Is Racism At the Heart of Meghan and Harry’s Departure? | This Morning

just days after Prince Harry and Megan shocks the country by announcing their intention to step back as senior Royals today the Queen is holding an emergency meeting while taking place at Sandringham in an hour's time and attended by Her Majesty princes Charles William and Harry the meeting is to finalize the sausages roll moving forward well we're joined now by our royal correspondent Khatami alongside dr. Shara Moss shot by moot and she believes that the issues of race are at the heart of Harry and Megan's decision so good morning good morning morning welcome start with the summit then hearth who called it what's it for well the Queen's called it in a way it seems astonishing that they haven't had the face-to-face meeting before now but to be fair the Queen's in Norfolk the Prince of Wales was in Scotland he flew to Amman yesterday and has come back so he's been up against it as well and the Duke of Cambridge and Prince Harry are gonna go up there and are should be there now we don't quite know about timing we think they might have lunch first and then have to summit this afternoon and then top and tail it with tea very English isn't it very much in the Queen's vein because she likes to take tea at five and then we may or may not have a resolution aides are saying it could take five minutes could take five hours and just to summarize it in kind of fairly simple speak you know what they're looking at really and it's been nicknamed Meg's it hasn't it a hard mix it so they go off to America they cut all royal ties they lose funding they don't use their HRH titles etc and just move to North America permanently or a so-called soft mix it would see them trying to have a quasi royal role so on one hand retaining some kind of enlarged Commonwealth role where they spend time in Canada and America but also retain a connection to the Royals as well as trying to be financially independent and maybe the agreement that they strike is going to be something phased so that they lose funding over time a transition to a new situation but the latter scenario while probably the most preferable all round because I don't think anyone really wants to see them completely sever ties from the royal family is the most complicated it's unprecedented and we haven't had this half in hongcun taking part in this summit so we think she's going to be in the summit either on conference call possibly even on FaceTime they'd been some reports this morning about whatsapp communications but I think if she's going to dial in conventionally speaking would be through the switchboard on a conference call and so what about William and Harry because there's been reports over the weekend where William has allegedly said that they are now separate entities so this will be the boys together actually talking face to face what's this gonna do to their relationship well I think over the weekend we've seen yet more reportage of the fact that things aren't great between them and I think Tom Bradbury who knows them both well the ITV News anchor gave an interview or did a piece in The Sunday Times always saying this has been festering since the Royal Wedding and some awful things were said and done and it's not really been resolved since then so I suppose there's a hope not only to find a solution to this situation which actually isn't just going to affect Harry and Megan moving forward but perhaps also future generations of royalty they want a blueprint that can be used for the likes of Princess Charlotte and Prince Louie but equally perhaps there needs to be some pardon the pun but banging of heads in Vienna looking at that initiative yet up for mental health a couple of years ago in order to try and get better relations between all of these Royals and perhaps the Queen is the only person frankly who can help to mediate this situation well Tom Bradby over the weekend mister hinted Harry and Megan had been she'd been driven out of a poisonous Palace yes I think there is this sense that they have had grievances for some time which although the palaces tried to address them perhaps hasn't been quick enough to do so some of the reason for the rushing out of the statement last Wednesday was because Prince Harry had put together his own blueprint because his father had said we need this in writing we need to see what you have intended and he didn't want to commit it to pay because he was worried about leaks which is worrying in itself and there's been some counter briefing about who might have leaked it which shows the acrimony at the heart of the palace at the moment but equally this sense that his father delayed it and he then went to his grandmother to try and force the issue and he felt that it wasn't being given Swift and urgent enough attention so that's created a bit of a rift but yeah I would say that at the moment you know after the last week that we've seen things haven't been great and a lot of the reporting that we've seen over the last two years has borne fruit and now come out into the open a little more okay so at the heart of this dr. shilagh do you believe that racism is to play I mean this is a question that you feel actually you're exhausted of having to defend it because for you it's so blatant that yes the answer is yes race' mr. play you've taken you've taken the words right out of out of my mouth it is exhausting when you keep hearing people either deny their racism is at the heart of this people go it's criticism but it's criticism steeped in racism and look look I think the difficulty here for a lot of people who said they do not understand this thing and the thing is that it is not the job of black people and ethnic minorities to educate white people on racism that is perpetrated by white people white folks need to go educate themselves on the racism they perpetrate the reason why the racism experience by making feels so personal and it deeply resonates with a lot of people it's because it's symptomatic of the culture of racism in the United what examples do you have is it that is another problem when people ask keep asking what examples it makes me question it it makes me question where have you been the last two years what did you be reading what have you been reading make some criticism right I haven't personally read anything that I could say was based on and this is race this is part of the problem and let me explain what racism looks like from the lens of white privilege white privilege whitewashes racist and inflammatory language as unconscious bias it perpetuates the bigotry of intolerant white people as ignorant it defends and protects their private views once spoken as misspeak and then camouflages racist behavior as error of judgment which is exemplified by Danny Baker Street yeah when he when he now dead Archie to NZ I think if you look at a lot of the criticisms she's faced if a lot of the examples he sums up to one thing how dare she she doesn't know her place she's uppity right the when a black woman right goes along with the flow does what is expected of her it's all okay but the moment she exercises independent thought independent authenticity our own independent views she's a problem so there is I mean we've we've sort of been looking through and I know online there's lots of examples of how she's been treated differently come - Kate there's a few examples here we'll just show a couple of them now so you've got this for example the bouquet of flowers so you've got Kate's bouquet there Kate Middleton homegrown bouquet of the valley follows a real code Megan's wedding how Meghan markle's flowers may have put princess Charlotte's life at risk I mean two identical bunches of flowers - very different way of handling them so is this what you're saying although people may not be aware I might as well I'm not racist I haven't written that in a racist way but it's it's the subtext it's the subconscious beneath which is why I'm hoping by giving that tip the education on what white privilege does when you see racist and inflammatory language or language that is steeped in racism and then you get your colleagues something other their witches are then has she missed a huge opportunity here then by being her as a senior member of the royal family to help break down some of that subconscious racism she had an opportunity to be that role to be that person in the biggest role that there possibly is who are you not slightly do not feel slightly let down absolutely not making us don't jack all wrong if I can be perfectly blunt when you say that she had an opportunity she hasn't not met the opportunity the it as though it's what she's faced it's the volume of abuse the literal of of abuse steeped in racism misogyny sexism so how much more is she expected to take and bear in mind that if she had responded say I would as I would respond she'll be stereotypically defined as the angry black woman I mean when you look at the kind of comments that we use to describe her straight out of Compton she's not she's not from Compton all the kinds of words that I've been used to describe but she's as I said she's uppity people complain that she shrouded her son's christening I mean secrecy you compared not you but the press compared her son to Timothy you're lucky she even told you about we've got Danny Baker tweet I think we can all agree was completely inappropriate and he was rightly reprobate of contrary less racist I said a guy hired I'm gonna meet but let's just just let pick his if examples are quite useful here when the straight out of Compton narratives started after I broke the story of their relationship back in October at 2016 I wrote and called out that that was inappropriate language to use has there been anti Americanism towards Megan yes has there been massagin ism towards Megan yes because we are seeing her take too much of the blame for what is undoubtedly a joint decisions Prince Harry's own view preempted this because he wasn't particularly happy with the idea of having to play second fiddle to his brother and indeed to have to run a lot of his own charitable work by Kensington Palace he didn't want to be locked in with the Cambridge's he wanted to go his own way and he's constantly been worried about being sidelined and overshadowed because he understands his own branding but when we come to the actual specifics of how she and Megan has been treated by the palace which is people might not believe but a more multicultural and diverse environment the royal household than you might imagine there are quite a lot of people of colour working in the royal household there are quite a lot of people of a different sexual persuasion work in the royal house that doesn't change anything they're working which is different for Megan but you're two entered who's entered the royal family as a member of the family white privilege and I'm saying that there are it you can't just paint the palace as this place which is just full of white men in grey it's not the palace I'm talking about the culture of racism yeah but the conversation the papers there is a racist element within the media in Britain yes I think there's a I don't mean there's a racist element that's over but I think that she has been treated as an outsider largely because of her Americanism the fact that she's a divorcee and the fact that she had a career before and I think there's been mistrust of somebody new coming in but equally if we look at the criticism of Prince Harry which has been equally vociferous I know that on one hand we're trying to push Megan out of this and sort of say well she's been uniquely vilified he has had a great deal of criticism and condemnation which I suppose we can all agree wasn't racist in its tone but this is the challenge that I have anytime we have to talk about racism and the real issue of racism and impact the consequence of it we keep pushing it away or calling it something else yeah it is racism let's call it what it is which is why I explained what I said the inflammatory language oh no but that's not racist it's it's unconscious bias the fact that people are bigoted in certain ways and they exhibited in certain ways I'm sorry but that was just me speak that was just a real happy and a final word raised Harry himself Hughes self-praise unconscious bias are you not happy with that phrase it's not about what I use unconscious bias because I see that there's nothing unconscious about bias the point is that there is a real issue of racism in this country and we have to be very willing work thank you you

Channel: This Morning

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Length: 11min 59sec (719 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 13 2020