Meghan Markle and Prince Harry have been ‘quietly meeting’ with Black Lives Matter key players to ‘educate themselves’
MEGHAN Markle and Prince Harry have been ‘quietly meeting’ with organisations and individuals linked to the Black Lives Matter movement to ‘educate themselves.’
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have been having “private conversations” with people on all levels to ensure they understand current events.
This follows Meghan, 38, giving a heartfelt graduation address to pupils at her childhood school about the importance of speaking up after the death of black American George Floyd.
According to : “Both Meghan and Harry have been quietly having meetings behind the scenes with people on all levels to make sure that they are educated and connected to the issues of police brutality and the Black Lives Matter movement.
“This is something that is incredibly personal to Meghan, especially given everything she has experienced. And as a couple, it is, of course, very important. They are both feeling it, just like the rest of us.
"Harry and Meghan have been having private conversations with community leaders and people at every level, to ensure that they understand current events.”
George Floyd died on May 25 after being arrested for trying to use a fake $20 bill to buy cigarettes.
The unarmed black man died in police custody in Minneapolis, Minnesota, last week after a cop was filmed kneeling on his neck during his arrest.
The tragedy sparked widespread outrage and protests which have spread across the US and around the world.
In her poignant video this week about the protests, Meghan said: “George Floyd’s life mattered and Breonna Taylor’s life mattered and Philando Castile’s life mattered and Tamir Rice’s life mattered… and so did so many other people whose names we know and whose names we do not know.”
She added: “I wasn’t sure what I could say to you. I wanted to say the right thing and I was really nervous that it would get picked apart.
“And I realised the only wrong thing to say is to say nothing.”
The former Suits star also remembered living through the 1992 LA riots after the police beating of black man Rodney King.
She said: “I was 11 or 12 years old and it was the LA Riots, which was also triggered by senseless act of racism.
“I remember the curfew and I remember rushing back home and on that drive home, seeing ash fall from the sky and smelling the smoke and seeing the smoke billow out of buildings.
“I remember seeing men in the back of a van just holding guns and rifles.
“I remember pulling up at the house and seeing the tree, that had always been there, completely charred.
“And those memories don't go away.”
Before she was a duchess, Meghan previously spoke out about racism she herself has suffered being biracial - and spoke of the time her mum was called the n-word.
The then-actress Meghan, who had not yet married Prince Harry, adds in the poignant clip from 2012, that she hopes the world will have changed by the time she has kids.
The video is currently going viral, as protests against racial inequality continue in Britain as part of the Black Lives Matter movement.
Meghan’s video was shot as part of a #IWontStandForRacism campaign, and features the future duchess speaking about her own experiences.
She says: “For me I think it hits a really personal note. I’m biracial, most people can’t tell what I’m mixed with and so much of my life has felt like being a fly on the wall.
“And so some of the slurs I’ve heard, the really offensive jokes or the names, it has just hit me in a really strong way.
“A couple of years ago I heard someone call my mum the ‘n word’.
“So I think for me beyond being personally affected by racism, to see the landscape of what our country is like right now and certainly the world and to want things to be better.”
Meghan, whose dad Thomas Markle is Caucasian and her mum Doria Ragland is African American, spoke of the accepting world she wanted her future kids to grow up in.
She said: “I am really proud of my heritage on both sides, I’m really proud of where I’ve come from and where I’m coming.
“But yeah I hope by the time I have children that people are even more open-minded to how things are changing and that having a mixed world is what it’s all about.
“Certainly it makes it a lot more beautiful and a lot more interesting.”
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On Tuesday, George’s former partner over his death, saying their six-year-old will never be walked down the aisle by her father.
His daughter Gigi also appeared in a video where she proudly declares "!" after her dad’s death sparked a global protest movement.