Meghan Markle Beyond the Glitz and Sparkle of the Royal Family
An insight into the life of the “Black Princess” apart from her entry into the Royal Family.
Rachel Meghan Markle got catapulted into the limelight after her engagement to Prince Harry was announced on Monday, 27th November. The Suits actress may have been brought into sharp focus because of being the latest addition to the Royal Family, but she has lived a life of standing up against the odds.
However, for the Rachel Zane
Being born to a Caucasian father and an African American mother, Meghanwas a curly-haired, freckled-faced child who would often be confronted with the question “what are you?” because of having grown up in a neighborhood which was not at all racially or ethnically diverse.
Meghan once recalled a time when she had to be part of a mandatory census at school. In that form, one of the first questions asked was if she was black, white, Hispanic, or Asian.Since she was only allowed to check one box, Meghan could not choose one part of her identity over the other and decided to leave the boxes blank.
Having fully embraced her identity as it is, she describes herself being “half black, and half white”, and following the advice of her father, she decided to “draw her own box and be her true self”. Now, she is the first bi-racial person to have been welcomed into the Royal Family.
Because of being a woman of color, Meghan’s engagement has struck a chord with people around the world, who are glad to see more representation of minorities in mainstream media. British writer Samara Linton tweeted:
Prince Harry’s future mother-in-law is a black woman with dreadlocks. There are no words for this kind of joy.
— S. (@Samara_Linton) November 27, 2017
Nell Irvin Painter, professor emeritus of history at Princeton University and the author of The History of White People, said: “this is a marker in 21st-century history. This could not have happened in a previous generation, in a late-20th-century generation.” Some have even expressed their excitement on Meghan’s engagement with the hashtag #WeGotUsABlackPrincess.
Apart from speaking actively about her origins, Meghan is a humanitarian who has also been an advocate for women rights since a very young age. She’s a global ambassador for World Vision Canada and has also worked as an advocate for the UN Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women.
While addressing the audience at the UN Women’s”20th anniversary of the Fourth World Conference of Women in Beijing” event in 2015, Meghan mentioned how she had “unknowingly and somehow accidentally become a female advocate” at the age of 11 when she wrote to a dish washing soap company in response to one of their commercials, which she felt was offensive to women. In response to her letter to the company, she was featured on Nick News in 1993, and the company later changed its commercial out of political correctness.
Even though her engagement to Prince Harry only marks the beginning of her time in the Royal Family, Meghan Markle’s past milestones have already made her stand out as the Black Princess who has a lot to offer.
