The British Royal Family has always been a source of buzz, as one of the last highly publicized monarchies in the world. On November 27, Prince Harry announced his engagement to actress Meghan Markle.
Prince Harry is to marry his American actress girlfriend Meghan Marklehttps://t.co/9V71EWKtXO pic.twitter.com/PQ1jZ75yxU
— BBC Breaking News (@BBCBreaking) November 27, 2017
A royal engagement always spawns a lot of interest, but this particular one is of interest to activists and bigots alike because Markle is a self proclaimed, “confident, mixed-race woman” of African American origins.
Large outlets like InStyle congratulated the couple in a simple way, leaving out any mention of controversy.
#PrinceHarry and #MeghanMarkle pose in the garden at Kensington Palace in London following the the announcement of the engagement. Also: that ring! 💍 ❤️ pic.twitter.com/OF8askveSH
— InStyle (@InStyle) November 27, 2017
Other congratulators faced the intrigue head on, and sassily.
The smirk you give when racists are mad that Prince Harry is marrying a black woman #blacktwitter #princeharry pic.twitter.com/kNIXGv179B
— StephanieBarresi (@SIBarresi) November 27, 2017
Many people were excited to see the high levels of government become more diverse.
So I've seen a black president of the United States, and now I'll see a black woman joining the British royal family. What a time to be alive.
Congrats #MeghanMarkle and #PrinceHarry. https://t.co/N9hEhyvHZD
— Maya Earls (@MayaEarls) November 27, 2017
There were, of course, others who were less happy with the development. This right-wing political commentator was not outright racist, but her comment on Barack Obama in this tweet make her “reservations” over Markle clearly racially motivated.
To: #PriceHarry From: #Tatiana pic.twitter.com/o9NrzsDvqD
— Tatiana Wright (@twright55) November 24, 2017
Still others called #PrinceHarry a “sellout” for deciding to jump on the politically correct bandwagon and marry a mixed-race woman.
#ObamaTheDestroyer nearly ruined America, #PrinceHarry is a sellout.
— Tommy Andrews (@Thombene77) November 27, 2017
Even at a time of incredible happiness, there will always be people interested in weighing in with their less-than pleasant commentary. However, it seems the majority of people are happy to see Meghan and Harry together.
Sarah,
I really enjoyed reading your blog post. You picked a current and interesting topic. Both sides could make there point. The only thing I was confused about was that you embedded the same tweet two times. But nice work though!
Sarah, I love this topic and am slightly obsessed with the royal family! Surprised at myself for not choosing to do this as well. I saw some of the same negative repsonses on my timeline unfortunately. It honestly still confuses me as to why race has to even be brought up in that way, why can’t people just be happy for two people who have chosen to be together?
This is so interesting. I feel like I saw nothing but positive tweets around this news, so you brought a really interesting perspective/counter-tweets to light. It definitely reminds us all of the ways in which everything can unfortunately be racialized and politicized.