Harry and Meghan's Netflix Limited Series has dropped its first three episodes, and quickly climbed to the number one programme on the app, sending the British press and our social media feeds into a frenzy. If that infamous Oprah interview back in 2021 is anything to go by, we're about to get the deepest insight into the Royals we've ever had in history.
There are those who claim that the Sussex's are attention seeking, money grabbing hypocrites. There are those that feel like they should be left alone and are deserving of a life of purpose and fulfilment without the constant bullying in the media and the institutions they once represented. Then, there are those who simply don't care. Although I am very aware that we are deep into a cost of living crisis, and worrying about rich people problems may not be top of the agenda in the current climate, I do think this conversation arguably sits somewhere in the political apathy spectrum, and it must be had.
From meeting on Instagram to Prince Harry's explanation for wearing a Nazi costume.
Let me elaborate. Just like many millions of people around the world, I tuned in to watch the Meghan and Harry interview unfold back in March 2021 — my eyes wide and, for much of it, my mouth hanging open in disbelief. I wasn’t surprised by the claims being made, but by the fact that they were courageous enough to make them. I felt angry, upset, exasperated and empathetic to their story — of having endured four years of racism and ill-treatment leading to a serious mental health crisis.
But the next day, when the media giants jumped to comment, speculate and cast doubt on the claims made in the interview, I noticed a different feeling starting to develop within me — something more insidious, and more significant on a personal level. I started to realise, if no one was going to believe the claims of racism made by people with as much privilege and power as Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, what hope is there for someone like me — then a 26-year-old black woman living in the UK.
As we sit deep into the end of 2022, it feels that the conversation hasn't evolved and I feel the same way then, as I do today. As much as I hate to bang on about the same issues over and over, the depiction of Meghan's experience so far detailed in the Harry & Meghan docu-series matters. It creates room for dialogue and it's a mirror as to how society treats not only princesses and duchesses (whom in theory carry all the privilege money can't quite buy), but the regular-degular us, the women simply trying to exist in peace.
The main takeaway I got from the response to the series so far, is that there is a lot of people in the UK that simply don't believe, agree or understand Meghan's claims that ultimately led for the decision of the Sussexes to step back as 'senior' members of the British royal family, which tabloids labelled as Megxit.
Early in the second episode, we see Harry referencing how his mother and other women marrying into the Royal family faced similar challenges as Meghan. As a viewer and also someone whose mother considered the late Princess Diana a friend (because let's be honest, which African mum didn't?), I felt deep sympathy for that. However, he quickly notes that the main difference between the other women who married into the royal family and his now wife Meghan is the added -ism, race! “The difference here is the race element” says Harry as he tries to recount how he explained the issues to his family as they labelled her experience as a “rite of passage”.
Having the Duke of Sussex acknowledge there is still a lot of hate out there that is deeply steeped in racism in some capacity, still to this day, is mildly comforting. Because it makes me feel seen, heard and understood, especially when it comes from someone who doesn't necessarily need to align with my feelings or those of people that look like me.
The fact that Meghan, even with her mixed heritage couldn't feel safe, especially in a society who statistically favours racial ambiguity (or colourism, for lack of a better word) is telling. More on that later.
No wonder Black women are all over socials, figuratively battling strangers and Twitter trolls, and engaging in serious discourse. And it’s easy to reduce a Black women's natural incline to racial activism and their support to Meghan Markle labelled as pure fangirling or as Sussex Warrior antics. However, this support comes from a much more nuanced place, a lived experience, and should be looked at as such, with nuance and understanding.
For clarity, I’m not Team Sussex or Team Meghan (although I am a sucker for a Markle OOTD, she always eats the girls up!), I am Team Black women, I am an advocate for racial equity, I can empathise with her experience and perhaps the proximity to that makes me feel extra passionate about their story. People have the right to speak out for what's right and what they believe in and it's dangerous to interpret that predisposition a lot of Black people carry to call out racism, bigotry and misogynoir (misogyny directed towards Black women) as them simply being a follower, a fan or playing the race card for sh*ts and giggles.
The Labour MP is – once again – the victim of racism and misogyny.
Even in a post-BLM climate, Meghan Markle’s privilege as a white-passing, successful, rich woman can’t save her from racial bias and gaslighting. She addresses that on the documentary.
Not even Prince Harry’s corroboration and own allegations over the ‘concerns’ to how dark Archie’s skin colour would be, were believed by elements of the press, the general public and potentially the Palace itself. The official statement, released days after the Oprah interview, claimed that “the issues raised, particularly that of race, are concerning. While some recollections may vary, they are taken very seriously and will be addressed by the family privately,” and a YouGov Snap Poll following those days found that around a third of people (36%) say their sympathies lie with the now late Queen Elizabeth II and the Royal household, and only 22% of people said they have more sympathy for Harry and Meghan.
One of my biggest concerns was how the British media reacted and still reacts to Meghan’s allegations of racism, as well as how the Royal institution failed to support her in the midst of a mental health crisis and suicidal thoughts. All of these allegations have been undermined by various newspapers, TV presenters (cough Piers Morgan cough) and social media personalities across Twitter and Instagram. Like many Black women who find success or marry well, Meghan has been labelled a drama queen, hysterical, attention-seeking and money-grabbing. She’s been painted as a conspiring, contrived and manipulative woman who is out for personal gain.
Oh, and don’t even get me started on the “she doesn’t even look Black” trope that I’ve read more times than I care to remember. “Do you look at [Meghan] and see a black woman? Cause I don’t,” an infamous quote from LBC host Andrew Pierce: “I see a very attractive woman. It’s never occurred to me.”. He then proceeded to mansplain his very own definition of a ‘real Black woman': "I never look at her and think, gosh she’s Black, in the way you would at Oprah Winfrey.”. Yes, I too was appalled by this statement.
In the docu-series, Meghan's mum Doria Ragland references how she flagged to Meghan that her negative experience in the spotlight moving forward was very much going to be centred around race, to which Meghan responded with “Mommy, I don't wanna hear that.” Meghan too, was very much in denial at first, but the signs were too loud to ignore.
“It's very different to be a minority but to not be treated as a minority right off the bat. I'd say now, people are aware of my race because they made it such an issue when I came to the UK, but before that, most people didn't treat me like a ‘Black women’ so that talk didn't have to happen for me,” says Meghan early on the second episode. Doria, then references soon after that she regrets not preparing and perhaps better equipping a young Meghan to tackle be it racism, racial bias or micro aggressions, or explaining in detail how the world will ultimately end up always seeing her. The fact that this is a conversation that people still need to have with their children is telling to how slowly we're progressing towards racial equality.
Another popular retort from the public after that Oprah interview was “bad timing”. Didn’t Meghan know that Prince Philip was in hospital? Don’t the couple realise there’s a global pandemic? The interview was labeled tone-deaf and insensitive as a result. Then now, the timing is also off, after all, we're in a financial and energy crisis, a result of the Russia vs Ukraine war and the pandemic. I must have missed the memo as to when suffering became an exclusive and limited right, but I’ve always been of the belief that different forms and sources of suffering can co-exist and there’s enough space for all experiences to be heard and held.
All of these reactions made it clear that Meghan was clearly not valued enough by the Royal family nor the British public to be protected, or even accepted. It’s not hard to understand why — the Institution, and indeed, the entire British empire, is built off the back of white supremacy and a regime that conquered and colonised countries to exploit their resources and enslave their people for hundreds of years.
As a result, racism has been woven into every fibre of British society, from the judicial system, to healthcare, to education. Black women are five times more likely to die in childbirth than white women. There were a disproportionate number of Black people dying as a result of Covid, (up to 50% more likely than their white counterparts). 38/1000 Black people are stopped and searched by police as opposed to just 4/1000 white people. The list goes on.
Discrimination in modern medicine is a matter of life and death.
So how did this disparity between the facts and the general belief of the people come to be? Why is it when someone comes out and says the British public and Royal family is racist, people still don’t believe them? Even Markle’s own father doesn’t believe her claims. From his white male gaze he claims categorically that neither the Palace nor the UK as a nation is racist. He boldly claimed on ITV’s This Morning: “I don’t think the British Royal Family are racist, I don’t think the British are racist AT ALL.”. Meghan finally openly addresses the situation with her father in the series, detailing the lead up the the wedding. Her side of the story seems very different than what was originally reported. As she explains, it wasn't that she uninvited her father to the wedding and made herself estranged from that side of the family, it's that he picked tabloid money over his own daughter and went ghost — f*ck-boy style.
On that Oprah interview, Meghan was quite specific about the incident involving a conversation around her unborn child’s skin colour. She was also specific in the examples she gave in relation to the double standard she witnessed with her and Kate’s protection, and also her future children’s security versus all of the other royal grandchildren. Yet she was still told that she was lying. Her experience is one Black people know too well.
Before my career as a journalist, I worked in an establishment where I was made to feel unwelcome because of my skin colour. I knew if I didn’t quit, I would soon be fired. At my exit interview, I was keen to stand for what I believed and proceeded to share with HR all my concerns about a particular manager I felt treated me with covert racial bias. I even came in with detailed receipts, having made a log of every incident with the exact dates, times and witnesses. Three months later, I found out that he’d received a promotion. Like Meghan, the proof I presented and my testimony were not enough.
In part, the lack of willingness to accept Britain’s racist undertones is down to lack of visual evidence. After all, you can’t always see the racism like you can in the USA. Black people aren’t regularly being shot in the street by police, (although the Chris Kaba case was raising serious alarm bells at the clear direction forceful detainment was taking by the British police, and subsequently, many of us marched to put an end to it immediately). Granted, it's also not commonly known that Black people are regularly referenced with the N-word (although who can forget that monstrous and grotesque "Niggling worry" headline around Meghan's engagement to Prince Harry on the Daily Mail by a women I don't care to name). And yes, white people aren’t carrying around crucifixes and wearing white hoods. But this optic definition of racism exposes a serious lack of understanding about covert discrimination and systemic oppression.
For clarity, racism is so much more than using the N-word. Racism is the subtle yet dangerous nuances that can sound almost trivial to those with privilege, but can be deadly to the oppressed. It’s inferior treatment in hospitals, lack of social mobility and opportunity, and prejudicial sentencing in the courts. It’s being held to higher standards, and serving harsher punishments when falling short. It’s being labelled a bully for having an opinion. It’s being viewed as threatening for daring to exist. In fact, I would argue that the fact people cannot see how racist Britain is, is proof of how embedded and accepted, racism has become, rather than proof that it doesn’t exist.
Just like police gun violence towards Black people is a predominantly American problem, some other forms of racism are unique to the UK — in particular, the lack of social mobility. Whereas in America, money means mobility, here in the UK, self-made rich people are often referred to as ‘new money’ or ‘trash with cash’ and there’s no amount that can move you out of your birth-assigned class. In general, non-white people are not assigned the label of ‘upper class’. In light of this, it’s not hard to understand why Meghan wasn’t accepted into the family, as well as why she didn’t see it coming.
After seeing the press reaction, the optimist within me was still holding out for the Palace’s response. I hoped for a diplomatic statement claiming that there was major oversight, and that upon reflection they were on the path of a cultural reckoning. But they claimed that ‘recollections may vary’, which sounds like a very formal way of gaslighting Meghan’s personal experience.
I know firsthand that when people get caught out saying something inappropriate around race, they love to say, ‘hmm I don’t remember it like that’. Ultimately, those situations evolve into a ‘he said, she said’ discourse before being dismissed entirely. However, Black people don’t just wake up in the morning and choose to throw their race card at the world like a Pokemon. We don’t just tap into that trauma for fun.
So, please, when a Black person says they have been subjected to racist behaviour, believe them, even if it doesn’t involve explicit violence or out-loud profanities. When they say someone treated them differently to all their white counterparts, believe them. When they say they are paid less, believe them. When they say their child's future is being undermined before they’re even born, believe them. And when they say they are in pain, believe them. It’s really the least you can do.
For more from Glamour UK Beauty Writer Shei Mamona, follow her on Instagram @sheimamona
