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Racism and the Royal Engagement

We have a royal engagement! Most of the world is ecstatic. We brits LOVE love and have shown up in droves to see the happy couple. 

 

Celebrities and even politicians from all over are overjoyed for Harry and Meghan and took to Twitter to say so…

But sadly… some folks are showing their true colours and it isn’t pretty.

Following the royal engagement, the Daily Mail publicised one of its stories with a tweet reading “from slaves to royalty, Meghan Markle’s upwardly mobile family.” Last year, the newspaper suggested that Markle was “(almost) straight outta Compton.”

Journalist Rachel Johnson, the sister of the crazy haired Boris Johnson, last year wrote in the Mail on Sunday newspaper that Markle could help bring “rich and exotic DNA” to the royal family. She also described Markle’s mother as “a dreadlocked African-American lady from the wrong side of the tracks.”

UGH.

The Spectator magazine was in on the veiled racism this week questioning the “Suits” star’s suitability for Prince Harry because she is a divorcee and attended a Catholic school.

“Obviously, 70 years ago, Meghan Markle would have been the kind of woman the prince would have had for a mistress, not a wife,” a comment piece read.

Harry last year took the highly unusual step of asking the media to stop the “wave of abuse and harassment” against Markle.

The prince cited a “smear” on the front page of a national newspaper, “racial undertones” of newspaper opinion pieces, and “outright sexism and racism of social media trolls.”

Hey news people – did you forget your royal history? This is NOT the first time a royal has loved (or married) a divorced person. AND… it’s not the first time a “BLACK” woman has been in the Royal Family. 

Princess Margaret wasn’t allowed by marry Peter Townsend because he was divorced

 

Group Captain Peter Townsend chaperoning Princess Margaret on her first major royal tour to South Africa

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Prince Charles was, allegedly, crazy about Sheila Ferguson of The Three Degrees. Sheila told ITV’s Loose Women her group was invited to perform at his 30th birthday in 1978 and revealed Charles later sent her letters. Now, of course we all know, Charles is married to a divorcee and is heir to the throne. 

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Meghan won’t be the first black member of royalty – Queen Charlotte Sophia was once Queen of England

 

Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (Sophia Charlotte; 19 May 1744 – 17 November 1818) was by marriage to King George III the Queen of Great Britain and Ireland from her wedding in 1761 until the union of the two kingdoms in 1801, after which she was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland until her death in 1818.

In Queen Charlotte’s era slavery was prevalent and the anti-slavery campaign was growing. Portrait painters of the royal family were expected to play down or soften Queen Charlotte’s African features. Painters such as Sir Thomas Lawrence, who painted, Queen Charlotte in the autumn of 1789 had their paintings rejected by the royal couple who were not happy with the representations of the likeness of the Queen. Sir Allan Ramsey produced the most African representations of the Queen and was responsible for the majority of the paintings of the Queen. Ramsey’s inclination to paint truer versions of the Queen could be seen to have come from being ‘an anti-slavery intellectual of his day.

 

 

So what say you all? Are you excited about Harry and Meghan? Think it’s no good? Or don’t care at all? I’d love to hear your thoughts on Facebook,Twitter, and Instagram