and Asia, but additional footage from the event doesn't show him directly referencing the continents.
Regardless, people highlighted William's use of "alien" as offensive –– and even inaccurate. Among them was Dr. Bernice King, daughter of civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
"Horrific comment," King wrote on Twitter. "European people ran roughshod over the continent of Africa, pillaging communities, raping women, enslaving human beings, colonizing for profit and power, stealing resources, causing generational devastation. And European nations continue to harm Africa," she added.
When the updated footage emerged, King added: "I believe that we have a great deal of work to do globally to eradicate what my father called the Triple Evils of Militarism, Racism and Poverty. I believe that language matters in that work. And that it is harmful for a global figure to express war as “alien to Europe.”
Dr. Shola Mos-Shogbamimu, a British activist and political commentator, told Newsweek that Prince William's comment alone was offensive given how many media outlets have harped on the narrative that "war doesn't happen in Europe."
"William said it's alien in Europe. This on the back of two weeks of western media also saying it's alien in Europe, also saying Western countries are civilized. I'm sorry if it's alien in Europe, where is he referring to it as being normal?"
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