Last year, Prince Harry yelled at the UK media by launching a Love Shield in defence of Meghan Markle after British tabloids repeatedly published articles about her being “straight outta Compton” and other gross headlines. Now that he and Meghan are engaged, well, that bullsh-t is starting up again. Here’s an article that appeared in the Daily Mail today:
So, basically, she came from slaves.
Like the old timey pearl clutcher aristocrats needed a reminder that Prince Harry would be contaminating their pure rich high class white blood with a biracial woman from America whose ancestors picked cotton. That’s exactly what they’re trying to tell you here, non? This is exactly the worldview that Meghan Markle is up against.
Earlier today, Kathleen wrote a post about Jay-Z pointing out that he went from being a drug dealer to sitting in boardrooms running sh-t. Is this the same? No. The context of Kathleen’s observation was that given his past, Jay-Z “seems to have a deep understanding of the responsibility that comes with” success. What is the context of the Daily Mail article about Meghan’s background? I mean, sure, on the most generous (naïve) read possible, you could say that they’re celebrating the fact that we live in a time when this is possible. That would be generous. Or, you know, you can hear the dog whistle. “Cotton slaves” and “maids” in the headline. The people who used to WORK for us are now getting a seat at the table. The servants are coming for our land! Guard the jewels!
Many of you have written to side-eye Meghan Markle for what she said in the joint interview on Monday about not knowing anything about Prince Harry and the royal family. You didn’t believe her. I hear you. I don’t believe her either. We’ve all been paying attention to Harry and his life and his family for a long, long time. That said, a girl like Meghan, whose “ancestor was a maid”, and is now “upwardly mobile”, would it be interpreted by certain people differently had she been all like, oh yeah, I totally knew all about him? Maybe not. But it’s hard to deny that she’s operating under a different set of expectations. That everything she says and does will be processed by a specific class through another lens.
In other Meghan news, here she is on the cover of French ELLE. These are not new photos. They’re from a shoot with an Australian magazine called Gritty Pretty (?!?) in 2015. By the way, I told you on Monday that Meghan will be spending Christmas in Sandringham. The UK papers are today claiming the same, even though royal experts initially scoffed at the idea because Kate Middleton was not invited to Sandringham when she and Prince William got engaged. Kate, however, has a family home in England. She has somewhere to go. What, is Harry going to leave Meghan alone for 3 days at Nottingham cottage while he heads to the family Christmas gathering? Harry, as we’ve seen, has been getting his way. If he wants Meghan at Sandringham, she’ll be at Sandringham. Some people think they might head to LA for Christmas, to be with her family. But the way it’s been going, with the promise of full immersion for Meghan into English life and being based there permanently, I’m thinking she’ll spend their first Christmas together as an engaged couple in their declared home country. Let me know your thoughts?
