Sylvia Wynter's Dream

By Natalia Downer

I consider myself someone who is typically unaware. I feel that I know enough about things that directly concern me…and block out things that I either deem unnecessary or too uncomfortable to process. One such thing is the death of Queen Elizabeth the 2nd.

The Queen was someone who, as a little girl, I looked up to because of the association with Disney: there is a king, a queen, princes and princesses, paupers who become princesses etc. But having grown up vaguely hearing of the realities of the British rule, I grew to learn that Queen Elizabeth the 2nd was a different queen from the ones sitting in Disney movie palaces.

As aforementioned, I typically push away uncomfortable news, history etc. from my mind, such as issues of slavery, racism, and the like – though I remain aware of them to a certain degree. Therefore, it was not until Queen Elizabeth died that I really began to see and hear what she was really like, the pains that she caused to people who look like me and the inequalities that she allowed to happen. It was through the voices of others that my ‘opinion’ began to develop.

Photo by Benjamin Suter: https://www.pexels.com/photo/walt-disney-castle-2362002/

I initially had no real opinion of her death except that I preferred having a queen rather than a king, and thus, I was a little disappointed at the fact that we now answer to King Charles. In fact, just a little before she died, the only things I would see or hear of her were through videos on Youtube about her meeting people, laughing with guards, and playing with her dog:

However, now I am seeing very – as some would say – inappropriate videos surrounding her such as the one below:

even though this particular video was made long before she passed.

Twitter, was the platform that really kicked off my awareness of how “horrible” she has been to people like me, and the burst of negative information surrounding her made me decide that it was not a good thing to be, in the slightest, disappointed that she has passed. I mean, her death, in all honesty, didn’t affect me, but I can appreciate why people are rejoicing. Although, to me, rejoicing over a death feels a little wrong.

But perhaps in another situation, where I have been hurt by someone directly, I would rejoice over the death of my offender too, as a normal human response.