Having just watched the Harry and Meghan Netflix series on TV, I am impressed not just with the actual production which is excellent, but especially with the simplicity and honesty with which both royals talk about themselves, their views on the monarchy and how inexorably they were driven out of the country. Having already watched the series of The Crown, their comments only confirm how completely out of touch the royal family is with modern life and culture. I also thought it was also remarkably brave of Meghan to appear on National/Global TV with a towel around her head and wearing no makeup!
But then I read some of the reactions from the UK. I find it both ironic and depressing that most of the strident voices come from a group of white, male MPs. who by their own words are both racist and misogynist. And of course, there are the British news outlets.
Such an outcry is of course to be expected when the country has just been given a billionaire token minority person as Prime Minister. Of the more than 600 seats in parliament, only 60 are held by minorities! It speaks to cronyism, the values of Eton, and the so-called glory days of Empire. But it all makes for good optics. And regardless of the token presence of a few female MPs, it is still an old boys club of immature, spoiled but upcoming, hand selected and privileged ‘nobodies’ joining with the old and brain addled older politicians who are now leading Britain. And these are the people who believe they have the Divine Right of Kings to legislate and introduce a resolution that could give the Privy Council the power to downgrade Harry and Meghan's royal status!
Sadly, the same tolerance awarded to this debacle by the British press, has not been accorded to the Sussexes. Having an attractive educated, sophisticated, articulate, mature and very composed bi-racial woman joining the royal family was simply too much for the palace. And Meghan’s push back to not being steam-rollered by the press, was simply intolerable. ‘This lady must go’ was the slogan chanted by the tabloids, bent on creating and promoting false news and making money rather than providing accurate information to the British public and also making money. However, Buckingham Palace can honestly boast and thumb their royal noses at the BBC, the self-claimed paragon of honest news casting and leader in disseminating public information, in that it now has at least one minority in the family, however minimally tolerated, Lady Hussy notwithstanding. In its 100 years history, the BBC has only had white controllers.
The Netflix series is essentially designed to try and set the record straight, so that H & M can tell their own story. But since nobody else, not even another royal can walk in their shoes, I doubt that the needle of acceptance will sadly move very little. And it will surely not please the British press, only because they are jealous of Netflix, who blinded by negative obsession towards the couple, failed to understand they too could have competed for the assignment and made lots of money.
Meghan and Harry are safe and happy in California, trying to live as normal a life as possible in spite of their celebrity. And since their local community is comprised of almost equally famous film stars and billionaires, the norm has a purely relative meaning.
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