Page 10 | Do people intentionally ignore Meghans biracial heritage?

JamSandle · 2023-01-08T00:32:26+00:00

I'm not disputing that many media swipes at Meghan had a racist tone but im really confused as to how many people keep talking about Meghan as being black. I'm assuming many people saying this are American? I dont know many biracial people, myself included, who refer to themselves as only one race. It seems a very American thing to me. When people talk about Meghan, especially when negatively, why is it considered racist, completely disregarding that she is half white? And especially when she was first introduced, many people didn't know what ethnicity Meghan was. I think she actually has a look that could be quite global in terms of being from anywhere, but she has quite a Southern European/South American look to me. Again...im not saying there is no racism towards Meghan. But I find it off that people ignore that Meghan is not black, she is biracial.

JudgeJ · 10/01/2023 22:29

Intheroommadeasy · 08/01/2023 00:34

Agree, she looks Hispanic to me, extremely beautiful but wouldn't have occured to me that she had black heritage tbh

That's exactly what I thought when I first saw her, I was very surprised to learn that she has a 50% black heritage/50% white heritage.

Bunnyfuller · 10/01/2023 22:31

I disliked her vibe long, long, long before I knew she was anything but generic Hollywood. I honestly had no idea what her ethnic heritage was. And tbh, I don’t care. Her and Harry have behaved as the worst kind of ‘celebs’ possible.

Hate the media all you like (despite now constantly actively seeking them out) but publicly and inaccurately trash your family. No, that’s not ok. Regardless of your heritage.

Toomuch2do · 10/01/2023 22:32

AnuSTart · 10/01/2023 21:53

How the actual F are so many posters here saying that they'd never know Meghan was not white??? WTAF.
She is very clearly not white.
At no point during my watching of suits over last however many years and latterly watching the shitshow which she signed up to, is she anything other than mixed race.
FFS.

What is that? Humble bragging on your colour-blindness? Just listen to yourselves!!!

It might be clear to you but I had never watched Suits and never heard of Meghan until she started dating Prince Harry. From photos in the paper I vaguely assumed she had Hispanic heritage.

I didn’t realise her heritage until I read about it in the paper.

lipstickwoman · 10/01/2023 22:33

I guess her hair is what confuses the eye. It's beautiful but not typically 'black'

SighsTheNewWord · 10/01/2023 22:41

Yeah hair is typically (not always) what separates lighter-skinned mixed race people like Meghan from 100% white people. If she had her natural curly hair, it would be easy to tell she's mixed.

It's why someone like Rachel Dolezal passed for mixed race for so long because all she really had to do physically is give herself 3b/3c curls and maybe a bit of a tan.

hotcactus86 · 10/01/2023 23:59

I am an American mixed-race woman, White, Black, and Indigenous. Unfortunately, America very much still ascribes to the one-drop rule which views Blackness as a taint and anyone with proximity to Blackness as just Black. I hope that in my lifetime I will see this shift and that people such as myself who are mixed race will be able to identify as what we are and as another poster said (paraphrasing) "not be forced to identify how others see us."

Being Black in America is more about phenotype than genotype. I once had a White co-worker tell me that "Anyone with black curly hair and a wide nose was Black," I guffawed and told her this included a lot of the world's population including some White people! I mention this to give you a taste of the American thought process regarding race.

I think it is disingenuous and a disservice to tell mixed-race people in America that they are Black and only Black because that is how White people will see them. I always accepted I would face discrimination from White people but I was completely unprepared for the discrimination I would face from Black people. I always believed I would be accepted into the Black community, but when I sought the Black community out as an adult I was rejected as not being Black.

I have come to understand that the Black community doesn't owe me acceptance, thanks to many lovely helpful Black women who took the time to explain their thoughts and beliefs to me. In the words of one woman during a discussion, we were having on Blackness and I quote, "I'm sorry but you don't know what you're talking about. When you walk into a room people will think you are a Pacific Islander or a Latina, or Native American. You will never know what it is like to experience true anti-Blackness unless you tell people you are Black." At the time this shocked me to my core, but it is true.

There are so many nuances of Blackness that I don't understand and have to learn about in an intellectual capacity because I don't experience them. Am I a visible minority? You bet ya, however, there is no more virulent hatred than anti-Blackness and people don't always register that because quite frankly I could be anything. I have tan skin, and wavy hair, for example, Lourde the singer has curlier hair than I do. I look like I could be from a lot of different places. I know this because people from India, Egypt, Samoa, South America, and the list goes on and on have mistaken me for one of their own.

I find it very interesting that we can accept sex, male and female, as a spectrum but people such as myself are pushed into only acknowledging one facet of our identity and are not validated for what we are biologically. All my life I have been asked, "What are you?" All my life White people have felt comfortable pigeonholing me and dismissing my very real cultural ties to my other ethnicities. I refuse to accept an identity that has been foisted upon me due to America's horrific racial past. I am all of my ethnicities and none of them. I am me. The trifecta. The ultimate American.

Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk. Lol

P.S. I live in the American Southwest now. In a majority-minority state where most people are Latino or Indigenous. No One Ever asks what I am anymore, they just assume I am one of them. It is heaven to blend. I never knew what it felt like to just be accepted and seen for me until now. Even when I tell people all my ethnicities they say, "Well you look like one of us, so you're one of us, now come on." Lol. It is wonderful to fit in.

SighsTheNewWord · 11/01/2023 00:18

Your Ted talk was powerful. 😁

Thank you for telling the obvious truth.
I know all too well what you're saying.

Whenharrymetsmelly · 11/01/2023 01:27

hotcactus86 · 10/01/2023 23:59

I am an American mixed-race woman, White, Black, and Indigenous. Unfortunately, America very much still ascribes to the one-drop rule which views Blackness as a taint and anyone with proximity to Blackness as just Black. I hope that in my lifetime I will see this shift and that people such as myself who are mixed race will be able to identify as what we are and as another poster said (paraphrasing) "not be forced to identify how others see us."

Being Black in America is more about phenotype than genotype. I once had a White co-worker tell me that "Anyone with black curly hair and a wide nose was Black," I guffawed and told her this included a lot of the world's population including some White people! I mention this to give you a taste of the American thought process regarding race.

I think it is disingenuous and a disservice to tell mixed-race people in America that they are Black and only Black because that is how White people will see them. I always accepted I would face discrimination from White people but I was completely unprepared for the discrimination I would face from Black people. I always believed I would be accepted into the Black community, but when I sought the Black community out as an adult I was rejected as not being Black.

I have come to understand that the Black community doesn't owe me acceptance, thanks to many lovely helpful Black women who took the time to explain their thoughts and beliefs to me. In the words of one woman during a discussion, we were having on Blackness and I quote, "I'm sorry but you don't know what you're talking about. When you walk into a room people will think you are a Pacific Islander or a Latina, or Native American. You will never know what it is like to experience true anti-Blackness unless you tell people you are Black." At the time this shocked me to my core, but it is true.

There are so many nuances of Blackness that I don't understand and have to learn about in an intellectual capacity because I don't experience them. Am I a visible minority? You bet ya, however, there is no more virulent hatred than anti-Blackness and people don't always register that because quite frankly I could be anything. I have tan skin, and wavy hair, for example, Lourde the singer has curlier hair than I do. I look like I could be from a lot of different places. I know this because people from India, Egypt, Samoa, South America, and the list goes on and on have mistaken me for one of their own.

I find it very interesting that we can accept sex, male and female, as a spectrum but people such as myself are pushed into only acknowledging one facet of our identity and are not validated for what we are biologically. All my life I have been asked, "What are you?" All my life White people have felt comfortable pigeonholing me and dismissing my very real cultural ties to my other ethnicities. I refuse to accept an identity that has been foisted upon me due to America's horrific racial past. I am all of my ethnicities and none of them. I am me. The trifecta. The ultimate American.

Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk. Lol

P.S. I live in the American Southwest now. In a majority-minority state where most people are Latino or Indigenous. No One Ever asks what I am anymore, they just assume I am one of them. It is heaven to blend. I never knew what it felt like to just be accepted and seen for me until now. Even when I tell people all my ethnicities they say, "Well you look like one of us, so you're one of us, now come on." Lol. It is wonderful to fit in.

💞

ImaginaryDragon · 11/01/2023 01:55

jtaeapa · 10/01/2023 22:13

She can identify however she wants. And I am certain that she has been the target of racism at times - like the cartoon of the monkey.

However, when I look at the attached photo, I don't obviously see a black person. She looks white passing or olive skinned or biracial. But simply "black" - that's not what I see and I do wonder whether other black people are happy with MM telling the world how she as a black person has experienced things.

She looks white passing from behind, on a dark night with the lights off... De-nial is a river in Egypt.

ImaginaryDragon · 11/01/2023 01:59

lipstickwoman · 10/01/2023 22:33

I guess her hair is what confuses the eye. It's beautiful but not typically 'black'

Well said.

Sausagenbacon · 11/01/2023 07:55

Imagine if this happened to you if you were a "masculine" female, and someone told you you weren't allowed to be a woman.
Are you being ironic? Yes, just because you think you're a woman doesn't mean you're a woman.

lipstickwoman · 11/01/2023 08:54

I don't intentionally ignore her heritage. I don't actually think about it, it doesn't matter to me. Should it?

Superbrew · 11/01/2023 10:18

Being Black in America is more about phenotype than genotype. I once had a White co-worker tell me that "Anyone with black curly hair and a wide nose was Black,"

my daughter is doing psychology she’s 17, she said the lesson made her feel unattractive because they are learning about relationships and the teacher was saying people find small noses attractive and hers is not small(her thinking) - my daughter has a “wide” nose or rather her African fathers nose but it’s not large at all. I said who told you to think your nose is large? What makes you think it’s not small and it’s unattractive?
Your sentence was quite striking, in that we are in the UK and for some reason even here my daughter has picked up on this and not in a good way sadly.
my son, whose nose totally suits his face, also has paranoia now because in school he is told it’s flat/large/looks like Kim Jung Un fell on your nose. Makes me sad that they are both good looking kids but negative stereotypes really affect them.
I think like you mention acceptance and fitting in being heaven, I think that’s what everyone wants ultimately.

Boomboom22 · 11/01/2023 14:07

Race is not comparable to sex as it is not binary. Maybe it is comparable to gender in the true sense of the word.

In the Netflix doc despite saying she lived with her mum in a mistly white community she said she never thought of herself as black until the racist newspaper articles. That is her own worHer agent said he did not know she was mixed race until she told him and he then started putting her forward for roles. She said she did not experience racism in USA only in UK in the doc.

SighsTheNewWord · 11/01/2023 14:45

Meghan blended into the white community most of her life, which is probably why marrying to the RF may not have seemed like a daunting task to her and she thought she'd easily be bffs with Kate. After all, her friends and partners have all been white.

The lack of reciprocity of overt friendliness from the members of the RF unfortunately gave her the shock of her life, as that may have been the first time she felt truly othered. I'm pretty sure she's experienced racism in the US but due to the privileges she had, it may not have mattered much or made much of an impact till she received heavy negative treatment on the global stage.

(Just speculating mostly).

DownNative · 11/01/2023 15:05

Superbrew · 10/01/2023 19:56

I feel a bit sad reading this thread, I read a meme that said “Mixed Race: take a seat someone will be with you shortly to assign you an identity “ that is such a true statement . I’m personally only of mixed countries and I get this a lot people telling me what I am and I don’t like it and that’s just countries in the same continent, I can’t imagine how frustrating it must feel for some people when it’s based on race.

my kids are mixed European /West African, quite dark skinned and Muslim and my eldest is going through a huge identity crisis not knowing where she belongs. It hurts her when people tell her you’re not black, even though she is quite dark, been called a zebra, question why she is a Muslim , presume she is something she isn’t because she wears a hijab. If you are of black and white heritage then you are both black AND white ie they are what they claim to be , it’s for the individual to identify the self not others.

My daughter has suffered racism because of her black heritage and then been told by black AND Asian people “but you’re not black” as if that means she didnt experience that racism.
I don’t agree with the person who said Brown now means Asian, brown is more then just Asian I’m not sure how that works for everyone else with brown toned skin. Especially if some are then told you’re not black?

Mixed races all seem to be put into one category no matter what the background, as if there is a mixed race continent- and of course there isn’t, everyone has to have a sense of belonging so to say “you’re mixed race you’re not black..you’re mixed race you’re not white” is very unjust in my opinion. Especially if you take into consideration people’s experiences you could be mixed but raised in a fully African household and have no other culture, or you could be fully black raised in a white household.

I agree with what someone said about the term heritage being a better way to describe people it makes so much more sense. I’ve read a lot of people saying things like “Meghan is whiter then me, she’s white” her skin colour doesn’t make her white it’s her dna that makes her who she is. She calls herself Bi-racial so that’s what she is. Just as someone with albinism doesn’t automatically make them from the white race, it’s their DNA and heritage that makes them who they are.
That probably doesn’t make too much sense, but I’ve been really struck lately how people of more then one race struggle.

Scientifically speaking, DNA doesn't sort people into white, black, brown, etc. There is just one race as far as science is concerned - the human race. After all, we can procreate with each other.

Sorting people into racial groups is a relatively recent thing in human history since the 1600s. The ancients didn't see it like this.

Race is more a social phenomenon than a DNA thing.

DownNative · 11/01/2023 15:37

Boomboom22 · 11/01/2023 14:07

Race is not comparable to sex as it is not binary. Maybe it is comparable to gender in the true sense of the word.

In the Netflix doc despite saying she lived with her mum in a mistly white community she said she never thought of herself as black until the racist newspaper articles. That is her own worHer agent said he did not know she was mixed race until she told him and he then started putting her forward for roles. She said she did not experience racism in USA only in UK in the doc.

And yet they passed off racist articles from the USA and Australia as British ones in the Oprah interview. That's why ITV removed several of them from the UK broadcast. American broadcasters, however, kept them all in.

The USA is a country riven by racism, so it doesn't seem likely she experienced zero racism there.

FrostyFifi · 11/01/2023 16:01

The lack of reciprocity of overt friendliness from the members of the RF unfortunately gave her the shock of her life, as that may have been the first time she felt truly othered

But this could just as easily have been due to her being an American divorcee, I can't imagine Wallis Simpson felt particularly embraced either.

As for accusing people of lying or being wilful about her racial heritage, honestly it's mostly just not interesting enough for many to have thought about in great detail until it became a controversy.

SighsTheNewWord · 11/01/2023 17:26

Well yes it could've been but she isn't the only divorcee or American who's come into the family.

I also think that the RF not being (more) vocally in support of her against the racism from outside sources (the press and anyone who could make a WordPress site or Youtube channel) may have contributed to that. Perhaps Harry didn't tell her about the RF's (selective) 'never complain and never explain' motto, which may have helped her to not take their 'dignified silence' so personally.

(Again, speculating).

onlylarkin · 11/01/2023 20:36

When they first started dating, I saw a couple of instances where she was compared to Wallis. At the time I thought, this isnt going to go well. I believe she was never going to be accepted, no matter how hard she tried.