When Prince Harry and Meghan Markle tied the knot, one may have thought the world might become a little more progressive. Or at least the archaic system might be moving into modern times, one without discrimination, without unbridled bigotry and xenophobia.
We couldn’t have been more wrong.
Since the couple’s debut in mid-2016, there has been a torrent of media coverage and trollery all around the internet about the mixed-race-American-tv-actress-divorcee-now-princess. And the current has been relentless.
From commenting on her “rich and exotic DNA” to her rise from “cotton slaves to royalty” that has come “(almost) straight outta Compton” (are you kidding me?), Meghan hasn’t been able to catch a break.
The girl can’t win. For every positive piece written, there’s another ten about her expensive wardrobe, her celebrity friendships, or how she can’t help but break royal protocol.
You’d think she’d personally offended every journalist in the UK (and, it seems, the world) and they’re now out for revenge. How on earth did she manage that? She must be pretty busy to piss that many people off.
And Australia’s 60 Minutes is the latest to jump on the ‘Markle Debacle’ bandwagon, as Karl Stefanovic made his TV comeback with one of the ugliest pieces of tabloid bullshit ‘news’ I have seen.
#Megxit! How Meghan Markle lost her sparkle. From adored to insufferable in less than a year. What went wrong for Meghan, and how it affects hubby Harry. SUNDAY on #60Mins: Inside a Royal crisis. Can the ghost of Princess Diana save a fairytale? pic.twitter.com/dHtiPdwa7j
— 60 Minutes Australia (@60Mins) September 4, 2019
In the segment, aired on Sunday night, Stefanovic interviewed TV personalities Lizzie Cundy and Katie Hopkins – the latter, whose only claim to infamy is being banned from English media for spouting some seriously horrific, xenophobic shit.
“And what is she really? She’s a no one. She’s a divorcee. When did we want a divorcee in the Royal family? She wears bad clothes. When did we ask for that? We’ve just got so much better of our own,” Hopkins said.
Back to this tactless criticism later.
The public’s reaction has been fierce. This was the straw that broke the camel’s back.
The veil over the media’s Markle discourse (as shining a truth-telling light) has lifted. Now the truth is in the spotlight, and the media’s is left buck naked at centre stage.
Just say it, guys, you don’t like her because she’s black.
Here’s A Whole Deck Of ‘Cards’ To Pull
It’s so relentless even Prince Harry stepped up to tell the media to lay off – the first time a royal has ever done so – and that was back when the relationship was just speculation.
In a statement released by the palace, he condemned the racist and sexist “wave of abuse and harassment” directed at Meghan.
He called out “the racial undertones of comment pieces; and the outright sexism and racism of social media trolls and web article comments.”
And while the blatant racism may have stopped, the covert racism is still alive and kicking in the discourse. So is the sexism, and the classism. So many isms, and being enacted so venomously.
Notice how Meghan’s always the one getting in shit for “breaking royal protocol”?
Rebecca was so desperate to write a good princess-bad (read black) princess story she didn’t notice that Princess Anne also had her legs crossed at the knees ?
FYI: the Duchess Slant is the invention of American etiquette consultants, not royal protocol. https://t.co/JXXrdKGN90
— Ann Ziety (@_theekword) February 10, 2019
How she’s the one who is always spending too much money on fashion and private planes and lush baby showers (which Serena put on, btw)?
It’s crazy that Meghan Markle gets more shtick for using a private jet than prince Andrew gets for fucking underaged girls. Qwhite interesting
— mathias (@emeka_95) September 6, 2019
She is the “demanding Duchess”, who scares off assistants and makes her in-laws cry.
It’s Meghan who, apparently, can’t help but have beef with Kate and the Queen. And who has caused a rift between William and Harry and torn the ‘Fabulous Four’ to shreds.
Things Meghan Markle has been pulled apart for:
– sitting in a way that isn’t the royal custom
– flying in a way that is the royal custom
– doing too much
– not doing enough
– believing in weird and wacky causes like science and mental health
– wearing clothes
– glowing
– being— Matt Haig (@matthaig1) September 5, 2019
And even when she’s touted a breath of fresh air for the monarchy in this “modern and progressive couple” (as though mixed-race couples haven’t been a thing for decades), the media’s rhetoric is slick with prejudice.
She’s different, that’s the problem.
It’s tall poppy syndrome at its ugliest – prejudice against an intelligent, successful and talented, empathetic and generous woman, who just happens to be mixed-race and has entered the royal family on her second marriage.
(Need I remind Ms. Hopkins that the Church of England – which the Queen is the head of – was founded for divorce. And that three of the Queen’s four children (including the next King) are divorced?)
As criticism for Meghan becomes more nit-picky and feeble, the clearer it is that there is nothing worth critiquing and that we are still deep in a system that demands the minority to be tolerable, to be palatable for the white majority.
In this system, if Meghan is anything but the perfect [black] woman, we must rip her to shreds.
Meghan Markle is an intelligent, articulate woman of colour. Of course the bloody triggers 99% of vacuous white women who have done little despite the privilege their skin colour affords them.
— Su Dharmapala (@SuDharmapala) September 5, 2019
The truth is out, and it’s not that Meghan’s a trouble-making rule-breaker. And whether or not any of the claims made against her are true, the public are well and truly over the constant stream of criticism leveled against a woman who has done nothing but exist.
Broadcasting uncredible sources to publicly berate Meghan Markle for not putting on a show for the public is not exposing a ‘Markle Debacle’, it’s instead exhibiting a media debacle. #60Minutes
— Blake Mannes (@BlakeMannes) September 8, 2019
Image Sources: Instagram (@meghanmarkle_official)
