Does being Light-skinned guarantee you to entitlement: Meghan and skin tone.
Is it possible that Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, is somewhat taken aback by the fact the Royal family failed to recognise her true colour?
Meghan who once described herself as ‘proudly mixed race’ was brought up largely in a white household. Her friends have been white, her previous husband was white, it appears that her world to a certain extent revolved around white people. In the TV interview with Oprah Winfrey, when asked if she was worried about fitting in, considering she was the first mixed race person to marry into the Royal family, her response was –
“I thought about it because they made me think about it…”
I take this to mean she is comfortable with the white part of herself and as she may not have to deal with racism constantly the way us darker mates do, she is probably used to seeing others such as her mother, Doria go through this. I think it’s safe to assume from the response that upon entering the realm of the Royal family, she thought they would be accepting, only to find to her shock and horror, she was not quite what they were expecting!
As a dark-skinned black woman, born in the UK, the light-skinned supremacists in my school bullied me endless that it was hard to differentiate the bullying we all normally received from the white kids. Not only did this pain me, but I was confused as I thought we had something in common — we were all fighting against racism. It was not just the physical bullying I had to contend with, but I also had to navigate my way through the psychological bullying.
There was a girl in my class who had recently emigrated from Jamaica. Brought up by her grandmother when her parents had left for the UK. About a year later her parents sent for her to live with them in London. She was the same age as me, 14 years old, light in complexion, intelligent, strangely confident and self-assured. It didn’t seem to matter that her features did not fully conform to European standards; she behaved as though she possessed enough ‘high yellow’ to always sit on the left-hand side of the colonial master. She had a subtle way of letting those of us who were not blessed like herself, to know our place. It was almost as if she were a gatekeeper of sorts, guarding the status quo by devaluing our experiences and ridiculing our hurts.
Whenever I spoke of my dream of emigrating to somewhere in the Caribbean, she would look at me with disdain, letting me know I would not fit in because I was too dark! She would further explain that I would not have access to certain jobs and classes of people, irrespective of qualifications and skills. The irony of this was one day, she experienced racism from a group of white male youths on her way home from school. They followed and called her ‘Nigger’ continuously. There were other incidents she likened to physical punches which left her emotionally wounded. So traumatized by this, she began to shed handfuls of hair from her scalp. She started to wear wigs (something unheard of, for black girls in the late 70s) and applied medicated creams to the bald parts of her scalp. Others and I looked on, but it was never discussed in her presence as we felt bad for her.
I lost contact with this person until some years ago when I met up with her. For someone who also held a negative attitude towards education (Maggie, Why do you need to go to college?) she now had a Master’s degree, was married with two kids and worked for the local government. She was widely read and held opinions on all things black whether it was about a newly elected president of an African state to the increasing number of black males in UK prisons. And of course, she was always up to date on the issues concerning the African American community. In the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder, she attended the BLM demonstration held in London. Before Floyd’s funeral took place, she sent me the details so that I could watch it live on YouTube, along with thousands of other people from around the world.
I was happy the wig was gone and even though she had a few strands of hair, she was proud of being bald and natural. In an off moment she would pluck a stray hair, leaving me to think recovery was still an ongoing process not just for her but also for the rest of us.
I understood my friend grew up in a society where it had a system, making her feel privileged, even though her family were not well endowed educationally or economically. What was key, was being stationed above the dark skinned and believing it gave her a sense of importance. But arriving in England and suddenly finding herself demoted by a people whose colour she felt was not far from her own, was traumatic. I realised she could not be held responsible for her treatment of me and others who looked like me.
However, with Meghan, firstly I want to say just because of my own experiences, does not mean she goes around looking down on dark skinned people. I am sure she is just as gracious and kind to them as she is, to everyone else. But I am curious about her expectations on entering The Firm. Did she think by straightening her hair and resorting to chopping off bits and pieces of her features would do the trick? I find it difficult to believe that she did not ‘know’ the Royal family: it’s history, Princess Diana’s relationship with her in-laws and so forth. So her surprise at the family’s so-called concerns over skin tone and whether or not royal titles can be given to the children, is a bit of a surprise for me!
Even if Meghan was naïve, Harry must know that his ancestors: Queen Elizabeth I, was key in establishing slavery even though it was illegal or Charles II sanctioned and legalized the beginnings of the transatlantic slave trade. So it stands to reason, throughout the history of the monarchy, each successive and future monarch had to be white, even if they are not next in line to the throne. Harry should have forewarned his wife of what she was letting herself in for before their marriage. But most importantly whether they were ready for their children to be burdened with the knowledge they are not as entitled to security and titles in the same way as their cousins.
When you are ambitious it is easy to be scornful of the present and to honour the future. Meghan should have taken her time to understand the implications of marrying into the Royal family. Being hurt due to the family (as she believes) failing to see her as ‘white’ — she should have seen that one coming. She should have known it was coming.
