Monday 8 March 2021

Meghan dishes the dirt - very sad and unbecoming

The overall impression from the two-hour session with Oprah Winfrey was of a woman (Meghan) determined and well-rehearsed to do as much damage as possible to the reputation of the royal family. Her reference to a member of the royal family questioning how dark-skinned her first baby might be was, on the surface, a devastating insight into how her arrival in the royal fold was being seen by at least one individual. But we don't know who it was and, much more importantly, we don't know the context. If this question WAS asked, was it coming out of the lips of a racist taunting Meghan over her mixed-rate origins and showing concern about having a black baby in the royal family. Or was it said with genuine curiosity - no unkindness or racism intended - and possibly even believing that the baby might be all the more beautiful by having Harry as the father and Meghan as the mother? Or was it a slightly riskee joke? Clearly the first possibility is the worst and should be condemned by everyone. But just throwing that line in without explaining anything about the occasion and context, let alone the person who allegedly said it, has produced horrific headlines around the world, including one I spotted saying the royal family was guilty of being sympathetic to white supremacy. Meghan brought it up, and presumably had always intended to bring it up, because she convinced herself that Britain, the British people, the media, and, yes, Buckingham Palace are all racist-bent. And Harry backed her up. He believes this nonsense as well. And it is nonsense. There IS racism in our society, just as there is in the United States and Europe. But to brand everyone with this label, and I'm definitely including the media here, tabloid or otherwise, is both inaccurate and harmful and, basically, insulting. Her remark has made people think that the Queen and family shunned her because she had a black mother and that her son Archie was not being given the title of prince for racist reasons. This last accusation is wrong. Harry and Meghan's children were never automatically going to be princes or princesses. William and Kate's children, yes, because he is second in line to the throne. So it was never a slur on Harry and Meghan, let alone a racist slur. I believe the racism allegation is the most damaging of all the claims and accusations made by Meghan, and seemingly backed up by Harry. Now the whole world wants to know which member of the family asked The Question. Speculation will go wild and at some point some royal source will reveal the name and all hell will let loose. Oprah has said in a separate interview with CBS that Harry told her that "the person" was neither the Queen nor the Duke of Edinburgh. So that cuts down the numbers, although I have to say that Harry's apparent appeal to Oprah after the interview to try and get the message across that the Queen and Prince Philip were not guilty of asking about the skin colour of the baby, begs more questions than answers. Harry didn't ask Oprah to say his father Prince Charles was innocent. And what about his brother Prince William? This is so damaging and totally unnecessary. Meghan and Harry should never have agreed to do the Oprah Winfrey interview.

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