My heroes Lana and Lilly Wachowski directed the big screen adaptation of David Mitchell’s novel Cloud Atlas. Hugo Weaving plays multiple characters in the film, one of whom is racist, colonialist Haskell Moore. In the film’s final act Haskell gives the following warning to his daughter Tilda who is running off with her love, abolitionist Adam Ewing played by Doona Bae and Jim Sturgess respectively: “There is a natural order to this world and those who try to upend it do not fare well. This movement will never survive; if you join them, you and your entire family will be shunned. At best, you will exist a pariah to be spat at and beaten. At worst, to be lynched and crucified…”
I was reminded of this quote when I was reading Sara Collins’ The Confessions of Frannie Langton this morning. The novel’s protagonist, a mixed raced former slave called Frances asks Mrs Linux: a white senior maid in the house where they both serve, why Linux hates her. Linux, a cold, miserable woman responds “Hate you? Oh. No… There is a natural order and when you know your part in it, and do your work, not matter what it is, in the knowledge that it’s God’s work, then you will work with all your heart, for you will be working for the Lord and not for human masters.”
In Britain, for so long, we’ve had a natural order. This natural order manifests in our class system which doesn’t readily lend itself to accommodating race. Of course, this natural order isn’t natural at all; it is a fallacy created centuries ago by powerful white men in order to foster peace, order and compliance in those who did not share their power or privilege. For Mrs Linux, the arrival of a “darkie” who does not know her place in this natural order is confounding. It is important for everyone in this “natural order” to believe that it is righteous that they occupy the position they do. To imagine a world where that natural order doesn’t exist is to put into question their whole existence. And we have arrived, friends, at what this has to do with the good sis Meghan, Duchess of Sussex.
Like many of you, I’ve found myself taken by the news of Meghan and her husband Harry stepping back from their roles as senior royals and seeking to become financially independent. The story has dominated the news cycle for days. Much speculation has been made about what this means for the future of the royal family but mostly attention has been laser-focused on Meghan. Mostly, people wanted to know what responsibility Meghan plays in the split threatening the monarchy; have the red top newspapers and bigoted journalists tell it the couple’s decision is all Meghan’s fault.
Christmas has come early for racists across this Divided Kingdom as parts of the media fall over itself to explain that the over-scrutinisation of Meghan is not about her race but simply because they don’t like her. Speaking from his Talk Radio show, sautéed simpleton Eamon Holmes boldly declared while he had never met the Duchess “I look at her and I think 'I don't think I'd like you in real life’... You're just that awful, woke, weak, manipulative, spoilt...” Visit the comment section under anything posted about Meghan and you’ll find normal British people confidently sharing how much of an awful, manipulative, controlling person she is without questioning where that rhetoric has come from.
Luckily, this land isn’t completely void public figures equipped with common sense. On his LBC talk show, James O’Brien challenged one caller to explain how he’d arrived at his conclusion that Meghan had “dominated” her husband. The caller struggled under the weight of simple questions and in the end was certain that his opinion had come from what he’d observed. However, it’s clear that this caller specifically and the British public in general are simply parroting disinformation they’ve been fed which, whether you believe it or not, is rooted firmly in racist misogyny: known round these parts as misogynoir.
Unabashed racists and well-meaning people alike balk at any idea that Meghan has been the target of racism or sexism and they do so because denying the existence of misogynoir is part of their duty upholding the natural order. I was on BBC 5Live last night talking about this couple (who damn sure ain’t talking about me) and my fellow guest, Royal Correspondent Jennie Bond, understood clearly that Meghan’s treatment has been egregious but stopped short of calling it racism. The idea is that Meghan is being treated just like any other commoner that has joined the royal family. But we know that ain’t true.
There are countless threads on Twitter (like this excellent one) dedicated to giving examples how press stories of Meghan are so different to those published about Prince William’s wife Kate. And what is so different about Meghan? What is it about this woman that the media would feel comfortable reporting about her with such naked disdain that even before they were married Harry made an official royal statement decrying the “outright sexism and racism” his then girlfriend had been subjected to?
Racists and others committed to defending the natural order can argue that I have an agenda but here’s your beloved prince saying that he was “worried about Ms. Markle’s safety and is deeply disappointed that he has not been able to protect her.” She is subjected to this cruelty because she is a mixed raced woman. Meghan didn’t even have the decency to be that acceptable kind of mixed race- you know, the kind where the mother is white and the father is black. No, Meghan had the audacity to be born of a white man and Doria Ragland; a black American woman who wears her hair in locs and sports a nose ring. The British press and British public dislike Meghan with such wild abandon because she doesn’t know her place and has the temerity to go to South Africa and tell the impoverished black women there that she is their “sister.”
The dogged pursuit of Meghan continued once they were married and only intensified when she gave birth to their child Archie. Did they think this progressive young man who has made terrible, racist decisions in his past would be happy to keep his family in this toxic environment where his wishes for the safety and protection of his wife aren’t respected? Here we have someone who understands that this natural order isn’t more important than those he loves. The misogynoir Meghan experiences is because she refuses to adhere to the natural order thus putting it in jeopardy and that cannot be allowed to happen.
Meghan and Harry stepping away from their senior royal duties is an extension of them stepping away from Britain. Racism and sexism are so deeply embedded in the fabric of this country and they pose a very real threat to the emotional and physical safety of the people of colour who have to live here. Harry is tired of telling you lot to keep his wife’s name out of your mouth, he’s tired of politely asking that you not subject her to same kind of danger that robbed him of his mother. Unlike the rest of us, they do not have to live here. In her excellent New York Times article, Afua Hirsch explains “The relatively few people of colour who rise to prominence and prosperity in Britain are often told we should be “grateful” or told to leave if we don’t like it here.” Meghan might not like it here where journalists will freely compare her new-born to a monkey then claim there is nothing racist about doing so. Meghan and her husband are making the decision I wish many more of us would make to step away from toxic, dysfunctional familial relationships and break generational strongholds.
I am extraordinarily sympathetic to the Duke & Duchess of Sussex. This said, I have to temper my sympathy for this wealthy couple. Like many other black people and people of colour, I am often the target of racist sexism in Britain- but this is my home, my country and I cannot just lean back on any wealth and let it take me somewhere more hospitable to my existence as a queer, black woman. I continue to wish Meghan and Harry the best and hope they extend the same well wishes to those of us committed to upending the natural order from inside this racist country.
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