”I wasn’t black enough for the black roles and I wasn’t white enough for the white ones,”
Meghan Markle is known to many because of her role as Rachel Zane in Suits.
She has recently gained extra attention due to her relationship with Prince Harry.
When their relationship was made public by a statement from Kensington Palace, the issue of racism and abuse was highlighted.
”[Harry’s] girlfriend, Meghan Markle, has been subject to a wave of abuse and harassment.”
”Some of this has been very public – the smear on the front page of a national newspaper; the racial undertones of comment pieces; and the outright sexism and racism of social media trolls and web article comments.” An extract from the statement said.
Now Meghan has spoken out about such racism herself in a powerful essay published by Elle.
She begins by explaining that, her whole life, she has been asked ”What are you?’.
When she tells them she’s an actress among other things, they say:
”Right, but what are you? Where are your parents from?”
”I knew it was coming, I always do. While I could say Pennsylvania and Ohio, and continue this proverbial two-step, I instead give them what they’re after: ‘My dad is Caucasian and my mom is African American. I’m half black and half white.”’
She then talks about the adversity she faced even as a young child.
”In the seventh grade…there was a mandatory census I had to complete in my English class – you had to check one of the boxes to indicate your ethnicity: white, black, Hispanic or Asian. There I was (my curly hair, my freckled face, my pale skin, my mixed race) looking down at these boxes, not wanting to mess up, but not knowing what to do. You could only choose one, but that would be to choose one parent over the other – and one half of myself over the other. My teacher told me to check the box for Caucasian. ‘Because that’s how you look, Meghan,’ she said. I put down my pen.” She said.
She explains how being biracial affected her career.
”I wasn’t black enough for the black roles and I wasn’t white enough for the white ones, leaving me somewhere in the middle as the ethnic chameleon who couldn’t book a job.”
Meghan then goes on to talk about when she was cast in Suits, the perfect role. Then the role of her father went to black actor Wendell Pierce and racism reared it’s ugly head once again.
”I remember the tweets when that first episode of the Zane family aired, they ran the gamut from: ‘Why would they make her dad black? She’s not black’ to ‘Ew, she’s black? I used to think she was hot.’ The latter was blocked and reported. The reaction was unexpected, but speaks of the undercurrent of racism that is so prevalent, especially within America.”
She finished by explaining how she deals with it and what inspires her to do so.
”So you make a choice: continue living your life feeling muddled in this abyss of self-misunderstanding, or you find your identity independent of it. You push for colour-blind casting, you draw your own box.” She said.
”Because in 1865 (which is so shatteringly recent), when slavery was abolished in the United States, former slaves had to choose a name. A surname, to be exact.
Perhaps the closest thing to connecting me to my ever-complex family tree, my longing to know where I come from, and the commonality that links me to my bloodline, is the choice that my great-great-great grandfather made to start anew. He chose the last name Wisdom. He drew his own box.”
You can read the incredible piece in full is on Elle now.
