The Duchess of Sussex Weighs in on Inequality and American Government

I did not initially plan on writing my thoughts about Meghan’s speech.  For one, my news didn’t spend hardly any time covering it, so I wasn’t as inundated as I was with Harry’s disastrous Commonwealth Talk.  Instead, I was mainly overwhelmed with posts on my Instagram explore page.  I was surprised to see how many people said that Meghan’s speech was inspiring, but more surprised to see anyone thought it was good.  Now, I may be biased because I’ve been trained in trial advocacy, so I am very critical of public speaking but even past those issues, the speech had so many moments where I thought “why are you qualified to give this information?”  So let’s dig in!

 

Failure to Launch

 

Meghan started by talking about her recent speech to high school graduates at Immaculate Heart, her alma mater.  To me this screamed that she was trying to establish some shred of credibility.  As if she was saying, “look, I talked about George Floyd and rebuilding our society last month, it was such a success so now I’m addressing you!”  It was tacky and poorly executed.  In comparison, Hillary Clinton and Michelle Obama just started their speeches by mentioning the work done by Girl Up groups across the world.  Neither woman stopped to establish her credibility, and frankly, neither one needed to.  Meghan however needed to, or at least felt that it was necessary.  And it really detracted from what should have been a strong opening.

 

I also think this was evidence that she is constantly reading news coverage on herself.  Why else would she bring up her recent successful speech?  It’s because she still feels the need to point at herself and say “look how successful I am! I’m doing so great.  I’m such a humanitarian.”  It just didn’t really resonate. 

 

Call Outs to People in Power

 

Meghan then started telling her teenage audience that people in places of power; executives, legislators, prime ministers and others all need teenage girls more than teenage girls need them.  This is true to an extent; many companies rely on adolescent purchases to stay afloat.  And they are a very lucrative market.  However, to tell these young women that they don’t need legislators just doesn’t sit well with me.  Executives and businesspeople, sure.  No one really needs them, but young people by and large need to know their legislators and need to have a dialogue with them. 

 

She also heralded these young women for creating an equitable society.  I agree that they deserve to be lauded for this work, however, I don’t think a Duchess who constantly reminds us that she is still royal is the correct person to talk about equity and fairness.  Because Meghan is profiting off of inequality every day.  The allowance she and Harry are literally surviving off of right now?  Its inequitable that they get this and not the citizens of the Duchy of Cornwall.  But we definitely will not see them give this money up anytime soon because their commercial enterprises have by and large failed. They’ll have to keep depending on Prince Charles indefinitely it appears.  This moment was just another moment in an endless cycle for Markle in which she proves herself to be a hypocrite. 

 

She also says that her audience needs to demand faster change from government.  Which is an incredibly immature statement in my opinion.  I can’t speak for other countries, but in America the fact that our government operates slowly is secretly a blessing in disguise.  It’s frustrating when there are social issues that need to be addressed quickly, but honestly having a slow federal government actually works to secure democracy and prevents hostile takeover by those with criminal intent.  In other words, America’s paper pushers actually do the citizens a great service by protecting our democracy. 

 

Teenagers likely don’t understand this, and I honestly didn’t until I went to law school and it became abundantly clear that there are various benefits to a slow government.  Thus, young people are unlikely to understand the nuance of the benefits of it.  But Meghan as an almost (or over, it’s still up for debate) forty-year-old woman should understand that governmental change is slow.  This is to allow input from as many people as possible, public opinion on legislation and policy change and other processes which present voters with ways to hold our leaders accountable. 

 

Then there was her infamous “we have to be uncomfortable in order to have real representation” phrase.  Once again, I’m not sure the Duchess of Sussex is who I need lecturing me on how to best go about representative democracy.  Plus, if you’re going to comment on American politics, I think you should ditch your British Peerage title and use your real name like everyone else.  Our constitution abolished titles and our society doesn’t care if you’re a Duchess or a Dumbarton, just use your name and stop hiding behind your royal credentials. 

 

Digs at the Royal Family

 

Unlike her court documents, her insults to the royal family were much more understated.  I was surprised because I assumed, she would call the whole family sexist, even though the Queen is celebrated as one of the best female leaders in history.  Her first dig was when she said that those in power won’t listen until they have to.  I think this was an insult to the royal family for failing to protect her from true stories in the press.  All I’ll say is that the Queen doesn’t have to listen to anybody, but in the wake of Diana’s tragic loss and Fergie’s life imploding, the Queen does listen more to junior members of the royal family and tries very hard to welcome and support them.  She will not refute true stories however, nor should she.

 

Towards the end of the speech Meghan states that her audience shouldn’t be afraid to stand up for what is right, even when it scares them.  Likely this is in reference to her leaving the royal family, another sly dig as if she couldn’t stand up for her convictions when she was part of the firm.  When you look at her behavior since leaving her royal role it’s unclear what convictions she needed to stand up for.  So far, she has boxed up and delivered food, something she could easily do as a member of the royal family, she has attacked the British media for simply reporting on her, and she has made ignorant and childish remarks about royal family members.  Not quite the most stellar of convictions.

 

She then says that these girls must chase their convictions just like she did.  Once again, I’m asking, what convictions?  Meghan is currently unemployed and couch surfing in Los Angeles with no functional foundation, no revenue stream and seemingly no drive to change anything. 

 

I guess I’m just in shock that Girl Up chose Meghan for this summit.  If this was a paying gig, why not hire a talented anti-racist educator to allow these young women further insight into racial justice and inequality in society?  Instead they chose a vapid Duchess whose only goal is to make loads of money and profit as much as she can from her royal title.  As I pointed out, it seems so counterintuitive to have someone who is titled “Her Royal Highness” telling us about justice and fairness.  The world only knows who Meghan is because she married into the royal family.