What did Prince Harry Windsor and Meghan Markle’s interview to Oprah Winfrey teach us?
Let us make no bones about it; the interview that Prince Harry Windsor and Meghan Markle, the now effectively excommunicated members of the British Royal Family, gave American television personality Oprah Winfrey was a way for them to remain in the limelight. It shone brightly at them and it also reminded many of us who either watched the entire interview or even snatches of it on social media that Miss Winfrey remains a master at herf art. It is extremely difficult to feel sorry for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. They are, and remain, extremely wealthy and privileged individuals, one by virtue of his birth and the other through the Hollywood hype machine. This interview is just a precursor to an upcoming series on streaming platform Netflix, which ironically also broadcasts a very lightly fictionalised story of Harry’s grandmother’s life, ‘The Crown’. But it was difficult to not feel sorry when Meghan and Harry spoke about the racism that they faced when the potential skin tone of their then unborn child, a son now known as Archie, was brought up. Neither of them mentioned who it was that spoke to them about this, whether it was a family member or a member of the royal household bureaucracy, but this again highlights that even an evolved family or institution can remain horribly rooted in a racist past.
The British Royal Family might reign over a realm that is uniquely multi-racial and multi-ethnic, but racist undertones still exist in Britain. Of course, this is not a problem unique to the country as the ‘Black Lives Matter’ that followed the brutal murders of black individuals by white members of the American police force highlighted that even eight years of having a black President hadn’t changed the racist mindsets of many Americans. And while racist undertones in India seem to be more subdued, make no mistake because they do exist. The attitude of the average Indian to African students or even those from the North-East is downright racist and, worse, casteism is still widespread. Many of us might have evolved with regards to our views on matters such as race and caste, but the institutionalisation of those views over centuries will take much longer to eradicate, not just in the British Royal Family but across the world.