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PUBLIC RELATIONS
Markle and Harry at a
January event. She is,
says one royal insider,
a strategic symbol
of social and racial
mobility: “People will
be manipulated. Just as
they have always been.”
self-congratulatory position of thinking we had no U.S.-type segregation
or slavery or the kind of institutionalized, legalized racism
well into the 20th century. But Britain’s colonies were practicing
plantation economies and apartheid systems for just as long. We
have inherited a racism that is far removed from the visibility of
daily life but is nevertheless pernicious and pervasive.”
Britain did become less racially conflicted and fairer in the early
aughts. The April 1993 murder in London of black teenager Stephen
Lawrence and the subsequent failures of the police were a wake-up
moment. His parents doggedly fought to get justice, deeply impressing
the public, the media and politicians. In 1999, Prime Minister Tony
Blair’s government held an inquiry, led by a judge. The report concluded
that racism was embedded in institutional
practice and British society. More
effective anti-discrimination laws came
into force. More important, businesses
and powerful individuals did what they
could to combat conscious racism and
unconscious prejudices.
But jingoism and nativism are on
the rise again. On the 25th anniversary
of Lawrence’s murder, Prime Minister
Theresa May announced an annual remembrance
day for him. (Markle, who
attended the ceremony, was chastised
in numerous tweets for “messy hair”
and wearing a sleeveless dress. Welcome
to England!) Some white Britons
became furious that a black life was
being honored. These critics believe
themselves to be victims of equality
policies and political correctness. Many
minorities, meanwhile, considered the
gesture one of pacification, coming, as
it did, right after the Windrush scandal.
Since 2009, xenophobic political
parties and politicians have become
more vocal and influential. Brexit has
further befouled the atmosphere. Not
all those who voted to leave the European
Union were racist, but it’s likely
all racists who voted chose Brexit. And
they remain agitated. According to the
National Police Chiefs Council, hate
crime went up 49 percent after the
referendum. Brexiters interviewed
for this article were furious that darkskinned
people and Eastern Europeans
are still living in Great Britain. A
retired zoo worker tells me, “We want
our country back. Ham and spam, and
you lot gone. You are married to that
English chap but will never be one of
us. I am not racist. Each to their own. I
don’t want Pakis like you in my coutry.”
Apparently, we migrants and people
of color snatch everything—jobs,
houses, health care, lovers. And now Harry.
Based on a 2017 online survey, academics at the University of
Oxford’s Migration Observatory found that “British people make
clear distinctions between immigrants based on their country of
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