A few weeks after Meghan Markle spoke out about the death of George Floyd in a recorded address to high school graduates, she and Prince Harry are already starting to back up their words with actions. Their Wednesday visit to Homeboy Industries, a Los Angeles gang intervention non-profit, seemed like a regular royal visit, albeit with some masks and hairnets. But behind-the-scenes, they’ve been responding rapidly to the victim of a potential hate crime and reaching out to CEOs to make some political changes— all things that might have been much harder for them to do were they still senior royals.
On Saturday, Meghan made a call to Althea Bernstein, a Wisconsin woman who was the victim of an alleged racist attack last week, to give her some encouragement. According to Madison365, Bernstein, a 18-year-old paramedic, was driving in Madison when men shouting racial slurs sprayed her face with lighter fluid and threw a lighter at her. She suffered second- and third-degree burns on her face and neck.
Meghan was connected with Bernstein by Michael Johnson, Bernstein’s spokesperson and the president of the Dade County Boys and Girls Club, after he mentioned her story during a call. “She applauded [Bernstein] for the way that she responded,” Johnson told Madison’s Channel3000 news on Sunday. “[Meghan] pretty much said, ‘Hey, Michael, give me her cellphone number. I want to stay in touch. And let me know when you want me to come back and talk to people in Wisconsin.’”
According to Johnson, Meghan and Bernstein connected over their shared biracial heritage and discussed their faith. Meghan also mentioned the importance of self-care, a topic she’s mentioned in conversations with the victims of violence in the past. “[Bernstein]’s struggling. It’s a challenge for her, it’s very, very emotional,” Johnson said. “I talked to her three or four times today, and I’ll tell you Meghan lifted her spirits.”
Since leaving the royal family, Meghan and Harry have been in touch with business leaders and philanthropy experts, but now it seems like they’re using their connections to help with activism. On Saturday, Axios reported that the couple has gotten involved with the #stophateforprofit campaign, a group of civil rights organizations urging advertisers to boycott Facebook for their failure to curb hate speech. According to the outlet, Meghan and Harry have used conversations with CEOs to promote the campaign and explain how hateful content spreads online. When their new charity Archewell launches, they are reportedly planning to continue working on online health and safety.
Ever since Meghan became a Duchess in 2018, she’s used some of the royal family’s usual tactics when it comes to interacting with members of the public, mainly allying yourself with institutions that do work you’re proud of and interacting face-to-face with people who are directly affected. While Meghan and Harry were working as senior royals, that meant they weren’t allowed to talk about politics or get involved in controversial issues. Though they’ve long been interested in mental health and social media, a pressure campaign against speech on Facebook likely would have fallen outside of that mandate.
Now that the couple is in America, and the pandemic is limiting their ability to travel or do in-person meetings without protective equipment, they are putting their own spin on the traditional playbook. It’s a coincidence that Meghan and Harry found themselves in the United States right as a new, urgent conversation about race is getting started. But so far, they have used some of their new freedom to advocate for the some of the same causes in a drastically different way.
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— How Meghan Markle Decided to Finally Speak Out About George Floyd
— Nikkita Oliver on Seattle’s Extraordinary Protests and What Comes Next
— Where J.K. Rowling’s Transphobia Comes From
— From the Archive: The Origin of “Strange Fruit,” Billie Holiday’s Ballad Against Racism
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