PHOTOSMeghan Markle Is Faced With Racism At Christmas Lunch
Dec. 22 2017, Updated 3:51 p.m. ET
Meghan Markle’s ethnicity has become a topic of conversation for many because she is bi-racial, with a white father and black mother. Last November, Prince Harry even had to defend his now fiancée from criticism she faced, releasing a statement about the “racism of social media trolls.” But now, a member of the royal family is under scrutiny for wearing a racist artifact to the Christmas lunch at Buckingham Palace earlier this week.
Princess Michael of Kent, the wife of Queen Elizabeth’s cousin, was spotted wearing a blackamoor brooch portraying a black man in a gold turban.
While blackamoors have a long history in decorative art, they are commonly fixed in positions of servitude, as waiters, and fetishize images of slavery.
Many on Twitter had something to say about the accessory choice, with @allisonkotzig tweeting, “ummm, did anyone else clock this? Notorious racist princess Michael of kent wearing a Moor broach while attending lunch with Meghan Markle.”
Last year, in a heartfelt post for Elle, Meghan addressed how she grew up facing challenges due to her ethnicity. “While my mixed heritage may have created a grey area surrounding my self-identification, keeping me with a foot on both sides of the fence, I have come to embrace that. To say who I am, to share where I'm from, to voice my pride in being a strong, confident mixed-race woman.”
She continued, “That when asked to choose my ethnicity in a questionnaire as in my seventh grade class, or these days to check 'Other', I simply say: 'Sorry, world, this is not Lost and I am not one of The Others. I am enough exactly as I am.'”
Do you think it was inappropriate for Princess Michael of Kent to wear the brooch? Let us know in the comments section.
