Richard Stengel, the under secretary of state for public diplomacy and

public affairs in the Obama administration from 2013 to 2016, in an

appearance on MSNBC on Thursday called out US networks over
extensive coverage of Queen Elizabeth II's death.
"I have to say to your earlier question, why why are news American
news networks dedicating all of this time to Queen Elizabeth's
funeral? I think it's a good question," Stengel said. "There's a
weakness in the American character that still yearns for that era of
hereditary privilege, which is the very thing that we escaped from."
Stengel underscored that it was Queen Elizabeth's "great-great-great-
great-grandfather George III who we rebelled from to start the United
States of America."
John Haltiwanger
Fri, September 9, 2022 at 12:41 PM

Queen Elizabeth in Cape Town, South Africa in March 1995.Getty Images

 Richard Stengel, an ex-Obama official, called out US networks for their
heavy coverage of Queen Elizabeth's death.
 "There's a weakness in the American character that still yearns for that era of
hereditary privilege," he said.
 Stengel also zeroed in on Queen Elizabeth's ties to British colonialism.
Richard Stengel, the under secretary of state for public diplomacy and public
affairs in the Obama administration from 2013 to 2016, in an appearance on
MSNBC on Thursday called out US networks over extensive coverage of Queen
Elizabeth II's death.
"I have to say to your earlier question, why why are news American news networks
dedicating all of this time to Queen Elizabeth's funeral? I think it's a good
question," Stengel said. "There's a weakness in the American character that still
yearns for that era of hereditary privilege, which is the very thing that we escaped
from."
Stengel underscored that it was Queen Elizabeth's "great-great-great-great-
grandfather George III who we rebelled from to start the United States of
America."
Related video: Queen Elizabeth dies at 96 - a look back at her 70-year reign

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Though the former Obama official said he pays "tribute to Queen Elizabeth for her
unrivaled service," he also critiqued her connection to British colonialism.
"You played a clip of her speaking in Cape Town in 1947 in South Africa. That's
the year apartheid took effect in South Africa. That was something that British
colonialism ushered in. British colonialism, which she presided over for all these
years, had a terrible effect on much of the world. It's something that people revolt
from," he said.
—The Recount (@therecount) September 8, 2022
 
Apartheid was an institutionalized system of white supremacy involving racial
segregation and discrimination against South Africa's non-white inhabitants.
"Although many of the segregationist policies dated back to the early decades of
the twentieth century, it was the election of the Nationalist Party in 1948 that
marked the beginning of legalized racism's harshest features called Apartheid," per
the State Department.
South Africa was colonized by both the Dutch and British, and apartheid
was firmly rooted in that history.
Queen Elizabeth was head of state to 32 countries over the course of her 70-year
reign, which is intrinsically linked to Britain's long history of
imperialism. Seventeen of those countries — including South Africa in 1961 —
ultimately cut ties with the British monarchy during the same period. The most
recent country to do so, Barbados, removed Queen Elizabeth as head of state and
became a republic in late 2021.
Reactions to Queen Elizabeth's death in South Africa highlight how the legacy of
British colonialism has bred mixed feelings about the British royal family.
"We do not mourn the death of Elizabeth," South Africa's Marxist opposition
party, the Economic Freedom Fighters, said, per Reuters. "Our interaction with
Britain has been one of pain...death and dispossession, and of the dehumanization
of the African people.