Meghan Markle , Kate Middleton, Double Standards and the Fierce Arrogance of White Supremacy!
I figured it was only a matter of time before segments of the right-wing media, here in America and also in Britain, would decide to reignite their propaganda/outrage machine and target it toward Meghan Markle, better known as the Duchess of Sussex. Those of you who are rabid followers of popular culture may have heard that Meghan has been urged to defend her sister-in-law Princess Kate after she found herself at the center of a royal crisis, thanks to an edited family photograph. Yes, you read that correctly.
Catherine, Princess of Wales, posed for a photograph with her three children for Britain’s Mother’s Day, but fans quickly took to social media to point out numerous issues with the photo. Catherine conceded to altering parts of the photo and apologized for the supposed “confusion.” Kensington Palace was under immediate pressure to explain what parts of the image were changed while numerous royal sources declared the controversy as “exceptionally damaging” to the British royal family.
Given the major public relations disaster the incident has morphed into, British public relations expert Ryan McCormick has called on Meghan to help her sister-in-law, stating, “If I was advising Meghan, I would tell her to speak loud and passionate in defence of Kate. Meghan may not like being on the brunt of negative press, but she’s definitely more familiar with it than Kate. The Duchess could help the Princess of Wales tremendously by guiding her through this crisis publicly and behind.”
Since Meghan’s engagement to Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, in 2017, Catherine and Meghan have been employed as each other’s nemesis in the press. Meghan tends to be depicted as either more progressive, regal, and enticing or more bratty, demanding, and sinister. Catherine tends to be positioned as either more conservative, down to earth, and pedestrian or more royal and maternal. They have always been intertwined and unable to be seen as independent of each other. Thus, it has been understandable that as Catherine’s absence has extended toward tawdry gossip and scandal, Meghan supporters inquired to know why the royal family was ready to grant special privileges for Catherine that they would not grant for Meghan. Such a question is certainly fair game.
Truth be told, immediately from the outstart of her involvement with Harry, Meghan was the target of vicious and racially coded venom with comments such as, “Harry’s new girlfriend is straight outta Compton.” Such acerbic commentary considerably increased as the couple became engaged as well as after their marriage. Such already venomous coverage climaxed after the couple granted an interview to journalist Oprah Winfrey, during which they revealed several details that shined a light on the racism, whether conscious or unconscious, that reeked among certain members of the royal family.
“Unreasonable,” “entitled,” “ungrateful,” “spoiled,” “Liar! Fake outrage!” “Fights, camera, action,” “Megxile,” “So who is the royal racist?” were some of the words and headlines that the media directed at Meghan. Tucker Carlson, Ben Shapiro, Brian Kilmeade, and other right-wing suspects readily weighed in on the drama. Hell, perennial Markle antagonist and fierce critic, Piers Morgan, screamed and stomped off of the set while discussing the event https://readmedium.com/meghan-markle-the-royal-family-right-wing-media-animus-and-the-specter-of-deeply-entrenched38e829ba3bd9?sk=33ae6dfbb8a6aa27e113da80abb08889 (https://youtu.be/sG9rX6Ifzhw) during the TV program Good Morning Britain.
Recently, British columnist and wife of Piers Morgan, Celia Walden, insisted that as a member of the royal family (which she referred to as “that corporation”), Meghan had no right to privacy. However, when the manipulation of Catherine’s family photo was uncovered, Walden fiercely became an advocate for Catherine’s privacy. “The shameful speculation about the Princess of Wales’s health,” she wrote, “has to stop.” Well now, apparently, what’s good for the goose is apparently not good for the gander! Talk about a naked degree of hypocrisy!
To her detractors, when Meghan Markle became a member of the royal family, she entered political, social and cultural territory that was supposedly “forbidden” to her and people like her. In their rancidly bigoted minds, “how dare a Black woman, even a biracial one become a part of the most distinguished Anglo Saxon institutions in history! In essence, as they see it, she has “posoined” and permanently soiled the monarchy.
Notably, all of her critics were savvy enough not to refer to her as “uppity,” a word reserved for Black people who anger racist, White people by taking them out of their comfort zones. These are the Black folks who upset White bigots by “doing their own thing on their own terms” and, in essence, by telling such racist Whites to “Go to hell!” Some in the right-wing media would have preferred to have called Meghan a “n*gger bitch,” though they know that would have resulted in some consequences, even in our current racially fractured climate of racial animus.
Perhaps, as a biracial woman who identified as such, Meghan was unaware of the fact that both here in America and in the larger diaspora, like Barack Obama, Kamala Harris, Tiger Woods, Bubba Wallace, Halle Berry, and other biracial individuals, she is seen as Black. The specter of racial ambiguity is something that is forfeited. Moreover, being a woman of color, the intersection of race and gender, as the late Pauli Murray referred to as “Jane crow and Jim Crow,” is all too often commonplace. This was and is evident in the treatment Meghan has endured from her detractors.
As the racists see it, Meghan was wealthy and supposedly privileged; thus, she should be “grateful,” “appreciative,” and “thankful,” and she should “count her blessings” and engage in unadulterated mea culpas of thankfulness to Buckingham Palace and the larger British society and stop making those supposedly “baseless and unfounded” charges of racism and racial nonsense. In essence, they believed that Meghan should “stay in her supposed lane,” “know her place,” and “shut up.”
This was the same royal family that sat idly by and allowed (perhaps even aided and abetted, according to some sources) the level of racism directed toward Harry and Meghan, which escalated to such a volatile point that they were forced to depart the United Kingdom. Now that the seemingly favored daughter-in-law, Catherine, has come under such dissecting scrutiny, varied public relations experts, journalists, and crisis managers expect Mehgan to swoop in, come to the rescue, and act as the Black mammy savior or BBFF (Black best female friend) as we have seen in a number of recent movies over the past several years.
While such a choice is obviously Meghan’s to make, she has so far remained mum on the entire sordid episode. Indeed, given Meghan’s history with the tabloids and the demeaning, demoralizing dehumanization she and her husband endured at the hands of their fellow royals, a neutral stance is probably the most sagacious course of action.
Elwood Watson Ph.D. is a professor of history, Black Studies and Gender and Sexuality Studies at East Tennessee State University. He is a cultural critic, syndicated columnist and author of the book, Keepin’ It Real: Essays on Race in Contemporary America. https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/distributed/K/bo40060337.html (University of Chicago Press)