HOW FOR MANY INTERRACIAL COUPLES, MEGHAN AND HARRY INTERVIEW ABOUT RACISM STIRS PAINFUL MEMORIES! (2413 hits)
For Immediate Release!
Days after Teresa and Stephan Beall's son was born 17 years ago, she remembers some of her husband's white relatives stopping by to see baby Ryan, who was swaddled in his bassinet.
She thought to herself: And so it begins.
The exchange came to mind Sunday night as Teresa and Stephan Beall, an interracial couple in Brandywine, Maryland, watched Oprah Winfrey’s highly anticipated two-hour interview with Prince Harry and Duchess Meghan. During the interview, Meghan said she and her husband were told during her first pregnancy that her son, Archie, could not get royal security without a title. She said unnamed palace officials had expressed “concerns” about the color of the unborn baby’s skin.
"In those months when I was pregnant, and at the same time there was talk about no title, no security, and also conversations about how dark his skin might be when born,” said the duchess, who identifies as biracial and has a Black mother and white father.
"In those months when I was pregnant, and at the same time there was talk about no title, no security, and also conversations about how dark his skin might be when born,” said the duchess, who identifies as biracial and has a Black mother and white father.
Meghan and Harry would not elaborate further, though Winfrey said Monday on "CBS This Morning" that Harry said neither Queen Elizabeth nor Prince Philip were involved in those conversations.
The comments appeared to resonate with many Americans who have dated outside their race, some of whom took to social media to describe similar moments of racism or discomfort they encountered while interacting with their loved one's relatives.
Teresa Beall, who has been married for 31 years, said the Duchess of Suss*x's comments came as no surprise, and she suspects Meghan probably will face similar experiences in the future.
“She’s definitely telling the truth,’’ said Beall, 51. “I felt bad for her.”
Living as a hyphenated American
The interview with the Duke and Duchess of Suss*x, who stepped away from their duties as senior British royals in January 2020, drew 17.1 million viewers – the highest audience thus far this TV season for a non-sports broadcast. It came just weeks after the couple announced they were expecting their second child.
In the interview, Meghan said the stress and isolation of living as a member of the royal family was so crushing it prompted thoughts of suicide.
"I didn't want to be alive anymore," she said, overcome with emotion. "I was ashamed to admit it to Harry, but I knew if I didn't say it, I would do it. I just didn’t want to be alive anymore. It was clear, it was real, it was frightening, and it was a constant thought."
Casey Mendoza, a Chicago-based journalist, said she was surprised by how much she related to Meghan. A 26-year-old Filipino American, Mendoza said she also was welcomed into her partner's privileged white family, who were unfamiliar with the experience of living as a hyphenated American, “where you are constantly never enough of one thing.”
Mendoza is engaged to be married next year to her fiance, Kyle Connor, who is white. While both families have supported their eight-year relationship, she said, it can be taxing to explain microaggressions.
“They aren’t malicious moments, but they are exhausting,” she said, adding that one of her biggest fears “is not knowing how to raise a biracial child.” 'Staring is its own form of violence'
Romantic partnerships have become increasingly diverse in the United States, but marriages between white and Black Americans remain rare.
In 1967, when miscegenation laws were overturned in the United States, 3% of all newlyweds were married to someone of a different race or ethnicity, as reported by the Pew Research Center.
About 10% of all married households are interracial or interethnic, according to the U.S. Census. Most are between white and Hispanic Americans, an ethnic group that largely identifies as white. Just 11% of interracial marriages are between Black people and white people.
Aurora Archer, 53, an entrepreneur, was born nine months after the Supreme Court decision that allowed for interracial marriage. Her father is African American and her mother is Mexican.
Archer, who identifies as Afro-Latina, is raising two mixed-race children, ages 20 and 18, with her white husband who immigrated from Ireland. She said she was so enraptured by the Winfrey interview, she watched it twice nearly on the verge of tears.
“I hope it brings self-awareness about the underlying impact of race,” said Archer, who lives in the suburbs of Philadelphia.
She said one of her most painful experiences as the mother of biracial children is being dismissed by coworkers or acquaintances who have said her children take after their dad while praising them.
