Explosive claims by Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, that she faced racist attitudes from both the palace and the UK press, have shocked the world. But they were no surprise to many black Britons.
Whether the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on people of color or the lack of non-white faces at the top of British media and politics, ethnic minorities in the UK say racist attitudes and structures of discrimination are widespread – and often denied by society in general.
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“This is a country that does not want to have an honest conversation about race,” said historian David Olusoga, who presented the TV series “Blacks and Britons: a forgotten story,” he said Tuesday.
In a TV interview with Oprah Winfrey, former Meghan Markle said the isolation and lack of support from the royal home after her marriage to Prince Harry led her to suicidal thoughts. She also said that an unidentified member of the royal family had expressed “concerns” to Harry about the skin color of her unborn child – a statement that drew an astonished “What?” of Winfrey.
A man passes the Duke of Sussex pub with a sign depicting the image of British Prince Harry and his wife Meghan, near Waterloo Station, London, Tuesday, 9 March 2021. (AP Photo / Frank Augstein)
Tiwa Adebayo, a communications consultant and journalist, said the couple’s revelations in the interview confirmed their worst fears.
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“When Meghan joined the royal family, everyone of color in the UK was concerned,” she said. “This is an institution rooted in colonialism. It is based on white supremacy. I mean, to me, it felt like ‘How could it end well?’
“I hoped there would always be this tendency towards racism,” she added. “But hearing it so openly is really scary. It’s very shocking. And it’s hard to see how the royal family is going to come back from this.”
It has come a long way since the optimism that surrounded Harry and Meghan’s royal wedding in 2018. The relationship between a grandson of Queen Elizabeth II and a biracial American actress has been hailed as proof that, in modern Britain, the color of skin and origin no longer mattered.
Harold Wilson, a 57-year-old local authority worker in Brixton, a district in the heart of London’s Afro-Caribbean community, said Meghan joined the royal family “should have been an opportunity for them to move on – but the royal family is I don’t like it. “
“Even before the child is brought into the world, they are concerned with the baby’s actual skin tone,” he said. “It says everything about them.”
The fairytale image surrounding the wedding at Windsor Castle faded quickly. Meghan faced tabloid stories about her supposedly demanding behavior and was even criticized for eating avocados, which the Daily Mail claimed to fuel “human rights abuses, drought and murder”.
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Even before the wedding, Harry had already complained in 2017 about the “racial tones” in the British media coverage of his then girlfriend. A tabloid columnist referred to Meghan’s “exotic” DNA. A headline in the Daily Mail described its roots in Los Angeles as “(almost) straight from Compton” and claimed that it came from a “gang-marked” neighborhood. One TV presenter described Meghan as “arrogant”.
Meghan and Harry cited the intrusive and racist scrutiny of British tabloids as the reason for their decision a year ago to quit their jobs as senior royalty and move to North America.
The palace issued a rare public statement on a personal matter, saying the royal family “was saddened to learn the extent to how challenging the last few years have been for Harry and Meghan”.
“The issues raised, particularly those of race, are of concern,” the statement said. “Although some memories may vary, they are taken very seriously and will be taken care of by the family in particular.”
Like other countries, Britain has faced an uncomfortable reckoning with systemic racism since the death of George Floyd, a black American, on the knee of a U.S. police officer in May 2020, which has sparked anti-racism protests across the globe. world.
Major protests of black lives make a difference in cities across the UK, calling on government and institutions to tackle the legacy of the British Empire and the country’s great profits from the slave trade.
The fall of a statue of 17th century slave trader Edward Colston in Bristol in June sparked a heated debate over how to deal with this story. Many consider these statues to exalt racism and are an affront to black Britons. Others argued that removing them was erasing a piece of history.
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Prime Minister Boris Johnson criticized the removal of the statues, saying “we cannot edit our past”. Opponents accuse him of trying to sweep the negative aspects of British history under the rug.
Olusoga said that many Britons like to believe that racism is an American problem, something that occurs elsewhere. He said the UK failed to live up to the story it told itself at the time of Harry and Meghan’s wedding: “that we were this modern multicultural country, a country with a black princess, a country that was at ease with you even, with its history, with its multiculturalism. “
“We need to look at ourselves more honestly,” he told the BBC. “Now is a time for self-reflection, not just for the palace, but for the country.”