I work for a charity, or as we call it in the US, a nonprofit, and we receive donated flowers almost every week. Sometimes they are even designated to go to staff areas. Every time I see one of those bouquets, it gives me a lift. Someone has thought of the people we serve, and also of us and appreciates what we do. I certainly don't feel used.
SenecaFalls
I have a close friend who also works for a non-profit and has the same experience of flower donations. Another friend works in a NICU and the staff in the unit love it when someone leaving the hospital with a healthy, full term newborn sends their flowers their way when they are discharged from Maternity.
Why is there such a strong tendency to look for the catch or to take the cynical view in the UK?
And why is so little understood about how wealth is seen in the US? Displays of wealth are rarely described as 'ostentatious' in the US. People who are wealthy and have all the trappings of wealth are not considered to be 'flaunting' their wealth.
MM (and other black and biracial actresses) was very popular and remains so among a very important demographic in the US - black women with degrees who throw themselves wholeheartedly and with tremendous energy and savoir faire into charity work, into mentoring other black women in third level education and professional studies, into establishing and maintaining networking opportunities for black women in business and the professions, into political organising among the black MC and working at municipal level and on all the elected boards you find in the US (school district boards, park district boards, etc) to make sure the interests of the black community are not overlooked.
These women come from a background of black sororities and other sororities in universities (as does MM) and a surprising number were educated in Catholic elementary and high schools where there is always a component of service to others in the educational experience. (It is surprising given that very few of the black community are RC - however, MC black families tend to see RC schools as a better bet for their children than many public school districts, especially in large urban areas). They see themselves as humanitarians because this has been their training from a very early age - on top of school experience, many come from families where members are religious ministers or have been teachers or lawyers or doctors or nurses for generations and have enjoyed a position of leadership and influence in the black community, and they see their work in promoting black women in professions and keeping the powers that be focused on the interests of the black community in general as humanitarian.
This is Meghan Markle's personal background.
www.nytimes.com/2019/02/18/style/hair-discrimination-new-york-city.html
Here is an example of an effect of the sort of pressure this demographic is capable of exerting.