Lately there’s been a lot of talk about the BOMBSHELL, SHOCKING, EXPLOSIVE interview Talk Queen Oprah Winfrey conducted with Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex and Prince Harry.
But come now, was there really anything unexpected about the British royal family that was exposed during that interview? Not for me. I wasn’t one bit surprised by anything they alleged the institution, the firm or whatever else they want to call them did.
I was, however surprised by a few things, and I’ll get to that in a bit. But first I want to bring to your attention some things that I think are flying under the radar, or for whatever reason, just left unsaid. So, I’ma say it.
Before I get into this, I just need to preface this by saying, everything I’m about to say is strictly my opinion based on my observation from what I seen or heard in the media. I don’t know these people, have never met these people, but this is what I think. So here we go.
Race
Race was definitely a hot topic both during and after the interview. However, while many people expressed shock by the racism that was discussed, I thought the conversation around race didn’t go far enough.
Harry even said the conversation around how dark the baby could be came up even before they were married. Honestly, I would be surprised if it didn’t. Everyone’s wondering who said it, who said, as if it really matters. As if it wasn’t a general consensus regardless of who actually uttered the words. My guess is several people said it and everybody felt the same way about their children’s skin tone.
For me, the conversation revolved too much around what the British press and the royals think of Meghan’s Blackness, and not enough on what Meghan thinks of her Blackness.
As I was taught in my sociology 100 class, back in the day, race is a social construct. So while biologically Meghan is biracial – just as much White as she is Black – socially she will experience the racism that unfortunately comes along with being Black.
This is why so many biracial people, unable to pass for full-white, identify as Black, because they experience and therefore identify with the struggle.
Meghan Markle, however, is a biologically half-White, half-Black person who, unable to pass as full-White, yet choses not to identify as Black in favor of biracial or person of color. I get a vibe from her that if she could be full-White, she would be in a heartbeat. I also get the feeling that she likes Black culture, maybe even admires it, but she’d prefer to take it in as a spectator rather than a participant. She doesn’t seem to have Black friends ( sure there’s Serena Williams, but I think theirs is a casual relationship), she doesn’t seem to date Black men ( of course, you like what you like), and where is her Black family (her mother was her lone family member at that massive wedding)?
While Oprah got some good questions in, and no one can always think of everything, that was an element to that interview that I thought was missing. I’m curious to know what does being Black or half-Black mean to her. How is she operating in that truth? What does it mean to Harry? What will they teach their children about their Blackness?
With those questions left unanswered, it leaves me only to speculate.
I remember reading an article once in which she recalled an incident where her mother was called a racial slur, or some incident that had to do with racism. I just imagine that she contrasted the treatment her Black mother received with of her White father, and decided that she wanted to distance herself as much as possible from her own Blackness and see how much she could tap into the benefits of white privilege. You get no closer to that than marrying a White aristocrat.
She didn’t mention the words Black, or African American once during the interview. While she acknowledged some things as racism, such as the comments regarding the baby’s skin color, when it came to the disparate way the press treated her and Kate’s actions during their respective pregnancies, she proffered no guess, no explanation.
I think Meghan was disillusioned by the fact that she actually got to be a royal, and the niceties extended to her by the queen, that she somehow thought she transcended the racism that comes along with her Blackness.
Of course the royals were perhaps disillusioned too, if they thought such racism wouldn’t get called out.
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