Outcry as Charlie Hebdo portrays Meghan Markle as George Floyd | Black Lives Matter news



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The new cover of the French satirical magazine shows Queen Elizabeth pressing her knee against Meghan Markle’s neck.

French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo came under fire after posting a controversial cover, which several social media users described as racist and disgusting.

The cover shows Queen Elizabeth of the United Kingdom pressing her knee against Meghan Markle’s neck, with the caption: ‘Why Meghan left Buckingham.’

Markle, the Duchess of Sussex and Prince Harry’s wife are seen lying on the floor saying: “Because I couldn’t breathe.”

The cartoon mimics the scene where George Floyd, a black American, was killed by a Minneapolis policeman last May. Videos shared online at the time showed Officer Derek Chauvin, who is white, kneeling on Floyd’s neck for nearly nine minutes as Floyd pleaded for his life, telling him he couldn’t breathe, then stopped moving.

Floyd’s murder sparked a wave of Black Lives Matter protests across the United States against police brutality and racial injustice, with protesters taking to the streets of cities around the world in solidarity. Minneapolis agreed this week to pay Floyd’s family $ 27 million to settle a lawsuit for the death.

Markle is biracial; her mother is black and her father is white. After their wedding in 2018, Markle and Prince Harry stepped down from their royal duties and now live in California.

In an interview that aired last week, Markle told Oprah Winfrey why she and Prince Harry stepped down from royal duties. She accused an anonymous member of the royal family of making racist remarks, saying her husband was concerned about the color of his son Archie’s skin before he was born.

Buckingham Palace said in a statement this week that the issues raised in the interview were “concerning” and that the Royal Family would deal with them in private.

The discussion of the cover was widespread on Twitter on Saturday, with several users saying it was offensive.

Dr Halima Begum, CEO of the Runnymede Trust, a UK-based race equality think tank, said the coverage was “flawed across the board”.

Aurelien Mondon, lecturer in politics at the University of Bath, said the magazine “has been a racist rag and has been for a very long time”.



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