The year Lady Susan Hussey was born is better known for Hitler’s invasion of Poland; a move that signalled the start of World War II.
George VI reigned as king in 1939. The first air-conditioned car appeared in the US. Judy Garland’s Over the Rainbow was the biggest hit, and You Are My Sunshine was first recorded. Nylon stockings were born. So was Tina Turner. And Susan Katharine Hussey.
That’s two generations ago now, and Australia had three prime ministers that year, the inflation rate sat at -1.452 per cent, and telegram boys and cigarette girls still existed, along with rag-and-bone men, lift attendants, and photo processors.
Context is everything. And while I am not defending Lady Hussey’s exchange with Ngozi Fulani, the founder of non-profit domestic abuse organisation Sistah Space, I’m penning a plea to put it in perspective.
Another time
Hussey is 83. An elderly woman, who grew up in another time – like many of our parents and grandparents. And while that might not excuse her conversation, it should wrap it in some context.
Think of someone you know in their mid-80s. My mother was Lady Hussey’s age when the same-sex marriage discussion soaked up headlines.
And like many her age, the unfairness of it was explained to her; how it discriminated against people who simply wanted to love each other. She then joined the army of all ages that voted down that discrimination.
But in those chats, between generations, the difference in the world we own stood out starkly to the one inhabited by our parents and grandparents.
Do we expect every 83-year-old to be able to understand and traverse the transgender debate? The debate over multiple names on birth certificates? The massive – and wholly good change – in how the world views racism?
No, we shouldn’t. And surely instead of vilifying them in viral and vicious social media missives, we could perhaps consider their intention.
Did Lady Hussey mean to belittle and racially attack a wonderful woman who fights for domestic violence survivors? Of course not.
But the result is that now, Lady Hussey – after six decades – is stepping down from a job which she started in 1960 when she replied to letters for the royal family before working her way up to become a lady-in waiting and close friend of Queen Elizabeth II; even sitting next to her on the way to Prince Philip’s funeral last year.
Quick to judge
This is not the scandal it is being billed. Nor is it the first crisis of the new King’s reign. The idea that this now hangs like a black treacherous cloud over William and Catherine’s visit to the US – the first in eight years – is ridiculous.
And how disappointing was it that the Prince of Wales – and Buckingham Palace also – so quickly jumped to judgement of a woman, who also is his godmother. Now there are inquiries underway and apologies and official statements – all over a few sentences that could be corrected.
Yes, it might be used as a fillip for Meghan and Harry and the innuendo around royalty and racism, but that was not Lady Hussey’s intention.
She got it dreadfully wrong, and no doubt knows that now. She has never courted controversy before and it is unlikely she was looking for it this week at a charitable reception for those who work to combat violence against women.
Perhaps a dose of forgiveness and a dash of education might have been better than an internet pile-on which has done nothing but pit one side against another on social media.
Fulani, too, is no doubt hurt, as she would be. And members of the royal family – along with many older folk – need to understand better how inclusivity and diversity are so central to how we live and work and play in 2022.
But how this saga played out is not the way to do it.
