You know, this whole Queen saga
has been an interesting insight
into how people see the world around them, you know,
because obviously the Queen passed away at the age of 96.
She's had a good run.
[audience chuckling]
She did. No, she did.
96. Like, you've lived your best life.
My gran passed away at 96, it was the same thing.
As a family, obviously, you're sad to let somebody go,
but it's 96, you celebrate that the person's lived the life,
they've lived it fully, you know?
[audience clapping]
And what was fascinating to me
was seeing how angry people were
that not everybody had the same opinion of the Queen
and how much they wanted other people to have that
in a really ignorant way, to be honest, you know?
'Cause the Queen dies.
Obviously, there will be people who mourn, you know?
There's people who mourn because she symbolizes a nation.
There'll be people who mourn
because they've grown up with her their entire lives.
There'll be people who mourn because she's a family member.
She's a grandmother, she's a mother, whatever she,
we get that.
But I'm shocked that people want others
who are under the British Empire
to share the same level of mourning.
Why would they do that?
People are like, "Show some respect. This person died."
And people are like, "So what?"
Like everywhere, you know what I mean?
All over Africa, you know, all over India.
There's so many places in the world where people go,
"Yeah, but do you know what the British Empire did to us?"
And people are like, "But that's somebody's grandmother.
Just show some reverence."
And I actually found it interesting because I was like,
you know what it is most of the time?
It's not about respecting the person
or what they've done or what they have.
In a weird way it's that people have
this strange reverence for fame, you know?
It's that a famous person has gone
and so everyone must respect them
regardless of what the famous person is famous for.
You can't say to people who have been oppressed
by the British crown that they should not in some way,
shape, or form say whatever they want.
First of all, the person's gone, right?
It's not like they're crying wherever they are.
They're gone. That's the first thing to admit, all right?
And secondly, you can't expect people
to show respect for something that never respected them.
[Audience Member] Right.
You know? You can't expect people,
[audience clapping]
you can't expect people to now buy into this idea
that never respected or bought into theirs.
I mean, the crown went from country to...
South Africa, we grew up as British subjects in that way.
Like we still had that impression.
In other countries it was even more pronounced.
You know, you go all around the Caribbean,
you go to India, you go all over the world, really,
everywhere the empire was, and people go,
"Oh, this is why we still have to dress this way.
We were told that our clothes were primitive
or tribal by the British, you know,
our languages were squashed, our cultures were discarded.
That wasn't respect."
And people like, "Yeah, but she's a grandmother."
And I go like, yeah, but the people who were subjects
were also grandmothers,
-[audience applauds] -Do you know what I mean?
My grandmother literally used to tell me stories
about the Queen.
Like my grandmother also died at the age of 96.
You know, my grandmother lived a very different life
to the Queen.
And it's not about comparing the people.
It's just saying that she had a different perspective
of the Queen.
Funny enough, my grand never hated the Queen or anything.
I find most African parents and some in like parts of Asia
where the empire ruled,
they were more shocked than anything else.
You know, like older people of color were more just, what?
They're like, "The Queen is..?
Wow."
It's a moment in time that reminds them of so much
and where the country was and how they were in Kenya,
South Africa, parts of Southern Africa,
or you can feel that people, they still understand
that it's a momentous occasion,
but you can't expect them to mourn it in the same way.
And I think that's something
we struggle with in life sometimes is understanding
that our relationship with somebody
may not be the relationship
that other people had with that person.
And that's fine.
You can say, "Hey, this is my Queen.
I still love what she represents."
Yeah, that's your Queen.
But don't expect everybody else to now adopt,
'cause basically what you're doing
is now recolonizing the people
and being like "This is who you support.
This is who you cheer for, this is..."
-No. -[audience applauds]
You do your mourning and they'll live their lives.
Long live the King.
[audience laughs]
[upbeat music]