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Winfrey was shocked: “That’s a conversation with you?” she asked. “About how dark your baby is going to be?”
But this kind of speculation about an unborn child’s complexion has long been observed in research about race, said Jennifer Sims, an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. One study found that White parents looking to adopt will express a preference for White children or light-skinned children of color versus dark-skinned children of color.
“The revelation last night that the royal family literally had these exact same thoughts of other White families shows that people are in denial,” Sims said.
Conversations about skin tone are also prevalent in communities of color, where “colorism is a thing,” Sims said.
When Harry and Meghan were first married, however, some White Britons insisted that race was not a major factor in coverage of the couple, arguing that British society generally is not as racist as the United States. But, as the duchess said in last night’s interview, she was treated differently than other members of the royal family and was not protected from scathing and false tabloid stories.
As part of Sim’s research in a published book that she co-wrote, “Mixed-Race in the US and UK: Comparing the Past, Present, and Future,” she interviewed 30 mixed-race individuals in the United States and Britain about race and class.
Meghan talked about how the queen and others in the royal family were kind to her, but the institution as a whole wasn’t. Is that in line with how mixed-race people and people of color kind of experience the world?
So what Meghan and Harry were describing was the difference between individual racism and institutional racism. And so many people mistake and conflate those two and think, “Well, if I’m a nice person or because this person is nice to me, obviously racism is not at play.” And that’s absolutely incorrect. Someone can be totally sweet to you, but if you are all within an institution like the monarchy that is structurally built to favor some people and to oppress others by legally denying them their given rights, then regardless of how nice they are, you’re going to be experiencing a severe form of racism.
And she also talks about feeling as though she wasn’t protected by the family. How does her experience compare to other people of color in situations? Malcolm X famously said that “the most neglected person in America is the Black woman.” And so at the beginning of the interview, when Meghan said she believed that the crown would protect her, and then at the end when she said her one greatest regret was believing that the crown would protect her, I was just sitting there wondering, “Why would you ever believe that? Why would you ever believe that?”
Why would she ever think that a male-dominated White institution would ever protect a Black woman, a mixed-race woman, an Indigenous woman or any other woman of color? And regarding protection, I thought it was very interesting that she brought up Tyler Perry helping her and Harry in their time of need when the crown wasn’t. It’s interesting that when we look at who stepped in to help it was a Black person stepping in to help. And we’ve kind of seen that throughout history with the Black community accepting mixed-race folks.
The following is from the 2020 interview:
When Meghan and Harry first started dating, some TV commentators argued that Britain is a class-based society, rather than one that categorizes people based on race. Is that something that is true based on your research?
It’s not untrue that class has a disproportionate impact on how people in the U.K. are viewed and treated, and on their life chances. However, race is not unimportant in the United Kingdom. Another thing that one often hears about the U.K. is that they have less of a one-drop rule. [The one-drop rule is an archaic argument that held that a White person with any trace of African ancestry was considered Black.] People who are mixed-race, such as Meghan Markle, who are part Black and part White, have more freedom to identify as they want and not be subjected to racism and anti-Blackness the way mixed-race people, such as [President Barack] Obama or Halle Berry, here in the United States are. And what I found in my research is that while there is less of a one-drop rule in the United Kingdom, it’s not that there is no one-drop rule and anti-Blackness in the United Kingdom.
A number of my Black-White [mixed-race] respondents that I interviewed brought up being treated just like Meghan, who is being subjected to stereotypes that go along with being Black. When they were first dating, Harry and Meghan, I remember one U.K. paper said his girlfriend is “straight out of Compton,” or something of that nature. And then, of course, when Archie was born and was leaving the hospital, a former BBC reporter tweeted a picture of a monkey and a well-dressed man and woman. It’s not that racism doesn’t exist for mixed-race people there. It is true that class is a big divider in the United Kingdom, but race is not irrelevant there.
How did this notion that race isn’t an issue in Britain come to be?
I think because the United States, and the way we have historically had racism, has become the standard. It’s understood, “Oh, there was chattel slavery and there was Jim Crow.” We had lynching. And we had to have a civil rights movement in this country.
Another issue is when we compare the treatment of Black Americans in general. Take the issue of police violence. Cases such as Trayvon Martin or Tamir Rice and Mike Brown, all of these cases are here in the United States. There are a few in the United Kingdom, but there are not as many police brutality and vigilante violence cases against Black people in the U.K. as in the United States. So people assume, “Oh, well, it’s not as bad as the United States.” But as one of my interviewees said, “Why does death have to be the standard for something to be bad?” It can be bad without you literally being killed.
How do you think Meghan’s treatment in the U.K. compares to how Obama and his family were viewed in the United States?
There’s a lot of similarities, but also I think that gender makes a difference as well. I feel like a lot of the backlash against Meghan has been about physical things that she does. So, cupping her baby bump was decried even though it’s seen as tender when Kate does it. So much of has been about what she does, what she’s looking like, what she’s wearing.
With Obama, there was some of that. There was a whole tan suit incident. But I feel like Michelle got more of the, “Oh, you’re showing your arms” and the focus on what she wears. So, I feel like there’s gender differences in how they are treated, which just really shows how race is gendered. But the bottom line is that both of them, both Meghan and Obama, are being held to a different and a harsher, a more unfair, standard than their White counterparts. With Obama, it’s difficult because you can only speculate that if a White president had done X, Y, Z, it would be okay. But that’s obviously speculation, informed, but still speculation. With Meghan, there is a direct comparison with Kate, to be able to show that this newspaper said X about Meghan, but they said Y about Kate. And so you can see how race really does make a difference.
But bottom line for both of them, it really just does underscore that even if you adhere to all of the standards that Western society says you should — you should be beautiful and talented and smart, and you should be high achieving in your field — because you are Black or of African descent, this weighted history of anti-Blackness in both countries will come crashing down on you and hold you to different standards and treat you much more negatively.
Harry has made attempts to shield Meghan from some of the treatment that she’s been getting. Why has he not been able to be successful in doing that?
I think there are two reasons. The first, I think, is the sheer weight and strength of anti-Blackness that exists in both countries. He is one man going up against hundreds of years of ideology and negativity. One defamation lawsuit is not going to change an institution such as the media that has for hundreds of years been so anti-Black and just insidiously hard on people of African descent.
The second reason I think he’s been unsuccessful is that there is a pushback against White men who, for lack of a better word, do right by mixed-race women or treat their wives of African descent as equals and expect others to treat them as equals. As long as you don’t take that next step of legally marrying her, as if she was your equal, then it’s accepted throughout U.S. history for a White man to have a Black mixed-race woman whom they were sleeping with. But that next step to say, “I love you, I’m going to marry you, I’m going to protect you and our children,” that’s the step that literally led to the Loving v. Virginia case.
Despite White men throughout history sleeping with/raping Black mixed-race women, when White men take that step, either in fiction or in real life to say, “I love you, I want to marry you, I want to protect you and the children,” society pushes back hard — very, very hard. And I feel like Harry is the most recent in that string of White men that have come up against that.
