We Are All Meghan Markle

Within the space of 24 hours, Meghan Markle dragged global constitutions into the 21st century.

On the arm of her beloved, she unwittingly forced the world to break their preconceptions of “acceptable royalty” by showing them one of the many-faced examples of “Black is Beautiful”. She did not require global audiences to validate her existence, compliment her mixed-race heritage or question the trajectory of her career.

Whether she has become an honorary badge for pseudo affirmative action or a political proof point for modern-day niceties is arguable, however what we do take-away from her own words in the public domain is that she is a strong-willed, activist-minded independent woman who owns her purpose in life.

But this is nothing new. We are all Meghan Markle.

Women today – particularly women of color - force society to acquire a better depth of field when looking in the mirror to face their anxieties on ‘tolerable’ change. This has been our burden to bear but never solely our responsibility to fix. We have never asked to be the Obi-Wan Kenobis for diversity, feminism or activism and help navigate the emotional weight various communities carry when faced with the realities of the world. Your permission or endorsement for our existence in any environment from an office space to the halls of Windsor Castle is neither desired nor acquired.

Meghan’s focus has never solely been about her skin color yet the exoticism of her background in the press clearly indicative of a world that is ready to move on but not sure how to, including phrasing their own uneasiness around societal transitions, particularly (as I’ve observed) how to categorize identity.

This is nothing new to women of different ethnicity. We’ve already learned how to push through societal angst; it’s ingrained in our nature.

To quote the great Shirley Chisolm, “The emotional, sexual, and psychological stereotyping of females begins when the doctor says: It's a girl.” Nature has always given us equal billing, but our nurturing has been course-corrected so many times over the centuries to deal with anguish over our gender and heritage. We’ve learned to internalize, navigate, speak out, uplift, fall down, pick ourselves up, fall in love and move along; so please understand that we’ve got no time for you to catch up.

Our femininity and parentage has been a subject of obsession for years and yet is the same armor we use to achieve our goals. Meghan is not a fish out of water as she is depicted to be or a ‘radical’ new in-law. She represents those who are “unbossed and unbought”, a woman who knows her value and is another example of the lives women of color lead all the time - not a ‘trophy of defiance’ to cause upheaval for the outside world’s titillation.

We make no apologies for your discomfort over our race, looks or relationship status. That awkward feeling you’re experiencing is of your own doing and it’s time to stop projecting your lack of understanding over the complexities of being an ‘exotic’ woman existing in this world. Meghan has not been elevated into a better social status, her status was already grounded in self-worth.

Same as the rest of us.