The Sunday Times published a front-page story that suggested the British public 'secretly enjoyed' Prince Philip's racist remarks
- A Sunday Times tribute to Prince Philip said "secretly we rather enjoyed" his offensive "gaffes."
- The article referenced a racist remark Philip made about "slitty eyes" while visting China in 1986.
- The online version of the Sunday Times article has since been amended to remove the comment.
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The day after Prince Philip's funeral, a British newspaper published a front-page tribute which suggested that the public "secretly enjoyed" some of the late Duke of Edinburgh's racist and problematic remarks.
The Sunday Times' Chief Correspondent Christina Lamb wrote: "To her subjects, Prince Philip was the longest-serving consort in British history - an often crotchety figure, offending people with gaffes about slitty eyes, even if secretly we rather enjoyed them."
Lamb referenced racist comments the duke made during a visit to China in 1986, where he told a British student that if he stayed much longer, "you'll go home with slitty eyes."
The Sunday Times has omitted the comment about "slitty eyes" in the online version of its story, which describes Philip as an "often crotchety figure, offending people with his gaffes, even if we secretly laughed at them."
It is not yet known whether the publication plans to make a correction or apology in its print version.
Representatives for The Sunday Times, Christina Lamb, and Buckingham Palace did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.
Prince Philip's racist and problematic remarks have long been described as 'gaffes'
The Duke of Edinburgh was known for making racist, sexist, and degrading statements which have often been described in the British press as "gaffes."
For example, Philip told the President of Nigeria that he looked like he was "ready for bed" when he wore national dress to meet the royal in 2003. He also compared Ethiopian art to "the kind of thing my daughter would bring back from school art lessons" back in 1965.
The duke issued a public apology after a visit to an electronics factory in Scotland in 1999, where he said a messy fuse box looked "as though it was put in by an Indian," The Independent reported at the time.
In a 2017 Al Jazeera article, Hamid Dabashi, a professor of Iranian studies and comparative literature at Columbia University, wrote that such remarks were not "gaffes" as "British outlets embarrassed by their vulgarity brand them."
"For the world at large, however, at the receiving end of British and European racist colonialism, these 'gaffes' are in fact priceless relics of an age now deeply camouflaged under lovely-looking and liberal euphemisms," he continued. "We as a result need to treat them as archaeologists treat any other relic and fragment they find. Based on such remains, they reconstruct bygone ages and the forgotten truths they reveal and conceal at one and the same time."
Philip died at the age of 99 on April 9 at Windsor Castle. The royal family gathered for the duke's funeral service at St George's Chapel in Windsor on Saturday.
Only 30 guests were permitted to attend the ceremony due to the UK's COVID-19 restrictions.
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