Another Englishman who is also known as “Sooty” has come out and slammed the media beat up about Prince Charles and a polo playing friend whose nickname is also Sooty. He runs a limousine rental firm and uses the number plates SOOTYX, 500TYX, and S00TY0 on his vehicles.
''There's nothing racist about Prince Charles calling his polo chum Sooty,” the Cambridge man told the Cambridge News . ''If someone is happy to be called that by friends, that's their choice. It has nothing to do with people looking in from the outside.”
''It's the people who immediately assume it's a racist comment that often tend to be deep seated racists themselves. To me the word Sooty generates visions of a cuddly cute furry bear not a derogatory reference to a black person. It is in the mind of the beholder. You can't say 'You Sooty' and mean it horribly,'' he added.
Of Anglo –Jamaican origin, Mike Edwards chose the nick name fifteen years ago. He says it is an ''affectionate term'' and has been used by a string of influential customers ever since.
He first met Prince Charles in 1997 on the first of three visits to a farm. “I was first introduced to him as Sooty and he remembered me as that when we met again.''
He also met Princess Diana. ''She really chuckled when I told her my name, we went on to have a lovely chat,'' he said.