Ordinarily, we wouldn’t post about an
Oprah Winfrey
interview with British royals. We concern
ourselves, though, with
issues that reflect what’s happening in society and that people care about. Seventeen
million viewers watched the recent CBS
interview, American television’s second largest non-sporting event audience this
year. Eleven million people in the United Kingdom saw the interview. So, Winfrey’s interview
with Prince Harry
and his wife, Meghan
Markle, caught our attention. The interview left the royal family with
tough questions that deserve answers. Buckingham Palace
put out a statement a few days later saying the royal family would address the
issues the interview raised “privately.”
The interview left many disappointed and feeling the western world lost
another opportunity for putting racial animus behind us.
contemplate suicide. She said she reached out for help with her
mental distress but was told she shouldn’t expect assistance. She said royal
family members didn’t want her then unborn son holding a title or having the
security arrangements royals typically receive. Unidentified family members
expressed “concerns” about how dark his skin might be. Markle and her husband
wouldn’t say who raised the “concerns,” though
Harry denied it was either of
his grandparents, Queen
Elizabeth II or her husband, the ailing Prince Philip.
Rampant speculation about who it was consumed the British and American media.
The UK and the One Drop
Rule
From the time Harry and Meghan began
dating in
2016, British tabloids were fascinated (repulsed?) by the idea of an
English royal involved in a romance with a person of color. Some weren’t nice
about it. Meghan almost certainly carries more white than black ancestry. Her
father, Thomas
Markle,
is a white man. The world views her mother, Doria Ragland, as black,
though her skin tone and other features suggest some European ancestry. Meghan,
therefore, in the eyes of many, is black because of the “one drop rule.”
In
order to prevent the offspring of enslaved women and white masters from
claiming inheritance rights through their biological fathers,
many American states enforced two provisions in probate and family law. First, children carried the racial status of
their mothers. Second, the presence of any black ancestry made a person legally
black – the one drop rule.
England never had such laws, but the custom apparently
followed Meghan into her relationship with Harry. Seemingly that view held sway
with some members of the royal family who weren’t hesitant about expressing
themselves.
Meghan’s distress has now caused all kinds ofproblems. The British Commonwealth
includes nations with lots of people of color. Many embraced Meghan. For them,
the royal family’s behavior has been a supreme disappointment and bolstered the
push in some countries for ending ties with the monarchy.
Is This Really
Happening?
“Concern” about the
skin color of a royal family member’s child in the 21st century indicates
the world hasn’t changed as much as we might have hoped. It may mean Britain has
racial problems not much different from those in the United States. The
controversy suggests Meghan and Harry’s marriage now represents a lost
opportunity.
Interracial marriage
isn’t unusual anymore. The statistics tell a clear enough story. Rates of intermarriage among blacks in the
United States doubled between 1980 and 2010
and keep rising. Beyond the numbers, just watch television or shop in a bookstore.
Interracial couples and their children appear in commercials for banks, food
products, cars, skin disease treatments, furniture, even erectile dysfunction
medications. Novels about interracial romances flood bookstore shelves.
Perhaps the idea of a British royal in an interracial marriage was too much, despite changing attitudes. As a friend of one of us
says about the royal family and its notions of what’s acceptable and what’s
not, the royals follow a rule that says, “That’s different!”
Mason,
provided the featured music. We thought the inclusivity of the wedding portended
a more tolerant era, one that could help England and the everyone else put
racial animus further in the rear-view mirror.
The mistreatment Meghan received, behavior that led her and
Harry to flee the United Kingdom for
California and life outside the royal bubble, suggests the bright promise of a new
world we saw was an illusion. Things haven’t changed as we thought. The British
have their own version of the racial insensitivity and backward thinking we see
so much of in the United States.
Perhaps there’s no reason for surprise. We wondered how that 2018
ceremony struck some members of the royal family. One of us got a text from a
relative wondering if the wedding “stretched British stiff upper lips to their
snapping point.” Now it appears those
fears may have been realized. Perhaps the way the wedding --- and the marriage
itself – struck some royals was a version of the idea another of our friends
expresses when he sees white people unhappy about some indicator of racial
progress. He exclaims, “We can’t have that!”
In case you hid under a rock Saturday, May 19, England’s
Prince Harry married American actress Meghan Markle,
a divorced, 36-year old Northwestern University
graduate who made her name on
the USA Network legal drama Suits, playing a paralegal and part-time law firm associate. Those facts
alone made for an unusual royal pairing, but that wasn’t the half of it.The royal couple’s wedding ceremony brought
black culture to English royalty and therefore to the world.
The ceremony melded English high church with modern concerns
about racial inclusion and honesty about past injustice.Without sacrificing the dignity of a
traditional royal wedding, Meghan and Harry showed the audience we live in a different
world.That process forced British
royalty out of its comfort zone.One of
us sent his children a text just after the service observing that this wedding
ceremony stretched British stiff upper lips to their snapping point.
As a child of the royal family and a graduate of Royal
Military Academy Sandhurst, Prince Harry no doubt brought a keen awareness
of Great Britain’s role in the Trans-Atlantic slave trade and its colonization
of dozens of countries populated by people of
color. “The sun never sets on the
British empire,” went the expression. Even today, Great Britain struggles with
identifying what being British means and it maintains immigration practices
that favor whites over people of color. It admits to British Citizenship immigrants
from the Caribbean, India, Pakistan and Africa more restrictively than
Europeans.
The Homily
First, there was the ceremony’s sermon, officially called an “address,”
by Bishop
Michael Curry, the head of the Episcopal Church, the American affiliate of
the Anglican Church.Bishop Curry, the
first African American in the post he holds, spoke for 13 plus minutes, too
long some critics on social media thought. A conclusion all of us agree with to
an extent.That aside, he relied on the
words of Martin
Luther King, Jr. and alluded to experiences of slaves in the American
Antebellum South.Most of all, in his
delivery and style, he
brought the energy and passion of a black American
preacher to the usually staid venue of a British pulpit.He painted a picture of hope and promise for
a better world, if and only if his hearers dedicated themselves to “the
redemptive power of love.”He grounded
his message firmly in the New Testament, as informed by Hebrew scripture.
But, this wasn’t just any wedding and the performer wasn’t a friend of
the bride who moonlights as a lounge singer.The Kingdom Choir, a London
based gospel group of 20 mostly black singers, did the honors at the royal
wedding.They sang Stand By Me in the soulful, if dignified, tone it deserved.
The Cellist
Prince Harry supposedly gets credit for the appearance of Sheku Kanneh-Mason, the award winning
19-year old British cellist who enthralled the audience with two pieces while
the royal couple and their parents signed the wedding register, a requirement
of English law that must occur during the ceremony.Reportedly Harry saw him perform last year
and asked Meghan to call him requesting he play at their wedding.
Millions of people saw and heard things they never would have
had they not tuned in to what some regard as a spectacle of unseemly
excess.By insisting her wedding reflect
her entire heritage, Meghan taught the world valuable lessons in inclusivity,
history, and cultural sensitivity.Her
new husband joined in that endeavor making their wedding a richer experience
for his family, his country, and the world.They’ve done us a favor and deserve a salute for it.
Unanswered Questions
Did this wedding simply reflect the attitudes of two
enlightened millennials or did it serve as a harbinger of the future, where
people in countries far and near are judged on matters other than skin color? We
certainly can’t equate the marriage of one couple with the election of
America’s first African American President, but we see at least one
commonality. Many of us hoped and believed Barack Obama’s election meant the
dawn of a post-racial America. But with the election of Donald Trump, we just
don’t know how to measure progress. Which is stronger, the forces seeking
change, or the forces opposing change? Only time will tell. With the Brits, as
well, only time will tell.
problems. The British Commonwealth
includes nations with lots of people of color. Many embraced Meghan. For them,
the royal family’s behavior has been a supreme disappointment and bolstered the
push in some countries for ending ties with the monarchy.
