Covid-19 has changed the world forever, globally over 380,000 people have died and millions more have been on lockdown for months. We have all feared for our lives, families and livelihoods from this invisible threat.
This shared experience is why I believe the world has finally ‘got it’ and understands the arbitrary and nuanced racism of the 21st Century, which we face today. We are all free, we are all have equal and civil rights. However, when the world witnessed the murder of George Floyd on 25th May 2020 at the hands of white police officers who ignored his pleas and cries that he couldn’t breath, I think people now understand that some are more “equal” than others.
In this new light and awakening to the true meaning of microaggressions can you believe me when I say, again now as I did months ago, that racism played a central role in Megxit? Meghan was painted in the press as a calculating social climbing jezebel. This image of the manipulative and sexually predatory black woman, is a stereotype women like me have been labeled with throughout history.
Many people claimed their dislike of Meghan was not because of her skin colour. But because you agreed with people like Piers Morgan who was extremely vocal in his claims that Meghan was nothing more than was a social climber. Meghan in my opinion was the victim of this Jezebel image and thought process. It’s so ingrained in the psyche, people don’t even know where it comes from. But I’ll tell you where it’s from.
Many mixed heritage, light-skinned women who were born of rape during slavery in the US and around the world, would often be sold and trafficked into prostitution. For generations, light-skinned black woman have been fetishised and associated with rubbing shoulders in ‘high class’ society, as prostitutes or concubines. As victims of sexual trafficking and abuse, light-skinned WOC have been seen as having an insatiable appetite for sex, power and status. Does this sound familiar to you?
To anyone who doesn’t understand what “casual racism” looks like you have to look no further than the way the press report on her. When Meghan cradled her bump the press labelled her vain, prideful or ‘acting’ and when Kate Middleton was pictured doing exactly the same thing in the Daily Mail, she was reported as “tenderly cradles her baby bump…”
Meghan was also criticised over her more private approach in her pregnancy avoiding the usual photo calls and pomp. What you have to understand is that many people still believe that having mixed heritage children is an abomination, with death threats and calls for the ‘blood lines’ not to mix. Being such a public figure, I would be equally protective of my mixed heritage babies as well.
Once Meghan and Harry’s baby was born, the first reaction were of Archie being compared to a monkey by Danny Baker and memes of the baby in a cot with a grotesquely large penis. This is again another nasty hangover and stereotyping born from the systematic rape and sexual abuse endured by African American men. They were used in breeding programs, forced to impregnate women so their babies could be sold or used as future workers. The image of the sexual aggressive and beast like sub human was created.
We still see the effects of this portrayal when we saw the knee of the white police officer on George Floyd’s neck trying to oppress. We see it in army being called out to deal with the protesters, as Trump says so they can “dominate”.
Meghan’s background has also been reported in a way that highlights this casual racism – her African American heritage and her accomplished mother, Doria Ragland being reduced and referenced as simply being a descendant of slavery. While that aspect of her lineage is true, think of it this way, how often do you see a middle aged white male MP being described as, “and his great great grandfather used to work in a mine up north”.
Prince Harry was so disgusted, by the racist undertones and “wave of abuse” in the way the press were reporting about Meghan, he felt compelled to publicly spoke out against it.
People have now questioned Megxit with their decision to return to the US, the epicentre of all the brutality and racism we are seeing. I totally get why Meghan would want to move back ‘home’. In America, fame trumps colour. I feel it something similar since moving to the countryside.
In London, I can have 3-4 encounters with microaggressions a day, while here in the Cotswolds, it’s only a couple a month. In the same way fame trumps colour, here in the true blue Tory heartland, class trumps colour. I am seen as a middle class, well spoken, privately educated, 4×4 driving journalist first, met with an open curiosity as to what on earth I’m doing here. The US press are also more deferential to what they hold more sacred, which is fame, success, graft and being self made. Let’s not forget they rejected the crown, titles and all the pomp we have grown up on with the American revolution.
As a black woman I have always known what Meghan was facing in the violent dislike and bile she faced. Did she have a decades long year affair while still being married to Harry? Did she get caught sucking someone’s toes or partying on a paedophile’s party island with sex slaves? What did she actually do to deserve the venom? It’s time to wake up and come together to end this and have true social justice for all.