A popular conservative YouTube personality has been criticised for using a racial slur in reference to Meghan Markle.Steven Crowder was discussing Meghan and Harry’s Oprah interview with guests during his Louder With Crowder show on March 9.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex made a number of explosive claims in the hour-long sit-down with the daytime TV host – most damaging that an unnamed royal asked how dark their son Archie’s skin would be when he was born.
In his Tuesday show, Crowder downplayed Meghan’s racism claims while mocking the royal family as inbred.
Towards the end of the segment, he used a World War II-era slur for black people while imitating a stereotypical British accent.
“First off, let’s tone down the drama a little bit,” Crowder said, after laughing at Oprah’s now widely memed dramatic pause.
“I guarantee you, that if I were married to a black woman, my dad or mum, it could be a casual conversation like, ‘Hey, how white or black do you think the kids are going to be? What’s the over-under on them looking more black?’ They would have that conversation.
“Now that being said, it shouldn’t come as a surprise to Oprah that the people who for generations have banged their sisters to make sure they maintain the royal bloodline have a little – you want to know how it’s very obvious they have screwed up thoughts? Look at their teeth. These are royalty in name only.”
He showed a photo of Archie, saying he didn’t “know why they were so upset or worried, according to her, when the baby came out looking like this”.
“It looks like David Gergen,” he said, referring to the CNN political analyst and former presidential adviser.
Crowder continued, “If racism happened to be as prevalent as they claim that it is in the United States of America, where she was raised – of course they claim it’s incredibly prevalent in Hollywood, which is where she worked – if it were so prevalent in Hollywood in the United States, why would she be shocked by something seemingly so innocuous?
“By the way, keep in mind that slavery has existed in the British Empire far longer than it was outlawed in the United States.
“People say, ‘Oh, in England’ – no no no, the British Empire. Sure you can talk about it being outlawed specifically with royalty in England, but the English Empire, it was still sustained by slavery, so why are you surprised?
“You’ve made it seem as though you faced borderline hate crimes in the United States your entire life. And if that’s true, that’s terrible. But it should be water off a bi-racial duck’s back if all they’re just saying like, ‘Oh, I think your children might be a flat shade darker.’ Who cares? ‘I’ve been the victim of hate crimes my entire life.’
“Look, if you think that American cops are racist, what do you think the royal guards will do to you?”
Guest Dave Landau chimed in, “They only have billy clubs, though.”
Imitating a British accent, Crowder said, “Wait, wait, wait. This neighbourhood’s gone to sh*t, it has. I can’t believe she’s allowed here in the royal family tainting the gene pool. For us, it’s only brothers and sisters and flipper hands and grandkids.”
Landau, also in a British accent, said, “I remember when it was nothing but cousins up in Buckingham Palace, doing it all night long.”
Crowder then said, “That’s right. We had to wheel them out of bed and make sure that we fit the tea mug in their flipper hand, right? With four fingers. That’s the way royalty should look, not like these whippersnapper spooks.”
Landau said, “No. Last thing you want in white skin is a little bit of a tan.”
One Twitter user responded to Crowder, noting the clip he posted omitted the word.
“Later in this same broadcast he refers to black people as ‘spooks’ for a bit,” they wrote. “Can’t imagine why he wouldn’t include that part.”
In addition to being a slang term for spy, the word spook is a racial slur for black person. The term originates from the 1940s, “perhaps from (the) notion of dark skin being difficult to see at night”, according to the Online Etymology Dictionary.
Black military pilots who trained at Alabama’s Tuskegee Institute during World War II called themselves the “Spookwaffe” – a play on the German Luftwaffe, with waffe meaning “weapon”, according to Dictionary.com.
“Some sources say that black pilots reclaimed this derogatory nickname as a self-referential term of pride,” it states.
In the 1970s, the term was used with dual meaning in the title of the classic Sam Greenlee novel and film The Spook Who Sat by the Door, a fictional story about the first black CIA officer.
Crowder, a comedian and political commentator who hosts a notable recurring segment called “Change My Mind” – where he sets up a stall stating a controversial opinion and films his debates with members of the public – has previously fallen foul of YouTube’s rules.
In 2019 his channel, which has more than 5.3 million subscribers, was demonetised after journalist Carlos Maza complained that Crowder had repeatedly used racist and homophobic slurs to describe him.
YouTube restored Crowder’s ability to earn money from his videos a year later, saying he had “taken steps to address the behaviour that led to his suspension”.
“If there are further violations on this channel we will take appropriate action,” YouTube said at the time.
frank.chung@news.com.au