Words by Rayhanah Ginwalla
The endless criticism of Meghan Markle is tinged with obvious sexism and racism – and with her podcast, the Duchess of Sussex is brilliantly fighting back.
Meghan Markle, The Duchess of Sussex, needs no introduction. The 41-year-old mother of two is a household name, respected by many for her long list of achievements – and yes, because she’s also married to Prince Harry. In the past few years, her public profile’s gotten bigger – leading to a plethora of criticism and endless hate campaigns against her. After stepping down from her position as a ‘senior member’ of The Royal Family, she’s been busy making an impact, leveraging her popularity and all-around good nature to do some good. Her podcast, Archetypes, is a good example of this: a platform where she invites other culturally influential women to chat and open up about a range of topics such as female empowerment, philanthropy and media.
So far, she’s spoken with Serena Williams, Mariah Carey and Mindy Kaling, with conversations centred around untangling the connotations and societal stigma attached to words like ambition, diva and singleton. Meghan’s an easy charmer, a trait seen the world over during her tours as a member of The Royal Family. They were also on show during her seven seasons spent on-screen as Rachel Zane, the no-nonsense, smart-talking paralegal from Suits.
But in the age of the internet and social media trolls, she’s become the subject of endless hate and abuse. Of late, criticism of The Duchess of Sussex has taken the form of a trending hashtag: #gohomemeghanmarkle. It came after her attendance at events surrounding the death of The Queen. Alongside Prince Harry, The Duke of Sussex, she attended formal events marking the monarch’s death. With it, some racist royalists (and racist non-royalists) saw an opportunity to attack just about anything she did. Meghan breathing? How dare she. She cried? Fake tears, nothing else. But of all the issues taken with her, it was the hand holding with her husband that sent her critics red-faced, spitting mad. That gesture – at a royal funeral – is nothing but disrespectful, they said. They were so mad, in fact, that they seemed to miss other couples – including two of The Queen’s grandchildren and their spouses – doing the same damn thing.
Then came the outrage over her nice, polite request to place flowers for The Queen given to her by a member of the public… herself. Obsessive, bored and straight-up racist commentators took the airwaves, with nothing intellectual or useful to add to the actual event of The Queen’s death. Instead, they focused on relentlessly harassing The Duchess, accusing her of just about everything you can imagine and some things you cannot.
It’s not the first time Meghan Markle has been subject to endless racist and sexist abuse at the hands of the British media and commentators. Marrying into The Royal Family was always going to bring a certain level of scrutiny. But there’s scrutiny – and there’s plain racism. Her actions – however small – are picked apart, and she’s regularly held to a standard her counterparts simply aren’t. For evidence, look no further than the headlines used for Kate Middleton… when she did the same thing Meghan did. Prominent commentators such as Piers Morgan were relentless in their slander, hypercritical of every single action (or non-action) she took. Anonymous trolls (and some less anonymous) went rampant on social media, scrambling to find material, however false or irrational, to use against her.
After the death of George Floyd, the focus was (rightly) on how racism affects all aspects of American society – from media to policing. In Britain, the view was taken that whilst racism exists, it was nowhere near that in the States – some completely denied it existed. Even now, proponents of the endless trolling against Meghan (for example, Ben Goldsmith) insist that the hate she faces has nothing to do with racism. That will all make perfect sense if we forget the racist headlines, tweets, and comments sent her way. In episode two of Archetypes, she delves into her experiences with Mariah Carey, mentioning the hate she received in the weeks and months after dating Prince Harry.
She has always been candid on how she views herself as a mixed woman, mentioning multiple times that she exists in a space that is not entirely white nor black. In her conversation with Mariah, she said: ‘it’s very different because we’re light-skinned. You’re not treated as a Black woman. You’re not treated as a white woman. You sort of fit in between.’ She recalled Halle Berry’s words: ‘your experience through the world is how people view you.’
With such hate and attacks, it’s to her credit that she remains elegantly strong. Meghan Markle has long been a strong woman, someone with a brilliant ability to speak her mind – empowering others in the process. For young people, she remains – along with Prince Harry – a true royal role model. Her podcast is an extension of her brilliance. You should listen to it, because it’s very good – and because it’ll piss off her critics.
Episodes resume October 4 and will be released weekly on Spotify, under Archwell Audios.
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