LONDON – Prince Harry and Meghan’s comments to Oprah Winfrey unveiled mental health issues to the royal protocol, but for many black Britons they were about one thing: race.
The interview, which aired in the UK on Monday night, confirmed the “obvious” daily racism experienced by so many, according to Anna Miles, 28, a biracial writer from Manchester, a city in northwest England.
“It’s annoying and upsetting – that’s how we are treated on a daily basis,” she said. “It is just a constant reminder of how we are seen and how little blacks and browns are respected.”
Meghan said Harry told her that royals had expressed “concerns” about how dark their children’s skin could be. The couple refused to say the individual’s name, but Winfrey later said that Harry made it clear that it was neither Queen Elizabeth II, her grandmother, nor her husband, Prince Philip.
The royal family has not yet commented on the interview and has not responded to requests from NBC News.
The couple also criticized parts of the British media for what they said was a torrent of racist abuse against Meghan, whose mother is black.
It is not the first time that self-exiled royalty, who stopped working last year, has placed the issue of racism in Britain at the center of attention. Still, the interview dominated UK newspapers for the second day of Tuesday, and sometimes sparked heated debates on social media and television about the role that racism played in the couple’s departure.
“This confirms what we already knew. The royal family itself is just the lasting remnant of a brutal British empire,” Momodou Taal, 27, host of the podcast “The Malcolm Effect”, which highlights race and identity, told NBC News. .
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Queen Elizabeth II is the head of the Commonwealth, a collection mainly of former colonies that maintain links with Britain. Hours before the broadcast in the United States of her grandson’s interview, she gave a speech to celebrate the network.
Taal, from Birmingham, in central England, said that, like many young black men, he was repeatedly stopped and searched by the police and that racist slanders shouted at him on the street. He said it was a reality that jobs and access to college were more difficult for people of color – noting that Meghan’s privilege and wealth probably protected her.
Racism has only worsened since the 2016 Brexit referendum, he said, adding that it had triggered a “turn to the right” in the country and fueled fears about foreigners and immigration.
Police in England and Wales reported an increase in racially-motivated hate crimes after the vote to leave the European Union, while government statistics recorded 105,090 hate crimes in the year ended March 2020 – an increase of 8 percent over the previous year.
“As a black person who lived and grew up in the UK my entire life, we are fully aware of the racism that exists,” said Taal. “The only difference now is that someone inside is now saying and stripping.”
Still, many will be grateful to Meghan and Harry for talking and reflecting on their struggles, said Halima Begum, the chief executive of the Runnymede Trust, a British racial equality study group.
“If, as anti-racists, we want to make progress, we will have to deal with unpleasant conversations,” she said.
A Runnymede survey showed that blacks in Britain often feel greater pressure to “prove” that they are British, while many were at the forefront of the Covid-19 pandemic, facing disproportionate deaths.
British historian Andrew Roberts called the interview “damaging” to the monarchy because of “very serious allegations” about racism, adding that it could contaminate Britain’s soft power abroad.
“What happens to the royal family is that, in fact, it is about continuity. It is a 1,000-year-old institution that only changes very slowly,” he added.
What is most painful for some black Britons are the dashed hopes felt since the couple’s star-studded wedding in Windsor in 2018, which was heralded as a major shift towards greater inclusion in Britain.
Christina Nicole, 32, whose family is from Jamaica, said she remembers attending the wedding and “feeling so happy”.
“I thought the whole royal family would now become more multicultural and start to represent the UK,” she said from London.
But the furor left her “disappointed” and disappointed with the institution of the monarchy, she added.
“It’s more than just Meghan. Why are we, as British black women, always disrespected and disregarded?” she asked. “It breaks my heart.”
Rachel Elbaum, Keir Simmons and Laura Saravia contributed.