I’ve shared a lot of these headlines before, as, indeed, have many, many others. Since there has been SO much arguing going on about whether attitudes towards Meghan are racist, not only over the last few weeks when it’s been ramped up to 11, but the last few years, I wanted to share them again.
Here’s why: the vast majority of people who have an opinion about Meghan don’t know her. Everything everyone is reacting to is information that has been fed to them by the press. Not every story has been overtly, in your face, racist (though many have) but if you compare the headlines about Meghan to those about Kate in the exact same situations there is absolutely no denying the image they want to project is that of an angry woman, acting above her station, who has bewitched Harry – all racist tropes used against black women regularly.
I have said this a million times: in my opinion we do not need a royal family. I think we should get rid of the whole bloody lot of them. My interest in this has everything to with issues surrounding racism, misogyny and mental health and absolutely nothing to do with any fascination with The Royals…
I do not read tabloids. I do not follow Royal gossip, and I was no more aware of Harry and Meghan trying to get themselves noticed than I was of William and Kate doing the same. I don’t understand why there is this rhetoric that they are particularly attention seeking – I was equally aware of the lives and existence of both couples. Like lots of royals they have causes they like to promote, and you do that by being in the public eye.
“BUT OPRAH..!!!”
Yes.
Oprah.
Oprah is not proof that they want to pull all the focus of every member of the global public and have it shine solely on them.
If they don’t tell the world their side of the story the world is allowed to think that he is a weak, spineless man who turned his back on his family and his country and that she is a woman who set out to destroy the royal family by bewitching one of its number and turning him against them. Long before he met Meghan, Harry had spoken about his negative feelings towards the press – of how photographers stood taking pictures of his dying mother in the back seat of that car in Paris, rather than helping her – Harry did not need Meghan to whisper her nasty, evil, outsider thoughts into his ear as he slept, to turn him against the tabloids. His family knew his feelings and never stepped in. His family have seen all these headlines and said nothing. So what choice do they have? They either stand up for themselves, or let the gutter press lead the narrative of their life.
So do I automatically think that anyone who dislikes Meghan Markle is racist? The answer to that is no, I don’t necessarily think you look at her and think “I don’t like her because she’s mixed race”, but consider your feelings about Meghan in the full awareness that these are headlines and stories that have infiltrated your conscience and shaped your feelings about her.
This is the language of propaganda. And this particular propaganda is racist.
My Name is Not Debbie 