Royal-hating US lawyer pays $80K for Diana’s old bicycle deemed ‘too common for a princess and says it ‘symbolizes white supremacy and racist system royalty is based on’
- Diana’s bright blue 1970s Ladies Raleigh Traveller went up for auction in the UK last month
- She used to ride the bike around London while working as a teacher’s assistant, but was forced to sell it off once she became engaged to Prince Charles
- Baltimore-based lawyer Barry Glazer paid $80,000 for the bike
- The personal injury attorney believes the bike is a symbol of ‘white supremacy’
- He plans to display it in a building so people can learn about the dangers of the UK Royal Family
- Critics have accused him of buying the bike purely for publicity; other activists claim he should have donated his $80,000 sum to more important causes
An American lawyer who loathes the British Royal Family has paid $80,000 for Princess Diana’s old bicycle so it can be displayed in a museum to warn people of ‘the racist system that royalty is based on’.
Baltimore-based attorney Barry Glazer paid the exorbitant sum for Diana’s bright blue 1970s Ladies Raleigh Traveller after it went up for sale through Burstow & Hewett auction house in the United Kingdom last month.
Glazer, 76, has never traveled to Britain, but that hasn’t stopped him for acquiring strong opinions about the country. He told The Sunday Times that he finds America’s weakness for Anglophilia ‘incomprehensible’.
Diana’s bike, he claims, is a symbol of ‘white supremacy’.
Glazer – who describes himself as a ‘legal advocate for the injured, disabled and medically abused’ – will now have the bike shipped to the US where he plans to display it in a Baltimore building once used by activists to helped house escaped slaves.
An American lawyer who loathes the British Royal Family has paid $80,000 for Princess Diana’s old bicycle so it can be displayed in a museum to warn people of ‘the racist system that royalty is based on’. Diana is pictured on a different bike with Charles, William and Harry in the late 1980s
Barry Glazer paid the exorbitant sum for Diana’s bright blue 1970s Ladies Raleigh Traveller after it went up for sale through Burstow & Hewett auction house in the United Kingdom last month
Diana rode the bike around London prior to her engagement to Prince Charles. She was reportedly forced to sell off the bike after the prince proposed, because bike-riding was said to be ‘unsuitable’ for a future queen
Diana rode the bike around London prior to her engagement to Prince Charles in 1981.
A description from the auction house claims she frequently used the bike while working as a teacher’s assistant in London.
Diana was reportedly forced to sell off the bike after the prince proposed, because bike-riding was said to be ‘unsuitable’ for a future queen. It later went on to be dubbed as the ‘Shame Bike’.
Diana sold the bike to Londoner Gerald Stonehill and it sat in his garage for 27 years
Diana rode the bike around London prior to her engagement to Prince Charles in 1981
Some believe Glazer is simply looking for easy publicity for his law firm
Glazer’s Haitian-born wife similarly sees the bike as an object of disdain.
‘The royal family thinks they’re too good to be associated with this type of transportation that the common folk use,’ she told The Times.
‘They consider themselves better than common folk and that’s the basis for racism. It’s the reverse of what this country stands for.’
However, not everyone believes that displaying the bike in a museum is a bright idea.
One black American who is a fan of the royal family told The Sunday Times: ‘We all know that Britain has a racist and colonialist past – but I don’t think Diana’s bicycle makes that point.’
Others say Glazer could have used his money to fund more worthwhile causes if he truly cared about rectifying racial disparities.
‘Rather than showboating for clickbait, I would urge anyone truly interested in creating a more equitable society to volunteer their time and money to on-the-ground organizations,’ a US-based historian stated.
Others believe Glazer is simply looking for easy publicity for his law firm.
Glazer is known in Baltimore for his gaudy television commercials.
One clip features the attorney speeding around in a convertible Maserati, before he brags: ‘I’ve made a fortune off of cases that other lawyers wouldn’t take.’
Additionally, the tagline of his law firm is: ‘Don’t urinate on my leg and tell me it’s raining’.
He sells merchandise, including $40 sweatpants, emblazoned with the phrase.
Glazer is known in Baltimore for his gaudy television commercials. One clip features the attorney speeding around in a convertible Maserati, before he brags: ‘I’ve made a fortune off of cases that other lawyers wouldn’t take’
The princess reportedly adored the retro bike and frequently used it to zip around London while working as a teacher’s assistant