While it took a revealing exit interview from Meghan Markle with Oprah and international furore over her appalling treatment by “The Firm”, it seems that the royal family are beginning to take the accusations of racism levelled at them more seriously. According to sources from inside, Queen Elizabeth II is looking to appoint a “diversity czar” to conduct diversity training around matters of race, sexuality and disability.
The rumoured plans also apparently include a “major drive” across Buckingham Palace, Clarence House and Kensington Palace in which aids will take part in a “listen and learn” exercise where individuals and businesses will explain how the Monarchy can improve representation.
Of course, the entire institution of the monarchy is built on racism, colonialism and the belief that if someone is born to particular parents they somehow have the inbuilt authority to rule. That said, we’ll take the small amount of critical thinking progress we’ve seen post-Oprah interview so far as a win regardless.
”This is an issue which has been taken very seriously across the Households,” a palace source told a British tabloid. “We have the policies, procedures, and programs in place but we haven’t seen the progress we would like and accept more needs to be done. We can always improve. We are not afraid to look at new ways of approaching it. The work to do this has been underway for some time now and comes with the full support of the family.”
The heavily circulated takeaways from the interview were quite alarming. Meghan divulged her severe mental health struggles in the face of tabloid vilification, that Buckingham palace did not move to dispel lies about her that Kate Middleton allowed to spread, and that members of the royal family were concerned about the potential colour of her son Archie’s skin.
“In the months when I was pregnant, all around the same time, so we have in tandem the conversation of he won’t be given security, he’s not going to be given a title, and also concerns and conversations about how dark his skin might be when he’s born,” Meghan told Oprah.
When Meghan was prompted by Oprah on the same topic, she also declined to identify the family member, saying, “I think that would be very damaging to them.”
Since then, Prince Harry has confirmed that it was not the Queen or her husband Prince Philip who made the comments about Archie’s skin colour. The Queen has also officially shared a statement about the matter, which did not include an apology and per a royal source included an “underlying jab” at Meghan.
It seems like Prince William may have some further work to do before the world believes his statement to far-right leaning network Sky News, owned by media company News Corp. Something to note? Sky News has been accused of trading and profiting off inflammatory reporting for years, including giving one of Meghan’s most fervent haters, right-wing shock-jock Andrew Bolt, a platform.
William had told Sky News, “We are very much not a racist family.”
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