Here are some more photos of the Prince and Princess of Wales on Day 2 of their Boston Flop Tour. They were doing something at Boston Harbour and both of them looked like they were freezing their nards off. Welcome to Boston in December, knuckleheads. William’s teeth were chattering as he (I assume) muttered something racist.

Anyway, the story continues to be how this Boston trip is a flop, just like their Caribbean tour was in March. I suspect this trip was always going to flop, just because William and Kate are incompetent, but there’s an added dimension to it because of the Susan Hussey-racism mess, plus the Sussexes’s Netflix trailer dropping on Thursday. So what can we expect from William? During the Caribbean Flop Tour, he and Kate were completely unable to change their staid, colonialist plans and imagery, and all that happened post-tour is that William threw a tantrum and blamed his staff. He is incapable of doing something genuine and unscripted without coming across like what he is: a lazy, incurious bully constantly on the knife’s edge of being incandescent with rage. The Daily Beast’s Royalist column had a lengthy op-ed about how William is reacting to the Hussey debacle and the Sussexes’ docuseries. Here’s the most interesting part:

A family friend of the prince told The Daily Beast that William would likely now be trying to figure out the best way to continue his trip to the U.S…. and not to be diverted by the latest royal racism scandal back home.

“William ultimately subscribes to his grandmother’s ‘keep calm and carry on’ school of thinking, and that is what he will be doing, trying to get the focus back on the award,” the friend said.

Asked if this meant he would risk being seen as effectively pretending the comments by Lady Susan Hussey hadn’t happened, or confronting their consequences and significance for the royal family, the friend said, “He condemned the remarks in no uncertain terms. He just won’t be going on Oprah to talk about it.”

A spokesperson for the prince declined to comment further on the remarks Wednesday evening, with his team known to be determined to avoid being “distracted” by issues not related to the Earthshot prize.

Their high-profile visit to America this week was meant to be part of William and Kate’s fightback, making it clear the monarchy is not going to cede America to Harry and Meghan without a fight. However, the scandal—and the deeply offensive way that Hussey addressed Fulani—also focuses attention on not only what Harry and Meghan claimed were the attitudes they faced within the institution, but why they are receiving the award Sunday at the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Foundation Ripple of Hope Gala in New York.

If anything, the scandal shows why the Ripple of Hope award is—damningly for the royal family—well-merited, and why “keeping calm and carrying on” is perhaps the very opposite of how William should be approaching the fallout from Hussey’s remarks.

[From The Daily Beast]

Exactly – it’s one thing to not want to be distracted from your big shiny Earthshot keenery and it’s another thing entirely to be so utterly tone-deaf and blind to your own privilege that you think ignoring racism will make it go away. Susan Hussey is William’s godmother and Hussey was one of Queen Elizabeth’s closest ladies-in-waiting. Susan Hussey was appointed to some high-up emeritus position within Buckingham Palace by William’s father. Susan Hussey is a racist whose abusive behavior made a Black activist feel unwelcome, disrespected and hopeless inside Buckingham Palace. William’s silence is complicity, and his inability to improvise is one of his most significant faults.

Also: William didn’t “condemn” Hussey in “no uncertain terms.” His spokesperson merely signed off on the palace’s statement. The Oprah crack comes across poorly too. But it shows that Harry still lives rent-free in William’s head.

Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Cover Images.