How Meghan Markle Became Clickbait
The British royal family is a global symbol of Whiteness. As an emblem of white supremacy, their supporters despise the biracial Dutchess with a passion. That Meghan Markle outshines them all at every turn further rubs salt into bruised egos. Speaking through their tabloid allies, the palace hounds are out for blood.
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Many people watched almost the entire first season of ‘Suits’ and had no idea the actress playing Rachel Zane was mixed-race. The first hint that Meghan Markle might be ‘Blackish’ came when Wendell Pierce arrived to play her on-screen father. The next we knew, the American actress was dating Prince Harry, with headlines like “Harry’s girl is (almost) straight outta Compton”. In other words, “ghetto.”
With her ‘exotic DNA’, the British public presumed Meghan Markle would be one of Harry’s short-term lovers. However, long before Meghan came on the scene, Black Brits had often joked about how Harry liked a bit of chocolate. He is, after all, more like his mother, we’d argue. So we realised pretty quickly the seriousness of their relationship when the Prince issued an official statement addressing “the racial undertones of comment pieces, and the outright sexism and racism of social media trolls and web article comments” about his girlfriend. Touché.
Harry and Meghan’s engagement surprised the British media, and the tabloids went into another feeding frenzy. Meghan Markle was by then the most searched for term throughout the UK in 2017, and the press would later use her popularity to their advantage. The first rule of content marketing is to know what your audience is searching for and create content to feed their appetite. The press may have cut down on overtly racist and sexist articles, but they hadn’t stopped feeding hungry trolls with negative stories about Harry’s girl. Instead, they would leave the racism to the good British public and anyone who cared to write offensive comments.
