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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Grant Jennings" data-source="post: 260836" data-attributes="member: 746">This has really opened my eyes. Prior to this I thought the royal family was benign, they were antiquated and didn't serve any real purpose but they didn't do any real harm. I thought of the Queen as the young woman who drove an army ambulance during WWII. I thought of Diana as the woman who held the hands of AIDS patients when anyone else would have been afraid to touch them. Surely, the good these people did, out of a sense of noblesse oblige, made up for the downside of having a monarchy into the 21st century.I've never been a fan of Oprah Winfrey. She was on one of my local TV stations (WJZ in Baltimore) when I was growing up. I remember when she got her syndicated talk show my Mom asked "how the Hell did she make the big time?!" I'm still not a fan of Winfrey - for many reasons.I questioned the logic of this interview. Why air family grievances in public? If Harry and Meghan want to leave the spotlight of being members of the royal family why are they sitting down for an interview with Oprah Winfrey? Isn't Meghan, a modestly successful actress, simply seeking the spotlight?I no longer think of the royal family as "benign", I don't even think of them as a "family". They are an "institution", "the firm", they are a business. Monarchy, with its emphasis on bloodlines, is inherently racist; people aren't judged on merit or accomplishment - only on their ancestry. I think the mistreatment Meghan has received is largely due to racism. I read a Buzzfeed article (I'll link it below) that compared 20 times Kate and Meghan did the same things; while Kate was praised in the most glowing terms, Meghan was strongly criticized. It reminded me of a similar article showing how the conservative media was harshly critical of Barack Obama for doing many of the same things their sainted Ronald Reagan had done (removing his suit jacket while in the Oval Office, putting his feet up on his desk and - oh the horror! - wearing a tan suit). Of course, politicians are subjected to criticism from the opposition but it usually isn't as ugly as what was directed at President Obama. What do Meghan Markle and Barack Obama have in common? Race.  I think Meghan and Harry were left with little choice but to agree to a sit-down television interview. Members of the royal family rarely agree to television interviews (except for Harry's Mum) but they wield great influence over the British tabloids. "The firm" has enough wealth and influence (and British libel laws are very different from those in the U.S.) that they could have put a stop to the vilification of Meghan in the tabloids - if they wanted to. Harry and Meghan had to respond to the frequent attacks in the press and the interview with Winfrey appeared to be the best way of doing that.Meghan appears to be naïve about what she was getting into when she married Harry, that doesn't justify the way she was mistreated. Harry probably could have done more to prepare Meghan for life as a royal. Again, that doesn't excuse his family or the press. When Meghan was in pain and needed help she reached out to H.R.! She's a member of a family, supposedly "the best family" in the country but instead of feeling like she could reach out to one of them (or one of them having enough empathy to realize she was in pain) she thought her only option was the Human Resources Department. I repeat, they are not a family.I think Winfrey did a good, not great, job interviewing Harry and Meghan. Winfrey obviously was chosen for the interview based on her reputation, not her skills. She should have dug deeper with her questions and asked more follow-up questions. But Winfrey did what she really set out to do: she got ratings and she has generated a lot of attention in the media. The next time a public figure wants to spill their guts in public, Winfrey will be the interviewer they choose.Hopefully this interview has helped clear the air about a few things. Piers Morgan is now out of a job, if nothing else happens as a result of this I'll still score it a "win". Is this the "final nail in the coffin" for the monarchy? Probably not but I hope I live long enough to see it come to an end.[URL unfurl="true"]https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/ellievhall/meghan-markle-kate-middleton-double-standards-royal[/URL]</blockquote>

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