Princess Michael of Kent made headlines and drew sharp criticism when she decided to don a slave-era blackamoor brooch on her way to attend a Christmas Banquet at the Buckingham Palace where she would be meeting Meghan Markle, Prince Harry’s mixed-race American fiancée. This fashion of blackamoor figures and sculptures dated back to the 17th and 18th century, and depicted African people in racist manner.
While passive aggressiveness and cold attitudes are a hallmark trait of the Royal Family, the aggression directed towards Meghan stems deeper than just being unwelcoming to a newcomer - it is reflective of the deeply racist mindset of the British monarchy, and their obsession with maintaining their exclusivity as the ruling elite by carefully curating the gene pool from which the future generations of the crown will emerge. This attitude unfortunately does not stay limited to the family; it seeps into the social discourses amongst the British public and affects the way in which they perceive the addition of Meghan to the family.
Perhaps one of the biggest examples of this ingrained racism of British society can be seen in which the tabloid media of the UK received Kate Middleton as compared to Meghan Markle during the times the two respectively married into the Crown. Buzzfeed News carried out a media analysis that showed a damning picture - as many as twenty headlines across British tabloid media were identified that praised Kate for actions that Meghan was put down for, even though both women were doing exactly the same thing. Several of these headlines have been posted below:
This discrepancy in the tabloid media coverage for Kate and Meghan showcases that ingrained racial biases affects our ability to perceive every single thing about a person, and when scrutinised this racist behaviour is not difficult to identify. The racist, aggressive and exclusivist attitude of the Crown, coupled with mirroring attitudes of the British public as reflected through the media, left Meghan Markle in an impossible situation where she ultimately had to choose her mental sanity over staying in the royal family.
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