Oprah Winfrey interviewed Meghan Markle and Prince Harry, causing media frenzy around the Royal Family. Markle claims there were internal conversations around her at-the-time unborn child’s skin tone.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex shared the Firm would not provide protection or a title for their child, Archie, who is in the seventh line of succession to the British throne. The couple reports what led up to them stepping down from their senior titles was the Institution denying Markle’s requests for mental health treatments.
Markle and her husband sharing the internal racial injustices within the Royal Family has led to several celebrities sharing commentary, including remarks from British television personality, Piers Morgan, claiming he did not believe the comments made by Markle in the interview.
Other celebrities shared their support by weighing in on the accusations of racism made by Markle, such as Michelle Obama who commented, “Race isn’t a new construct in this world for people of color, so it wasn’t a complete surprise to hear her feelings and to have them articulated.”
Many students voiced their opinions by sharing infographics to combat racial injustice and destigmatize mental health through Instagram. While some students prefer to share posts to educate others, some students took to social media to voice their opinions through memes and humor-based posts.
Fourth-year student at the University of Montevallo, Jamie Holdsambeck, shared a post of Prince Charles photographed at the Jesus House, a multi-cultural evangelical center. In the photo, The Prince of Wales was seen practicing social-distancing while visiting many of the members of Jesus House.
While many British citizens applauded The Prince of Wales’ efforts in the comment section, others expressed their anger and labeled the act as “performative activism”.
Holdsambeck shares, “It is extremely disheartening to see the Crown resort to empty gestures of appeasement rather than take responsibility for their role in the disgusting behavior targeted towards Meghan.”
Winfrey asked the Duchess of Sussex whether she was “silent or silenced” to which she replied, “the latter”. In her confessional, Markle shared there were conversations and concerns around Archie’s skin tone before he was born.
A third-year student at Montevallo, Alexis Young, expressed her empathy toward Markle as a woman-of-color. “My first thought was that Meghan is a lighter skin Black woman who is mixed and the possibility of her child coming out ‘darker’ is very slim to none,” Young shared, “It is obvious the Royal Family has lots of underlying hatred towards Meghan and her being a mixed-race woman.”
While many members of the Royal Family have remained silent during this time of media coverage, their fans have not.
Self-proclaimed super-fan, Joyce Black has been a fan of the Royal Family for a while, but only has it been since the Netflix series The Crown came out has she dove deeper into her fascination with the family.
“I named my matching pillow set ‘Meghan’ and ‘Harry’ after the couple when they first got married. Though I love the Queen, I would definitely say Meghan and Harry are my favorite members of the Royal Family.” Black shared.
“I remember when Prince Harry shared his engagement with Meghan I thought to myself ‘how cool is it that little black girls can see a princess like them.” said Black.
Markle compared her experience with the Royal Family to the Disney movie, The Little Mermaid. When watching the animated film, Markle makes the connection between her life and Ariel’s, “and I went, ‘Oh my God she falls in the love with the prince and because of that she loses her voice.”
Markle has voiced her opinions on social injustice and women’s equality from the time she was a child; Including her appearance as an 11-year-old on Nick News where she dismantles a sexist TV commercial that depicts that a woman’s place is in the kitchen.
Since leaving her duty as a senior member of the Royal Family and sharing her experiences in the broadcasted interview with Winfrey, Markle shares that she feels as though she has gotten her voice back.