On 7th March, an American television interview by Oprah Winfrey with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Meghan Markle and Prince Harry, was broadcasted globally. Over the course of the one-and-a-half-hour interview, Meghan and Harry discuss the circumstances under which they stepped down from their duties as senior working members of the royal family. The interview covers Meghan Markle’s journey as a senior member of the royal family since her very public marriage to Prince Harry in 2018, as well as the systemic racism which she encounters within the institution of the monarchy. Moreover, Meghan and Harry point out the role played by the British media in fuelling racist and bigoted stereotypes about Markle since their marriage. The most horrific part of the interview was when Markle talks about the anxieties expressed by the institution over her mixed-race child, Archie, and her fears for his safety and wellbeing. She also stresses the impact of racism on her pregnancy, her mental health as well as her subsequent miscarriage in July 2020 – she repeatedly asserts that she was left with choice but to leave.

The interview poignantly hovers between silence and voice with Oprah teasing out Markle’s experiences of racism and her struggles as a biracial woman married into the royal family. Meghan Markle notes her experiences of being silenced by the institution and being denied the agency to use her voice as a woman and as a person of colour. Oprah’s mode of questioning almost appears to be her personal homage to Audre Lorde, in particular to the following lines from ‘A Litany for Survival:’

and when we speak we are afraid

 our words will not be heard 

nor welcomed 

but when we are silent 

we are still afraid (32)

Lorde’s poem beautifully contrasts the systemic oppression and marginalisation of black women against their courage, resilience and their powerful voices. The poem urges black women to use their voice to redress the injustice and discrimination which threatens their existence. Oprah’s interview too, focuses on amplifying Meghan’s voice with the hope that it will enable her in her on-going fight against the establishment. Oprah also lightly touches upon the history of the monarchy and addresses the Commonwealth, but shies away from directly pointing out the royal family’s racist and colonial past. Instead, the interview centres itself around the discrimination meted to Meghan and Harry’s first-born, Archie.

Meghan points out that her son will not receive a title because of his mixed-race background, and hence, will not have receive many of the royal privileges. Moreover, she clarifies that there were various uncomfortable and unsavoury comments made about Archie’s skin colour by someone in the royal family. Her husband, Harry, reconfirms these claims and also voices his shock and disappointment. What appears to be the most troubling thing in this whole saga is the fact that Harry and Meghan did not wish to fully relinquish their roles as working royals. They only wanted to step away from their full-time commitment as senior members of the royal family but continue their responsibilities towards the monarchy in some capacity. Yet, they were forcibly excluded and denied privilege and protection, thus, confirming that their decision to step down was perceived as an act of dissent against the institution.

Even though Harry supports his wife, and attempts to address the question of race, he compares Meghan to Princess Diana. The comparison between Diana and Meghan muddies the interconnected violence of patriarchy, racism and imperialism upheld by the British monarchy and the media. Harry alludes to the British tabloid obsession with Diana and the events leading up to her tragic death in August 1997. Although Diana was vilified by the media after divorce from Prince Charles, she was predominantly considered the ‘people’s princess.’ On the contrary, Meghan was slandered and bullied by the British media from the very beginning. The interview emphasises Meghan’s traumatic experiences of racism and sexism and gives her the space to express her shock and disbelief. Oprah manages to bring Meghan’s vulnerability to the forefront, making her story resonate with many women across social, economic, political and cultural divides; particularly so with women of colour who find themselves marginalised and alienated within racist and neo-colonial spaces and places of the world.

The anxiety over Meghan’s child’s skin colour reveals the menacing desire to control and police a black woman’s body by forcefully rendering her as the other. As bell hooks argues in her essay ‘Eating the Other:’

Certainly from the standpoint of white supremacist capitalist patriarchy, the hope is that desires for the "primitive" or fantasies about the Other can be continually exploited, and that such exploitation will occur in a manner that reinscribes and maintains the status quo. (22)

Meghan disrupts this status quo by marrying Prince Harry and by seeking to legitimately claim her place in the British monarchy. In doing so, she subverts the racist, imperialist and patriarchal expectations and attitudes towards black, indigenous and bodies of women of colour. By virtue of her marriage, Meghan Markle appears to rise above the world where black, indigenous and women of colour find themselves hypersexualised, fetishized, objectified and disembodied. Therefore, she violates the norms and challenges white, imperialistic patriarchy.

The attempt to deny Markle’s child his legitimate claim to the monarchy serves as a way of re-establishing white supremacist dominance and authority. Hence, the attack on Archie’s legitimacy because of his skin colour is a conscious attempt to devalue and dehumanize Meghan using racially charged stereotypes. Moreover, it is also a way of indirectly questioning Meghan’s legitimacy as a woman of colour aspiring to be seen as royalty. It functions to remind Meghan that her marriage into the royal family remains at best a transgression because of her race. The notion that Meghan Markle has wrongly occupied a place within the British monarchy has been force-fed to the masses by the media since the start of her relationship with Harry. The British media has continued to attack Meghan relentlessly and dissect every aspect of her personal life on a regular basis. The fact that the monarchy offered no protection to Meghan despite the tabloid witch-hunt indicates their tacit complicity in violating her fundamental rights to privacy and protection.

What is both ironical and tragic is that Meghan does not seem to realise the ways in which she may have stirred the hornet’s nest by marrying Harry, but also been complicit in the process in complex ways. Throughout the interview, she steadfastly supports her husband and indicates that she willingly gave up her career as an actress to become the Duchess of Sussex. Despite Oprah’s gentle prodding, Meghan does not comment about the history of racist and colonial violence which has shaped the British monarchy. Her disappointment and disenchantment also indicate that she hoped to be able to integrate into the royal family and carve her own place within the establishment. And yet, her dedication towards her marriage and her role as a working royal result in her being considered a ‘space invader’ by white imperialist patriarchy (Puwar 33). Moreover, Markle’s willing participation in the projected imagination of a modern, globalised and inclusive British monarchy further complicates her situation.

Since her marriage to Harry, Markle’s gendered and racial body is exposed to a very public and revolting spectacle. Her marriage and the subsequent status as a royal exploits Meghan’s identity to fulfil ‘the systemic fantasy of imagined inclusiveness’ which ‘makes it difficult to see racism’ (Puwar 137). The monarchy and the media use Meghan’s racialised body to promote the notion that British society is modern, progressive and diverse. Therefore, it is hardly a surprise that the royal family and the British media have subsequently released statements claiming that they have been falsely accused of racism and bigotry (Campbell). The rhetoric of an imagined inclusivity and diversity makes it convenient to shift the blame on Meghan Markle and denigrate her as a troublemaker. It also gives the establishment the scope to obfuscate Meghan’s pressing concerns over her child’s legitimate claim to privileges as a member of the royal family. The British monarchy and media’s explicit denial of racism shows their willingness to exercise hegemonic and abusive power at the expense of women of colour.

 
Even though Meghan’s stance against the monarchy is often unclear and muddled, her resistance and courage should be lauded. The ensuing backlash faced by Meghan throws a spotlight on the deeply conservative and intolerant ideologies upheld by contemporary British society. Undoubtedly, Meghan Markle speaking out against injustice and discrimination offers the possibility to have more nuanced conversation about gender, race and colonialism. However, it is not clear to what extent can Meghan continue to advocate for equality and justice whilst remaining attached to racist, imperialist and patriarchal power structures. bell hooks cautions that: 

Unless we transform images of blackness, of black people, our ways of looking and our ways of being seen, we cannot make radical interventions that will fundamentally alter our situation (7). 

It is imperative to imagine a radical, feminist future in order to successfully transform hegemonic and oppressive power structures. Hopefully, Meghan Markle breaking her silence is a small step in the right direction.

Works Cited

Campbell, Sarah, ‘Meghan and Harry interview: Royal Family 'very much not racist' – William,’ BBC News, 11th Mar.2021. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-56360671. Accessed 22nd Mar.2021. 

hooks, bell, Black Looks: Race and Representation, South End Press, 1992. 

Lorde, Audre, The Black Unicorn: Poems by Audre Lorde, W.W. Norton & Company, 1978. 

Markle, Meghan, Interview by Oprah Winfrey. CBS, 7th Mar. 2021, https://www.cbs.com/shows/oprah-with-meghan-and-harry-a-cbs-primetime-special/video/i6UW_WTQjLrEeOoObMmlwrFLTTypvuZm/cbs-presents-oprah-with-meghan-and-harry-a-primetime-special/. Accessed 22nd Mar. 2021. 

Puwar, Nirmal, Space invaders: Race, Gender and Bodies Out of Place, Berg, 2004.