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LONDON – Prince Harry and Meghan’s comments to Oprah Winfrey revealed issues ranging from mental health to royal protocol, but for many black Britons it was about one thing: race.
The interview, broadcast in the UK on Monday evening, confirmed the “obvious” daily racism experienced by so many people, according to Anna Miles, 28, a biracial writer from Manchester, a town in northwest England.
“It’s annoying and upsetting – this is how we are treated day to day,” she said. “It’s just a constant reminder of how we are seen and how much respect the little Blacks and Maroons are respected.”
Meghan said Harry told her royal insiders had expressed “concerns” about the dark color of their children’s skin. The couple declined to name the individual, but Winfrey later said that Harry made it clear that it was not about Queen Elizabeth II, his grandmother, or her husband, Prince Philip. .
The royals have yet to comment on the interview and have not responded to requests from NBC News.
The couple also criticized parts of the British media for what they called a torrent of racist abuse against Meghan, whose mother is Black.
This is not the first time that self-exiled royals, who stepped down last year, have put the issue of racism in Britain in the spotlight. Still, the interview dominated UK newspapers for a second day on Tuesday and sparked sometimes heated debates on social media and on TV about the role racism played in the couple’s departure.
“This confirms what we already knew. The Royal Family itself is just the enduring vestige of a brutal British Empire,” said Momodou Taal, 27, host of “The Malcolm Effect” podcast, which features spotlight on race and identity, at NBC News.
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Queen Elizabeth II is the head of the Commonwealth, a collection mostly of former colonies with links to Great Britain. Hours before the US broadcast of her grandson’s interview, she gave a speech to celebrate the network.
Taal, from Birmingham, in central England, said that, like many young black men, he had been repeatedly stopped and searched by police and received racist slurs on the streets. He said it was a reality that jobs and access to college were more difficult for people of color – noting that Meghan’s privilege and wealth had likely protected her.
Racism has only worsened since the 2016 Brexit referendum, he said, adding that it had caused a ‘right drift’ in the country and fueled fears about foreigners and the immigration.
Police in England and Wales have reported an increase in racially motivated hate crimes following the vote to leave the European Union, while government statistics recorded 105,090 hate crimes during the year ending in March 2020, an increase of 8% compared to the previous year.
“As a black person who has lived and raised in the UK my whole life, we are keenly aware of the racism that exists,” Taal said. “The only difference now is someone on the inside says it and bares it.”
Still, many will be grateful to Meghan and Harry for speaking out and reflecting their struggles, said Halima Begum, chief executive of the Runnymede Trust, a UK think tank on racial equality.
“If, as anti-racists, we want to progress, we are going to have to face some uncomfortable conversations,” she said.
Research by Runnymede has shown that people of color in Britain often feel greater pressure to ‘prove’ they are British, as many have been on the front lines of the Covid-19 pandemic, facing disproportionate deaths.
British historian Andrew Roberts called the interview “damaging” to the monarchy, because of “very serious allegations” around racism, adding that it could potentially mar the position of British soft power abroad.
“The problem with the royal family is that it’s really about continuity. It’s a 1,000-year-old institution that changes only very slowly,” he added.
What is more heartbreaking for some black Britons are the dashed hopes felt since the couple’s star-studded wedding in Windsor in 2018, which was heralded as a major shift towards greater inclusiveness in Britain.
Christina Nicole, 32, whose family is from Jamaica, said she remembered watching the wedding and “feeling so happy”.
“I thought the whole royal family would now become more multicultural and start representing the UK,” she said from London.
But the fury left her feeling “disappointed” and abandoned by the institution of the monarchy, she added.
“It’s more than just Meghan. Why are we, as British black women, still despised and neglected?” she asked. “It breaks my heart.”
Rachel Elbaum, Keir Simmons and Laura Saravia contributed.
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