Royal biographer uses Meghan Markle interview to whine about ‘white minorities being silenced’
Anna Pasternak speaking on BBC Breakfast (Twitter/@BBC Breakfast)
Meghan Markle’s Oprah interview has so shaken one royal biographer that she actually claimed “white minorities” like her are being silenced – on national TV.
There were unfathomable scenes on BBC Breakfast Monday morning (8 March) as royal biographer Anna Pasternak clashed with lawyer and activist Dr Shola Mos-Shogbamimu over allegations of racial hostility from the Royal Family.
Meghan and Prince Harry’s interview with Oprah saw the couple detail mistreatment from within “The Firm”, alleging a member of the Royal Family shared concerns about “how dark” their son Archie’s skin tone would be while Meghan was still pregnant with him, and that the palace dismissed the Duchess of Sussex when she was experiencing suicidal ideation.
Pasternak shrugged off the damning exposé as “a very soft-serving, soapy interview in Meghan’s favour”, disregarding the well-documented examples of racism in the tabloid press to focus instead on the Duchess of Sussex’s character.
“Nobody asked her about her relationship with her father, nobody asked her [about] the astonishing fact that she only had one member of her family at her wedding,” she said.
“This is a woman who seems to make a habit of falling out with people, but none of Meghan’s real behaviour was questioned. It was an absolute exercise in torching the House of Windsor.”
Dr Mos-Shogbamimu returned to the central point – that the Royal Family as an institution is “rooted in racism and white supremacy” – and questioned why the matter of Meghan’s wedding guests was relevant to anything.
“It says an awful lot about her character,” Pasternak replied, before offering viewers an insight into her own character.
“This is not necessarily just about colour, this is about character – and anyone like me who is white, privileged and well-educated is not able to say anything without it being viewed as racist,” she complained.
“This is not, I don’t think, all about racism. I think a lot of this is about character, but we as a white minority nowadays are silenced from being able to speak our truth because then it’s immediately labelled as racist.”
The sheer obliviousness of a white woman complaining to be a silenced minority while addressing a national audience on a primetime TV show was exactly as infuriating as it sounds, and Dr Mos-Shogbamimu was having none of it.
“You are not being silenced by anybody, because after all the majority of voices for the longest time has been the white majority voice,” she hit back. “The fact that more ethnic minorities are speaking out does not mean you are being silenced.”
With Pasternak attempting to speak over her, she continued: “Should we be silenced? Should we be experiencing racism everyday in all of its connotations because you feel fragile? That makes no sense to me.”
“You’re certainly not being silenced,” Pasternak replied sardonically, still completely devoid of irony.
Anna Pasternak continued to be silenced in another nationally-syndicated broadcast on BBC 5 Live later that morning. Meanwhile Dr Shola Mos-Shogbamimu went and dragged Piers Morgan by the few remaining follicles left on his head.
In an email to PinkNews, Pasternak confirmed she is “whole-heartedly” against racism and agreed that it is “rife in our society”, but maintained that she too is a victim as a “white, posh, privileged, well-educated woman”.
“In many areas of society and many times a week, I am judged adversely for being who I am. It is regularly assumed by others that I am racist because of who I am. It would not be possible for me to get a job in the BBC or many other major corporations because I am too white, too posh and too privileged,” she claimed.
“I also vote for the Conservative party which is a great sin, given my background; more so than the Conservative-voting docker or miner who lives in the North of England. The latter tends to be labelled ignorant rather than elitist.”
Pasternak went on to say that the “understandably fierce” reaction to racism can make it difficult to have a productive debate, and criticised Mos-Shogbamimu – “a powerful Black woman in her prime” – for not giving her enough space.
“My colleague, Dr Shola Mos-Shogbamimu, had more air time and consistently spoke over me whilst the presenters were clearly cautious and fearful of being seen to interrupt a powerful Black woman in her prime,” she said.
“My tribe, which is white, posh, privileged and well-educated regularly feel marginalised and silenced by the woke majority. Many would argue that this is a reasonable and valuable experience given the undoubted marginalisation and abuse meted out to others by this tribe in the past. However, it is odd to correct one imbalanced abusive relationship with another.”
