As the furore over the “bombshell interview” swirls around us, and accusations and counter-accusations fly back and forth across the pond, what has become clear once more, is that misogyny and racism are inextricably linked to Empire, and that the media is complicit. When Oprah Winfrey sat down with Harry Windsor and Megan Markle to have a candid conversation, the resultant revelations seem to have rocked the British media and – dare we say it? – the hallowed British monarchy.
The duo was careful to leave the Queen out of the controversy, laying the blame at the feet of her advisors and “The Firm” instead. If the usage of the term brings to mind Tom Cruise single-handedly battling a corrupt and dangerous cabal of old fogies, then perhaps the implication is partly justified. Because we all know that underlying the cutesy and curated pictures of the little princes and princesses and the breathless public frenzy over designer dresses, diamond tiaras, and fairytale weddings fueled by the paparazzi, is an institution and a family that has presided over a vast and ruthless enterprise of self-aggrandisement at the cost of nations, natural resources, and “natives” around the world. Where the modern monarchy is now little-more than a figurehead for that lost and nostalgically-remembered empire, its long-lasting position is as much due to the wiliness of its current head as to the British public’s enduring need to remind themselves of their once-greatness.
Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, gives an interview to Oprah Winfrey in this undated handout photo. Photo: Harpo Productions/Joe Pugliese/Handout via Reuters
In 1979, British-Jamaican cultural theorist Stuart Hall called out British television for racist bias, ironically on a show that aired on the BBC. Using clips from news programs, documentaries, and television shows, he exposed how supposedly innocuous comments and harmless jokes were deployed by television personalities and content creators to reinforce and normalise racist attitudes towards Black and Asian communities in Britain.
Writer-researcher Rianna Jade Parker explains how humour was used to disseminate racist attitudes in a country with a growing multi-racial population, and how when Hall later wrote about his attempt to examine the implications of a biased media discourse, it was taken as a personal attack rather than as a systemic problem. This is a classic deflection tactic by those who refuse to accept the existence of structural racism and misogyny, because acknowledging it shifts the onus of responsibility to those who benefit from a discriminatory status quo.
And we saw that happen in the British (tabloid) press and social media newsfeeds as mixed-race Meghan Markle had her fairytale wedding and joined the British royal family, and both, the British tabloids and white media pundits on UK television went about methodically eviscerating her. “Meghan makes Kate cry! Meghan bullies staff! Bridezilla Meghan ….”
In the interview with Winfrey – American television’s reigning queen – both Harry and Meghan claim that not only did the British media take unfair aim at the actor, the House of Windsor did nothing to help her, and even occasionally participated implicitly in the harassment. This is indeed a “bombshell” accusation and if the parallels with the Diana story were not obvious to those watching, Harry went right ahead and called it out. “History repeating itself,” he said, explaining how thankful he was that he and his wife weathered it together, whereas his mother was forced to go through it alone. If Diana, the People’s Princess was demonised, harassed, and isolated – yet adored and idolised at the same time, Meghan has had to deal with similar challenges, but with the additional burdens of racist and classist rhetoric aimed at her.
Also Read: The Royal Family Can’t Keep Ignoring its Colonialist Past and Racist Present
Intersectionality theory, developed by scholar and law professor Kimberlé Crenshaw, explains how aspects such as the race, class, gender, sexual identity or religion of a person may contribute to intersecting and multi-layered modes of discrimination and oppression. For women of colour, this often translates into racist, misogynistic and classist discrimination. Meghan Markle, who had grown up middle class, but had become a successful actor, social media star and celebrity in her own right, experienced all of these when she naively followed her prince into his lily-white family. Again, Harry tells it like it is: “The added issue of race” he explains as he compares the situation with the harassment his mother faced.
The US and UK media took predictable positions, with the US rooting largely for the self-exiled couple, while the UK press – with some exceptions – expressed outrage over the volley of accusations at their beloved and “hardworking” royal family. Piers Morgan, host of Good Morning Britain on the ITV network who has in the past called the Duchess of Sussex a “social climber”, and angrily refuted claims of media racism towards her, declared the day after the Winfrey interview aired that he “was sickened by the trash-a-thon” of everything “the Queen has worked so hard for” and accused Markle of lying about her mental health.
Piers Morgan. Photo: Pete Riches/Flickr CC BY 2.0
Interestingly though, conservative commentators in the US have aligned themselves with royal sympathisers such as Morgan, arguing that Markle knew exactly what she was getting into, and that the privilege of entry she was allowed negated any reason for complaint. In general, conservatives both in the US and UK reject the idea of a need for structural change that liberals call for in dealing with issues such as racism, sexism, or ethnocentrism and conservatives on both sides of the pond have reacted stereotypically to Meghan and Harry’s complaint of harassment.
From Brett Kavanaugh to Piers Morgan and a host of others in between, we watch as entitled white men behave and speak with an impunity not often afforded to others. And we have also watched them respond with shock, anger, and even tears when called to account. Where Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Kavanaugh cried in fury over the allegations made against him, Morgan stomped off the set of Good Morning Britain when his co-host called him out on his racist and misogynist comments about Meghan Markle. (The UK media oversight body Ofcom received over 40,000 complaints and Morgan is leaving the show.)
As erstwhile citizens of the great British Empire, we Indians have a love-hate relationship with the British monarchy. On the one hand, we demand the return of symbols of the Empire’s loot – like the Kohinoor; yet, on the other, we throng the streets in adoration when a member of the “Firm” visits our shores. We watch Downtown Abbey, Bridgerton, and The Crown in avid fascination, bordering on voyeurism. After all, stories like Harry and Meghan only prove that the grandeur on display on our TV screens is a superficial veneer, hiding the dark underbelly of the kind of hypocrisy and discrimination this royal couple has faced.
But the lessons of racism and misogyny, and the obsession with class and skin colour hit close to home too, and we would be fooling ourselves if we did not recognise those same habits in ourselves. As a meme on the popular Facebook group ‘Subtle Curry Traits’ pithily pointed out: “Between the Royals being overly concerned with how dark the baby was going to be, and cutting off an inheritance because of a love marriage I’m convinced they’re brown.”
We would all do well to notice the glasshouse we’re sitting in.
Sumana Kasturi has a PhD in communication, and studies media, gender, and migration. She is the author of the 2019 book Gender, Citizenship, and Identity in the Indian Blogosphere: Writing the Everyday.
