LONDON When Prince Harry and Meghan announced this week that they would be stepping back from their royal duties and spending extensive time in North America, many of Britains minority residents said they felt a burst of relief. At long last, many said in interviews, the couple might finally escape the abuse, much of it racially tinged, that has been heaped upon them by the British press, particularly the countrys raucous tabloids. Thank God they are free, said Sanaa Edness, lifting her arms to the sky as she walked through Fordham Park in southeast London. Nobody should tolerate bullying and abusive behavior because of the color of their skin. All of this is about her race, I know it because as a Caribbean woman who did not grow up here, I have experienced it myself. It wasnt supposed to end up like this. When an African-American bishop and a gospel choir performed at Meghan Markle and Prince Harrys wedding ceremony at Windsor Castle in May 2018, it set a precedent for many of Britains people of color, who until then had felt excluded from the profoundly white culture and traditions of the British monarchy.
Young black women with no particular interest in the royal family gathered around their television screens and watched with excitement as the beautiful biracial American actress walked down the aisle of St. Georges Chapel and took up her newly found status as the Duchess of Sussex. They hoped that her union with the popular prince would mark a new era for the royal family, one that would usher in fresh and more relatable values. But even before the wedding, the then Ms. Markle had come under frequent attack in the British tabloids, prompting Prince Harry, while they were dating, to issue a pointed statement condemning the racial undertones of opinion pieces and news articles. And since the Daily Mails 2016 headline, Harrys girl is (almost) straight outta Compton, the duchess has been the subject of dozens of racist and sexist stories with references to her exotic DNA and descriptions of her family history going from cotton slaves to royalty via freedom in the US Civil War.After the couple married in 2018, and Ms. Markle officially joined the royal household, the tabloids shifted gears, presenting her as a termagant who shouted at her staff and brought her sister-in law Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge, to tears. Some headlines referred to her as Hurricane Meghan, the Difficult Duchess and ME-GAIN. They wanted to show her up as the angry black woman like a thorn against the sweet English rose petals that is Mrs. Kate, Ms. Edness said. In a rare ITV television interview broadcast in October, the duchess opened up about her struggles and revealed that her friends had warned her that if she married Prince Harry, the British tabloids would destroy her life. The tabloids deny that their coverage shows racial bias, saying they have a right to scrutinize the couple when they are being supported by public funding. Most of the media is ignoring the whole racism factor that has clearly played a big role in the couples decision, said Nadine Batchelor-Hunt, former president of Cambridge Universitys Black and Minority Ethnic campaign. Racism issues are spoken about more in the popular discourse in the United States, she continued. People are more conscious of it, whereas here the black community is a lot smaller and its not really raised as a significant issue regularly. In the latest census in 2011, black residents made up only around 3 percent of Britains population, with 87 percent white and the rest from other ethnic groups. In the United States, by contrast, non-Hispanic white people account for only 60.4 percent of the population in 2019, while black people were the largest minority, at 13.4 percent.
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nothing is a greater tell of an awful human than using "social justice warrior" as a pejorative. without exception.- Bomani Jones