Did Queen Elizabeth Really Throw Food at Poor Children?
Many videos and photos of Queen Elizabeth II were released throughout her long life. After all, she was the British monarch for 70 years. One historical video circulating online even allegedly shows Queen Elizabeth throwing food at poor children. But did she really do that?
An alleged video of Queen Elizabeth throwing food at children drew attention
According to Reuters, several social media users have shared a black-and-white video showing two women throwing small objects to children. Some netizens claim that one of the women is Queen Elizabeth and that she was throwing food at kids in an African colony.
One Facebook user even wrote in a caption, “Late queen with some of your grandparents.”
Other people have called for those of African ancestry not to mourn Queen Elizabeth’s death because of her alleged treatment of African children in the video.
But the video was taken decades before Queen Elizabeth was born
Some news outlets have fact-checked the video and debunked the claims it shows Queen Elizabeth in an African colony.
As Reuters points out, the video was taken by French brothers Louis and Auguste Lumière, who were pioneer filmmakers. According to their catalog, this clip was filmed in 1899 or 1900 in Annam, French Indochina, a part of modern-day Vietnam.
Queen Elizabeth was born in 1926 — over two decades after the video was said to have been recorded.
Reuters explains that the two women in the video are “the wife and daughter of former French President Paul Doumer, who was then-governor-general of French Indochina.”
The video’s caption also states the women were throwing money, not food, to the children.
Some people dislike the queen and the rest of the British royal family
Queen Elizabeth was a popular monarch, and many people around the world mourned her death. But there are still critics who don’t support her and the rest of the British royal family.
The queen was the U.K.’s head of state when the country was still a large colonial power. That means she was also the U.K.’s figurehead when the British government committed human rights atrocities in overseas territories, such as during the Mau Mau Rebellion in Kenya in the 1950s, Distractify reports. The queen has never been allowed to participate in politics, but some observers believe she should not have remained silent about her country’s mistreatment of its former colonies.
Some people also disagree with the way Queen Elizabeth handled issues in her personal life. She was famous for not getting along with her late daughter-in-law Princess Diana. In interviews, Diana alleged the queen didn’t offer her support when she was struggling as a royal. That even led to conspiracy theories that the queen was behind Diana’s death in 1997, but there has never been evidence of that claim.
There are also claims that Queen Elizabeth tried to protect her son Prince Andrew from allegations he sexually abused a teenager when he was friends with Jeffrey Epstein.
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