President Biden to meet Prince William, Kate amid royal racism controversy

The royal couple arrived in Boston on Wednesday for a three-day visit that ends Friday when they announce the winners of their Earthshot prize, a worldwide competition aimed at discovering ways to safeguard the planet and fight climate change. The couple attended the Boston Celtics-Miami Heat basketball game Wednesday night, sitting courtside with Boston Mayor Michelle Wu and Gov.-elect Maura Healey (D).

The White House announced that President Biden plans to meet William and Catherine on Friday when he is in Boston. Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Wednesday that officials were finalizing the details of the meeting.

But even before William and Catherine landed, news was spreading that Lady Susan Hussey, William’s godmother and a prominent lady-in-waiting to his grandmother, had resigned her role within the royal household. Hussey stepped down a day after she reportedly pressed a Black British guest at Buckingham Palace about where she was “really from.”

In announcing Hussey’s resignation, Buckingham Palace issued “profound apologies for the hurt caused.”

Prince William’s godmother resigns royal role over treatment of Black palace guest

Ngozi Fulani, a British activist and head of a domestic abuse charity, was at Buckingham Palace on Tuesday for a reception to raise awareness about violence against women and girls. She tweeted afterward that a palace staff member, whom she identified only as “Lady SH,” came up to her and repeatedly asked her questions such as “What part of Africa are you from?” and “What Nationality are you?”

When Fulani insisted she was “born here and am British,” the woman allegedly followed up by asking, “But where do you really come from?”

The back-and-forth felt like “an interrogation,” Fulani later told the BBC. “You’re trying to make me unwelcome in my own space,” she said, describing the line of questioning as a form of “abuse.”

It’s the latest race-related controversy to envelop the Firm, as the royal family is known in the United Kingdom. Their speedy response to the incident, with Buckingham Palace indicating that Fulani’s complaint was “investigated immediately” and that the royal household member involved had…