Wootton: The Cambridges’ disastrous colonialist tour is all Duchess Meghan’s fault

It was the most predictable thing ever, and every single one of us knew that it would happen as soon as the Keen Caribbean Tour morphed into the Racist Colonizer Caribbean Tour. As soon as the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s tone-deaf words and imagery from their colonialist holiday were exposed, of course someone was going to blame Meghan. Of course this would all be Meghan’s fault, somehow. Meghan is minding her business and raising her children in Montecito, but Dan Wootton is still trying to drag her into Buttons & Incandescent’s gigantic mess. Wootton even begins his column with “Imagine Prince William’s fury.” Yeah, we get it, Dan. That dude is always full of fury. Do y’all think that’s why Jamaica is like “we don’t want to still be around when that guy is king”? Some lowlights from Wootton’s unhinged Daily Mail column, “Shame on Meghan Markle as her propagandists use the fantasy that the Royal Family is racist to derail Wills and Kate’s Jamaican tour and destroy the Commonwealth.”

Wootton actually typed out “yawn” here: “As his royal tour to Jamaica with Kate is increasingly overshadowed by a toxic row over local calls for reparations to compensate for British colonialism (yawn), it’s the words of his own sister-in-law being weaponised against the Royal Family. In fact, Meghan Markle’s pack of lies to her nodding BFF Oprah Winfrey suggesting the monarchy is a racist institution and casting doubt on its senior members is now providing a significant boost to the fast-moving republican cause in Jamaica at the worst possible moment.

This brings up the question about why the royals didn’t firmly deny it: “This was always the concern of senior courtiers when Meghan’s claim to Oprah about a so-called unnamed ‘royal racist’ who asked about her unborn baby’s skin colour went unchallenged: Republicans across the Commonwealth would try to use the claims to bring the Queen’s reign to an end in the monarch’s twilight years. That’s exactly what’s happening – and campaigners are using the media attention around William and Kate’s trip to inflict maximum damage.

A nightmare scenario: ‘This was the nightmare scenario after Meghan’s Oprah lies – now it’s coming true,’ says a concerned royal insider.

Wootton attacks Reparations advocate Bert Samuels: Samuels told Newsweek: ‘Jamaicans were very torn up to hear about Harry and Meghan’s issue, and Harry and Meghan’s interview with Oprah Winfrey, and that has torn us. That’s William’s brother, that’s his nephew, and for Harry to have been treated the way he was, and worse yet Meghan.The Jamaicans are very hurt by the treatment of an African American woman in that family. William needs to speak to that when he comes and as it were, he should come here with an apology, not only for slavery but for the treatment of a black woman who had to run out of the palace with her husband. That’s a strong issue and that’s a fresh wound.’

Wootton corrects the ‘record’ about why the Sussexit happened: As the journalist who broke the most stories about former Suits star Meghan’s tumultuous time in the Royal Family, including the Sussexes decision to Megxit, it’s utter hogwash to suggest her race played any role in the ensuing rows. Meghan wasn’t pushed out of the Royal Family because of ethnicity and to even countenance such a fantasy is irresponsible. In fact, she was given a huge amount of support from the Queen down but scarpered because, as a pampered actress used to assistants giving into her every whim, she wanted to return to the comfort of Hollywood and make the serious big bucks she thought she deserved. Meghan soon realised a life of service wasn’t for her. She had zero interest in supporting the Royal Family and zero interest in the Commonwealth, but cared a whole lot about her bank balance and celebrity status.

Kate was “rudely snubbed”: That came hot on the heels of Lisa Hanna, a former Miss World turned politician with the People’s National Party, a republican who has campaigned for reparations, rudely snubbing Kate during yesterday’s ceremonial arrival.

The “question of reparations”: I think there’s zero chance of that happening, which is why it’s unconscionable for public sentiment to be whipped up using total falsehoods propagated by Meghan to Oprah. After all, in the year since the CBS interview, claim after claim has been resolutely debunked, resulting in the Queen’s extraordinary statement that ‘recollections may vary’ and William publicly stating furiously that ‘we are very much not a racist family’. That said, the Duke of Cambridge is a modern man acutely aware of Britain’s history and he will do his best to show Jamaicans he has listened to their concerns.

[From The Daily Mail]

There are a million things to discuss, but I’m really struck by “This was always the concern of senior courtiers when Meghan’s claim to Oprah about a so-called unnamed ‘royal racist’ who asked about her unborn baby’s skin colour went unchallenged…” So… why didn’t they challenge it? They launched a full-scale smear campaign against Meghan before the Oprah interview even happened, they were all perfectly capable of coming up with a reasonable explanation for why and how Meghan “lied.” All we’ve gotten in the past year is vague theories about who did and did not say it and why, if someone did say it, they didn’t mean it in a racist way, it was just an innocent question!

It’s also notable to me that Wootton feels like the inflection point was Meghan *reacting* to the racism she experienced, not the racism itself. It’s not the fact that numerous senior royals have long histories of racist words and behavior, it’s that Meghan left and then spoke about racism. Throughout Meghan’s time on Salt Island, there were those of us taking the wider view and saying “the world is watching how salty racist British people treat Meghan” but they wouldn’t listen, and what’s happening on the Cambridges’ disastrous tour is evidence that Meghan’s treatment was not forgotten. The royals and the royal machine thought they could control the narrative the entire way and merely smear and discredit Meghan to the point where no one would believe what she said. But in the act of smearing and discrediting her, people like Wootton proved Meghan’s claims.

Photos courtesy of Instar, Backgrid.