‘We will catch you. Speak your truth.’
Poet Leslé Honoré gives us another poem of protest after the Meghan and Harry interview
By Darcel Rockett
By the time Meghan and Harry’s two-hour interview with Oprah ended Sunday night, Chicago poet Leslé Honoré had let the purging and protest out in a poem. This one is called “Royal.” And the likes have been climbing on social media since she posted it March 8.
Over 17 million people watched the CBS event where Northwestern University graduate Meghan Markle shared revelations about her suicidal thoughts, that her cries for help were denied along with titles, protection and support from the royal family, and that actual conversations took place about the skin tone of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s firstborn child, Archie. In a world of streaming, this was like the “must watch television” of yesteryear that many millennials probably have no concept of.
“My daughter and I watched it, and we were screaming and hollering and throwing stuff and pressing pause,” Honoré said. “I was writing as we were watching. It is live tweeting with poetry, every new salacious thing I was like, ‘Oooh, gotta include this.’ My poems are always a purging of my own emotions, a protest to what anybody might say.”
Honoré waited until Monday to post the poem to mark International Women’s Day.
“Royal” is as heartbreaking as Honoré’s “Brown Girl, Brown Girl” was jubilant. That poem went viral after Vice President Kamala Harris was elected.
“My daughters and I, we sat there and watched it. Then we were crying and holding onto each other,” Honoré said of watching the Oprah interview. “We just cried for Meghan. It hurt our hearts to know what she was experiencing” — the experience of being a mother of color whose children will always be seen as Black first and therefore overlooked, not supported or seen as other.
“It was heartbreaking. And then it was jubilant,” Honoré said of the interview. “It was: ‘You can’t break us.’ Our very DNA has been surviving this and more for our entire history.”
A self-described “dragon mom” and fan of “The Crown,” Honoré said the interview wasn’t shocking to her since she knows the reality of being a person of color and that enjoying anything in this white world requires quite a bit of duality and suspension of what we know to be true.
Honoré said the royals and “the institution” have destroyed every strong woman who has come through the palace gates — Princess Diana, Sarah Ferguson and now Markle.
Honoré said it was her love of the late Princess Diana that started her fascination with the royal family. Honoré identified with Harry’s mother because of her troubled marriage and as a woman who struggled to get her identity back. “I see that, I feel that, I touch that. It feels very familiar,” Honoré said.
Another thing that feels familiar in Meghan and Harry’s interview: white supremacy. Honoré said the royals will bounce back after the couple’s comments.
“Let’s be clear — the world, the nation, the globe’s legacy of colonialism, of Black hate, of colorism, of enslaved people is directly because of the British Empire,” Honoré said, also blaming the empire for “the generational trauma that everybody on the face of this Earth is either battling to heal from or fighting to learn about, and process how they detach themselves from it.”
But Honoré said that if hate has birthed resiliency and strength in Black and brown women, it has also birthed a knowledge that we are all we have. And the Black community has shown up for Markle — from Tyler Perry to Serena Williams.
“We will catch you. Speak your truth. We will be here,” Honoré said. “And for the ones who don’t support us? Let the wrath of God fall upon you.”
No matter how gentle the Black How light the skin
How gorgeous the face
How talented the soul
How pure the intentions
They will not protect us
No matter how innocent the life How secure the birthright
Titles will be stripped
And babies tossed to wolves Because of a fear of Black skin
They will let a woman drown
In their lies
They will let the darkness Swallow her
See her reach out for help
And not only turn their backs
But crush her fingers beneath their feet With hopes she will plummet off the cliff The why is obvious
The why is consistent
The why is always the same
Black
They want her suffering Because Blackness
Because she was breathing
While Black
Because her Light
Outshines the white
With her Blackness
They will turn their backs
On their own
Stop taking calls from their
Sons
Because of Blackness
And what else should we expect From the birth place
Of white supremacy
The birth place of slavery
The birth place of the patriarchy
The soul of colonialism
And
What else should we expect
From a lineage of resilience
Of beauty
Of strength
Of everlasting hope
Her bounce back
Her reboot
Her survival
Catch this magic
Catch this brilliance
Catch this happy
Catch this radiance
That not even 1200 years of hate Can kill
Catch this liberation
Catch this revolution
This World Woman
This Global Majority
Catch all of this Unbreakable
Blackness