Meghan and Harry’s interview indicates racism lingers among royal family

At the May 2018 wedding of Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, the British royal family welcomed its first Black member with what looked like earnest, open-armed enthusiasm. A Black preacher from Chicago gave a sermon on the uniting power of love over division; a gospel choir sang a stirring rendition of Ben E. King’s “Stand by Me.”

On Sunday evening, any remaining shred of that notion disappeared. Oprah Winfrey’s “tell-all” interview with Harry and Meghan featured explosive claims from the couple about the racial hostility coming from within Britain’s royal family, especially Meghan’s allegation that before the couple’s first child was born, the palace held “conversations” about “how dark his skin might be.”

The interview represents a new inflection point in the global racial reckoning of the past year. While uncountable numbers of institutions have been owning up to their own ugly histories with racism, the British monarchy’s confrontation holds particular significance. That Meghan, an actress-turned-princess whose nuptials were a national celebration, wasn’t immune to racism raises questions about how pervasive those sentiments still are within the royal family. This is a ruling dynasty of a country that traded enslaved Africans for more than two centuries — and the interview revealed the ways that anti-Black attitudes might be lingering.

Some members of the royal family have long faced accusations of racism, with Harry’s grandfather Prince Philip having made remarks that have stunned onlookers. “If you stay here much longer you’ll all be slitty-eyed,” he said to a group of students during a visit to China in 1986, while in 2002 he asked an Aborigine in Australia if they were “still throwing spears.”

Although the 99-year-old duke has come under fire for such comments, Winfrey confirmed Monday that it was neither he nor his wife, Queen Elizabeth II, who raised the question about baby Archie’s skin tone.