Meghan Markle Is An Example Of Skin Color Remaining An Issue In Society
Meghan Markle and Prince Harry | CREDIT: CHRIS JACKSON/GETTY
By: Alexis Oatman
The former Duchess of Sussex, Megan Markle, and her husband Prince Harry recently sat down in an explosive interview with Oprah on CBS Sunday night accusing the royal family of not only racism, even going as far as asking about their son Archie’s skin tone, and ignoring calls for help from the constant barrage of negative and albeit racist media coverage.
Meghan Markle Is An Example Of Skin Color Remaining An Issue In Society
Still, Meghan as a fair-skinned, almost white-passing biracial woman, in today’s American culture due in part to cultural beauty standards, would more be more exotified.
Lighter-skinned biracial people have quite a bit of a representation in media and entertainment. I mean, there is an entire show dedicated to the plight of them called Mixed-ish.
Markle has been able to play a race chameleon somewhat, and it worked so far in the US, but once she got to the UK, things were very different. I don’t consider Meghan as Black; she is mixed and has not even outrightly claimed the title herself, and yet she admits she still experienced harsher treatment in the media still due in part to her race.
Let’s be clear, while colorism is what allowed Meghan to marry into the Royal Family, anti-blackness is what forced her out of it.
Among the many revelations revealed throughout the one-hour and 30-minute interview, the couple claims a royal family member asked how dark their son, Archie, would be.
So, yes, she was light enough for him to marry, but her being of mixed-race struck fear into the heart of the monarchy to have their future “superior” bloodline disrupted. This is what it means to benefit from colorism and suffer because of racism.
Unfortunately, to them, it doesn’t matter how fair-skinned you are, how much you straighten your hair either, or even if you have an entire white parent. For them, it is any connection to blackness—features, hair, color, etc.
While her proximity to whiteness with complexion got her in the door, it was still ultimately not enough. She was never entirely accepted by the Royals.
The endless and overtly hostile references to her race, the pathologizing of her move, and tiresome comparison to Kate. Meghan’s mother, a Black woman, adorned her beautiful locs and warm brown skin at their wedding. I wonder was it at that moment when they feared the worst.
But are we surprised?
The British monarchy has built its wealth off white supremacy, classism, elitism, oppression, and slavery.
The major emphasis on her heritage by national media coverage meant that her humanity was now diminished to the point she was treated in the same capacity as a full Black woman. Her light skin/ proximity to whiteness privilege had been revoked by the UK.
I’m personally happy she and her husband decided to give up their titles and did what was best for them.
In a clip from the Oprah interview, Prince Harry admitted that he “feared history repeating itself.” After all, if his family didn’t protect his mother Diana, why would they protect a Meghan, a woman of color? I don’t know why we expected any different.
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