Prince Harry (right) and Meghan Markle (left) (photo from Megan’s Wikipedia page)
In Ancient Greece, her beauty will put her in the rank of the “goddess”. Fast forward to 2018, her beauty is powerful enough to give a Prince a glance, a look, a stir, a date, an engagement, and finally get him to say, “I do”.
The dream of most ladies is to attract a “prince charming”. To attract a real-life Prince, is a memory that will last in her current life and surely in her “after-life”.
Rachel Meghan Markle now known as Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, officially joined the British Royal Family by her marriage to Prince Harry on May 19, 2018, in St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle, Windsor, United Kingdom.
The Duchess of Sussex was born and raised in Los Angeles, California, USA. She graduated from Northwestern University in 2003 with a degree in theatre and international studies, and worked as an actor after.
Megan’s wedding has been widely overshadowed by her heritage, a Caucasian dad and African American mother, rather than her talents, education, and most conspicuously, her flashing beauty.
This got me thinking that even a princess in the most powerful family in the world is not immune from racial stereotypes. President Obama was described as a “black” president even though he had a dad of African descend and a mother of Irish heritage. So what is the big deal in being bi-racial or “black” even with some of the greatest personal achievements imaginable?
This takes me as far back as the Roman Empire, that dominated the world from 27 BC – 395 AD, about 1,500 years ago when the Romans considered anybody who was not of Roman heritage a “Barbarian” – a member of a community or tribe not belonging to the Roman civilization. Romans were mostly Mediterranean people and “Barbarians” were mostly people from present day United Kingdom, France, Germany and so on. Needless to add USA to the list as USA did not exist at the time. The Romans did not let “Barbarians” integrate fully into Roman culture event though in the later days of the empire, they employed the fighting abilities of “Barbarians” – good to defend the empire, but not good enough to rule.
Interestingly, people who might have been considered inferior in just 1,500 years ago by one group, are painting another group as inferior today. This inferiority drama will not end with the Romans, the British who were considered inferior by the Romans built the next powerful empire after the Romans with the Royal Family at the centre of it. This empire spans from the 18th Century to today, evolving from trade, to colonialism, and to the Common Wealth of Nations today in which Canada is part of.
The British working in the colonies were advised by their empire government to keep away from indigenous or local, primitive people. A racist policy, that led to her loosen grip on her largest colony, India, and other colonies across the world. It was during this period that the Hindi word “loot” got into the English dictionary, characterized by the exploitative actions of the East Indian Company, protected and financed by the British Empire. This policy prevented East Indian Judges from handling cases of British nationals. East Indians were refused skilled jobs even when qualified. This policy led to resistance of British rule and eventually independence in the colonies across the world and the eventual fall of the British Empire. The British Empire repeated the mistakes of the Romans. You will think that the next empire will learn from this experience, right?
After the Second World War in 1945, the USA became a new super power, built a new version of empire with immigrants at the core of it from forced enslavement of Africans, massacring of Native Americans to capture rich lands, to legal immigration as we know it today. Once again, minorities finding themselves discriminated with inferior labels as it is today – negro, black, bi-racial, foreign, alien, Mexicans, Latinos, Arabs, and many more.
What is this fundamental quality of humans, that the strongest always exploit others, take slaves, paint others as inferior, and discriminate against minorities such that it leads to their fall from grace to grass?
Jealousy and envy, maybe. Surely it is a fundamental human tendency to feel good that they are better than others. Complacency always sets in when the strongest tribe or country develops a narrow and selfish mindset as they hardly can think of losing power one day.
The good news is that any tribe or country or groups can become the strongest at some point in history but how this power is managed is crucial.
Great to say that, at an individual level, you can rise to any level, but unfortunately you will be tainted not by your successes but by your heritage from extreme members of the majority country, tribe or community. Even a Princess with a flashing beauty that radiates ample love energy to woo a Prince, talented, educated, worthy of a real-life prince, or a president of a superpower, is not exempted from this racial “abyss”.
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