Frederick Haynes Talks Queen Dying

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Dr. Frederick Douglass Haynes III (C) speaks onstage during the National CARES Mentoring Movement 4th Annual For The Love Of Our Children Gala at The Ziegfeld Ballroom on February 11, 2019, in New York City. | Source: Bennett Raglin / Getty

The recent death of Queen Elizabeth II has sparked mixed emotions, especially among the world’s Black and brown citizens.

But one person whose emotions on the topic are far from mixed is Rev. Dr. Frederick Douglas Haynes III, the Senior Pastor of Friendship-West Baptist Church in Dallas, who on Monday called into the Rickey Smiley Morning Show to discuss the British monarchy’s history and its colonization of African nations.

Haynes — who is set to receive a lifetime achievement award later this month from President Joe Biden for his efforts toward community service — didn’t parse his words after Smiley requested a “history lesson” from the good reverend about Britain’s “checkered past” in Africa.

“‘Checkered’ is very generous and diplomatic,” Haynes told Smiley before explaining what an understatement that is.

“We gotta also be real about the brutal mutilation of the people of Kenya under this monarchy,” Haynes continued, noting how Britain built concentration camps in Africa as well as “oppressed people of the Caribbean islands.”

Haynes emphasized how much wealth was built particularly for Queen Elizabeth II as a result.

“Her riches were built on the bloody backs of countries of color,” Haynes accurately said. “We’re not gonna sanitize the legacy.”

Pointing out that Queen Elizabeth II’s jewels in her crown “were stolen from mother Africa,” Haynes broke it down the UK’s treatment of Black and brown nations on a more granular level.

“The fresh fruit that Africans would grow from the beautiful soil in Africa was taken from them, shipped to London, canned and sent back to Africa where they sold it to the Africans who grew it,” Haynes said as an example of “how brutal and how mean-spirited this empire has been through the centuries.”

Haynes called the monarchy “ruthless” and stressed how important it is to “be honest with history.”

The UK’s torturous ways were not only restricted to Africa and also included countries like India and Australia, the latter of which was subjected to British-sponsored “genocide of the aboriginal people,” who Haynes said “are still suffering” as a result.

“It has everything to do with a British monarchy that has been downright evil,” Haynes explained.

“I think we gotta be real about that because if we’re not … we create a false narrative, and that false narrative means we’re just lying about the past and we’re living a lie in the present,” Haynes astutely pointed out.

Listen to Haynes’ entire interview with Smiley below.