After Oprah's highly anticipated interview of Meghan Markle and Prince Harry, the Duchess and Duke of Sussex, many Americans are coming to terms with just how corrupt the British monarchy remains today. During the interview, Markle and Prince Harry described how a member of the royal family voiced concern over what their son Archie’s skin color would be while she was pregnant with him, and how members of the family helped perpetuate tabloid slander against Markle — never once stepping in to defend her.
Markle also made it clear that the royal institution failed to protect her when she reached out for help after suffering with depression and suicidal ideation. One thing remained clear, in no uncertain terms: The monarchy exists to protect its own bloodline — and nothing else.
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Yet apparently, a number of conservative talking heads in the U.S. are willing to do free PR work for the royals, attacking Markle and Prince Harry in an attempt to discredit them. Megyn Kelly — who has somewhat of a reputation for defending, say, Donald Trump for example — went so far as to shame Markle for suffering from depression and speaking out about her mental health: “It’s a fact of life you have to learn to deal with. It doesn’t — it shouldn’t drive you to that kind of depression, those kinds of self-lamentations,” she said during an appearance on Piers Morgan's show.
Charlie Kirk compared Markle to another Black actor, Jussie Smollett, who is believed to have fabricated a story about being attacked in a hate crime in 2019. “I think she’s making it up like Jussie Smollett,” Kirk said on Tuesday on his podcast.
Meanwhile, Ben Shapiro tweeted, “We told you not to screw with us, George III. And now we've unleashed our most dangerous resource: B-rate TV actresses wielding wokeness,” adding, “Imagine being Prince Philip: fighting Nazis, helping preside over the UK during the Cold War and the economic struggles of the 1970s, and now watching your spoiled grandson basically call the institution to which you have silently devoted your life a vile repository of bigotry.”
On Fox & Friends, host Ainsley Earhardt criticized Markle, saying, “I’ll just say, if I got a castle and I got the jewels and a crown, I wouldn't be leaving!” insinuating that the royal family welcomed Meghan at all and that should have been enough.
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Radio personality Erick Erickson also decided to jump on the woke-hating bandwagon, tweeting, “So essentially Harry and Meghan have joined Woke-o Haram and want to cancel the Royal Family for not being woke.”
It shouldn't come as such a shock that these conservative media pundits are cheerleading the monarchy's racism and abusive behavior. After all, these are the same people who have routinely defended the Confederacy, violence against Black Americans, anti-abortion initiatives, and rallied behind a violence-perpetuating police state.
This past summer, Shapiro ranted for nearly 15 minutes in a video denouncing the Black Lives Matter movement. Kirk has continuously mocked Black Lives Matter protesters. “Imagine marching in the streets and dedicating your life to something that doesn’t exist. It must be a miserable life to believe America is a racist country. It takes effort to believe something so materially false,” Kirk tweeted in June. In a recent Fox News segment, Earhardt attempted to justify the riots at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, saying, “There are 75 million people that voted for President Trump. And they are scared. They are worried about what the future of this country looks like. They are confused and heartbroken that their candidate didn't win and they don't want to be forgotten.”
By attacking Markle, these right-wing pundits are continuing to perpetuate the ideologies of white supremacy inherent in the monarchy, stemming from colonialist roots that have laid the groundwork for what culminated in Markle’s ostracism. Conservatives — much like the monarchy itself — fail to show any proof that Markle didn’t experience racism, or that she has no reasons to speak out. But that likely won’t stop them from trying.