Did Meghan ever really have a chance with the Royal family?
Gilded Age actress Denee Benton has addressed the elephant in the room in regard to Meghan Markle and the Royal family. In an interview with the British magazine, Tatler Benton said "You can't necessarily just pop a black person in."
Benton's thought-provoking comment in its entirety is as follows: "It's such a layered conversation. Being the first and only [person of color] you're really set up for an incredible amount of abuse," she told Tatler magazine. "The system isn't set up to support you. And I think that [because of] the lineage of the really profoundly devastating effects of colonization as it relates to the monarchy, you can't necessarily just pop a black person in."
The other Royal family members are connected through, nobility, equestrianism, military honors, and or bloodlines. The Queen and Prince Phillip were fourth cousins, Prince Charles and Diana were 16th cousins and Camillia Parker Bowles as well as Sarah Ferguson who was married to Prince Andrews have connections to the House of Windsor based on ancestry. There is also the common denominator that they all are wealthy Caucasians born and bred in Europe.
Enter Meghan who is a commoner, an American, an actress, divorced, and most importantly biracial. Although Markle looks more white than black her mother Dorian Ragland is clearly African American. Until Meghan came along Queen Elizabeth, her siblings, children, and grandchildren all married European citizens who were bluebloods, actually related by blood to the Royal Family and or of some type of aristocracy.
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Do Meghan and her children stand a chance?
In the midst of a family who has looked the same for generations, there are now two splashes of color and it's understandable if it was a difficult adjustment even if no one mentions it. Consider Kate Middleton who allegedly said she felt she had nothing in common with her sister-in-law. She probably did not have a reason to mingle with African Americans in her circles and was basically forced to spend time with Markle just because Prince Harry married her.
There really was not a period of adjustment and as Benton said, Markle just "popped in and everyone expected to get along. Never having conceived of such a situation the Royal family was thrust into awkwardness that eventually led to Prince Harry and Meghan fleeing the country. One issue that has startled a to of people was the rumor that someone in the House of Windsor asked what complexion the children of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex would be. A new book suggests that it was Prince Charles whose curiosity got the better of him.
Does Meghan stand a chance?
During an interview with the couple, Oprah Winfrey seemed taken aback that anyone would ask such a question. As an African American Oprah should know this question is often asked because of the possibility of skin tone due to the race mixing during slavery. Whoever inquired about the baby's skin tone simply asked a question that Black Americans have been asking for more than 400 years.
Benton says Markle was set up for an incredible amount of abuse but perhaps some of what she experienced was out of the Royal family never having dealt with a person of color "popping in" to their circles rather than outright racism. On the other hand comments referring to Archie as a monkey and Prince Harry's fear the paparazzi would harm his wife and son as they did his mother was very real. The Prince fled with his family to another continent and left the only life he had ever known.
Denee Benton is correct in her assertion that Meghan Markle bears the burden of being the first person of color in the Royal family and her son and daughter are the second and the third. The question now on many people's minds is whether or not there can ever be true reconciliation and if Archie and Lilibet will ever get to know their Royal cousins or simply know of them from a distance.
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