With the explosive release of the docuseries, ‘Harry and Meghan’, and the more recent debut of Prince Harry’s memoir, ‘Spare’, it’s no question why the couple is such a huge hot topic.
The series has been received incredibly well, becoming the second most successful Netflix series to be produced. Of course, opinions have begun to rise and the purpose of the documentary seems to have been misconstrued entirely.
A series focusing on the harm of judgments and preconceptions seems to have been entirely judged by preconceptions.
A Fairy Tale Start
The series was released on December 8th, 2022, with the episodes coming out at different intervals. The show offered viewers a glance into, what Prince Harry and Meghan themselves called, their ‘love story’. The episodes depict the progression of their relationship, the introduction to the Royal Family, and how this quickly declined.
The secrecy of the relationship appears to be something that they reveled in, given the later unnecessary involvement of the public and the sovereign. Much like the tabloid’s infatuation with his mother, Diana Spencer, the announcement of Harry’s engagement birthed a sinister obsession with Meghan. What started as curiosity about the actress, rapidly declined into a suffocating pit of racist stereotypes and headlines that villainized Meghan because of her lack of whiteness. Headlines disgracefully released by The Daily Mail insisted that she was ‘almost out of Compton’ because of her skin color and family background.
Q-white A Different Standard
The British media pursued Meghan mercilessly, to the point where she admits she was ‘not really’ okay and that it has been a struggle to face such backlash from the tabloids. She further expressed in the docuseries how she had been suicidal. To produce such venomous headlines and to relentlessly compare the identical actions of Meghan and her sister-in-law, Kate Middleton, cannot be described as anything other than inherently and unequivocally racist.
The comments aimed at Meghan have been rooted in nothing but racially-motivated hate. This has been consistently dismissed by the public and according to Harry, dismissed by the Royal Family themselves. The docuseries exposed the shocking revelations of how an institution so apparently renowned for its charitable efforts refused to offer a hand to Meghan at a time when she admitted to needing mental help.
Riot Mentality
The hatred that has dominated the media and been voiced by the British public since their engagement cannot be described as anything but ruthless bullying. It may seem like an opinion to express dislike for a person within the public eye. What it really appears to be is a thinly-veiled but blatantly obvious form of racism and misogyny. To outwardly express compassion for Kate Middleton but disgust for Meghan Markle for holding their baby bumps during pregnancy is nothing but an unmistakably brash expression of racism.
The show depicts the mental impact of tabloid covers and the harm of hateful tweets. Opinions on television are commonplace and no one can take that away from anyone. But after being given a raw and unfiltered image of a woman’s battle with these very opinions, does express such go a lot deeper?
Is making a judgment based on preconceptions about the show not embodying the very ugliness that it seeks to expose?
