Meghan has her say on US race crisis
I’m sorry you’re growing up in a world like this, she tells her old school’s graduates
THE DUCHESS of Sussex has spoken out about the death of an unarmed black suspect at the hands of police.
And the emotion of it all nearly became too much for the former actress as she came close to tears talking about the racial tensions rocking the US.
In a passionate video message to graduates of her former school, she let her hands do much of the talking – placing them across her throat or clasping them together as if in prayer. In one moment her eyes were raised to heaven and in another they were lowered in sorrow.
It was clear she had been thinking carefully about the best way to make her feelings known about the death of George Floyd. Meghan, 38, said she had been nervous of wanting to say ‘the right thing’ and feared that her words might be ‘picked apart’. But she eventually realised, she declared, that ‘the only wrong thing to say is to say nothing’. She chose to address the issue in a speech to graduating students from the private Immaculate Heart School in Los Angeles which she attended from the ages of 11 to 18.
She said: ‘The first thing I want to say to you is that I’m sorry. I’m so sorry that you have to grow up in a world where this is still present.’
The duchess recalled living through the 1992 city’s riots, sparked by the acquittal of four white police officers who were filmed beating black motorist Rodney King.
Meghan said: ‘I was 11 or 12 years old when I was just about to start Immaculate Heart Middle School in the fall, and it was the LA riots, which was also triggered by senseless act of racism. I remember the curfew and I remember rushing back home and on that drive home, seeing ash fall from the sky and smelling the smoke and seeing the smoke billow out of buildings and seeing people run out of buildings carrying bags and looting.
‘And I remember seeing men in the back of a van just holding guns and rifles. And I remember pulling up at the house and seeing the tree, that had always been there, completely charred. And those memories don’t go away.’
But she said the protests brought out the good in her community and that it was being replayed again today with the global Black Lives Matter movement.
‘We are seeing people stand in solidarity, we are seeing communities come together and to uplift. And you are going to be part of this movement,’ she added.
Meghan said that while the girls’ traditional graduation ceremony had been marred by coronavirus and fallout from the death of Mr Floyd, they should also use this moment to ‘rebuild’ a just and fair society.
She also urged them to use their voice – and their vote – wisely.
Meghan concluded: ‘Please know that I am cheering you on all along the way, I am exceptionally proud of you, and I’m wishing you a huge congratulations on today, the start of all the impact you’re going to make in the world as leaders that we all so deeply crave.’
The video footage of her speech was later released to black women’s lifestyle magazine Essence.
There was no word from Meghan’s husband, Prince Harry, who moved with his wife to Los Angeles in March. The couple, along with baby son Archie, are currently living in a borrowed £14.5million mansion in Beverley Hills but are currently house- hunting for their own Californian home.
A source close to the Duchess told Newsweek that both she and Prince Harry ‘have been having private calls with community figures’ throughout the crisis.
The magazine also claimed that she would not have been able to make such ‘bold comments’ while a senior working member of the royal family.
It said: ‘In particular, urging Americans to go and vote at a time when the protests have put Donald Trump’s presidency under siege would likely have been seen as too controversial within the palace.’
Meghan recorded the address on her mobile phone earlier in the week. A spokesman for the Sussexes said: ‘This is something incredibly personal to Meghan, especially given everything she has experienced. They are both feeling it, just like the rest of us.’
‘Smoke billowing out of buildings’