The Queen is Dead

When Queen Elizabeth II died, Stan Grant was asked by the ABC if he would present the coverage that evening. He said no: ‘I cannot mourn the White Queen.’ For Grant, the Queen signified the Whiteness that had justified the invasion of his country and the oppression of his people. The death of the Queen was nothing to mourn, nothing to celebrate.

In this powerful and raw book, Grant explores the notion of Whiteness, which he describes as a spell, an evil magic that elevates White above those not deemed White. In strong language, Grant describes the impact of Whiteness: the exercise of racially charged power. The Queen was heir to a legacy that enslaved, exploited, and subjugated hundreds of millions of people over many centuries, and Grant makes the case that this legacy has left in its wake a world that is anxious and without a moral core.

Grant examines the impact of Whiteness across different societies throughout history – and the evil of it; in Ireland, the British made the Irish second-class citizens in their homeland, yet when Irish people escaped to Australia in the early period of colonisation, many became as brutal as their British oppressors. In the United States, centuries-old communities were driven from their lands; in South Africa racial oppression was clinically formalised.

Grant is a highly respected journalist and writer with an international reputation, yet he feels alone in his own country; the words of Australia’s national anthem, and the Union Jack in the corner of the flag, inspire anger and loss in him. For many of us, this book will be uncomfortable reading, because we have been participants in, and beneficiaries of, the dispossession and alienation of this country’s First Nations peoples. I hope we will see that in writing this book, Grant has done us all a great service.