Like many others, we felt some type of way after watching the infamous interview with Prince Harry, Meghan Markle and Oprah. It was difficult listening to the cruelty and racism she endured.
I remember the announcement of Harry and Meghan’s engagement on 27th November 2017. Headlines were quick to point out that she wouldn’t be the first Royal person of colour.
Strange how her race led the headlines.
When Meghan was falsely accused of making Kate Middleton cry, nobody in the establishment wrote to defend Meghan and tell the truth.
The truth which was that Kate made Meghan cry – Kate soon realised the error of her ways and apologised wholeheartedly with a bouquet of flowers.
When we speak of “Silence Is Compliance” this is exactly it. By not speaking up you are choosing the side of the oppressor.
When I thought that the interview could not be any more distressing, the question around Archie’s skin tone left Oprah and the rest of the world speechless.
As Meghan’s mental health was obliterated, she sought help within the HR department at ‘The Firm’. Meghan was told that although her situation was unfortunate, she was not a paid employee.
Over half of employees in the UK have witnessed racism in their workplace. Even more shockingly, only 33% of employees spoke up and reported the incident to their employer.
Also, 40% of employees who had witnessed and reported an incident relating to racism said they were worried about the consequences of speaking up.
One positive we took from this was that Harry admitted to not being aware of racism in the UK. After experiencing it second-hand (through Meghan), Prince Harry became anti-racist and spoke up about it. Just a shame the whole Royal Family didn’t do the same.
The Royal Family had a huge opportunity to improve race relations in the UK and they failed.
Imagine the impact and ripple effect (in the UK) had the Queen had come out to publicly support Meghan Markle whilst the press and media were taking her down.
We at Adeptales will continue the fight for racial equality. Now that Meghan Markle has spoke up, we hope more awareness is given to the disease that is racism. And that is the focus rather than the tabloid noise which clouds a real social issue.
