Meghan Markle Bullies Met Their Match After New Attacks Online
Opinion: Enough is enough. Let’s talk about Meghan Markle and her loveless online haters.
On November 27, 2017, the world was “shook” with the announcement of the engagement of actress Meghan Markle and the most eligible bachelor in the world for some, Prince Harry.
Official photos from Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s wedding have been released pic.twitter.com/KLDSSsE3ab
— pop culture (@postbestfshn) May 21, 2018
Harry and Meghan arrived for a photo call in the Sunken Garden of Kensington Palace with the news, adding that the wedding would occur in spring 2018. While many were excited that Harry would marry an educated and beautiful woman, it was not lost on me that she was a biracial Black American a few years his senior and how others would receive her. For those who knew, we smirked a bit because we knew, without a doubt, that the haters clutching their pearls were forthcoming.
Never would we have imagined what we saw in the UK press after they married, which was a full-court racist deluge of racial slurs, stereotypes, and mockery to the point that the royal couple sued the UK media, won, and moved to California during the pandemic and ultimately stepped away from Royal duties.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle sue a British tabloid as the Duke of Sussex launches an attack on "bullying" press. "I cannot begin to describe how painful it has been," he says. https://t.co/IGtCKLOpzI pic.twitter.com/J2vX9kcTl2
— CBS News (@CBSNews) October 2, 2019
Most already know every bit of the couple’s story, from their Netflix and Spotify deals to their sit-down interview with Oprah, in which they both opened up about life in the UK, the racist allegations against the press, and issues within the Royal Family.
Since moving to California four years ago, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have sheltered Archie, 5, and Lilibet, 3, from the public eye. Not many photos of their kids have been shared publicly. https://t.co/hdz1epXctQ
— The Seattle Times (@seattletimes) October 9, 2024
What many don’t, who aren’t spending their time on X or other social media apps, is that Meghan is indeed, as she puts it, one of the most bullied women online and both Meghan and Prince Harry have been very vocal about their mental health struggles. So much so that even our reporting or social posts on Meghan are riddled with vile, explicit, and vulgar memes and comments from people who have no chill at this point; from the comments, many think that if they trash her online, they can stop Meghan from having any branding capabilities. But they are wrong.
There are more positive comments and support for Meghan online than ever before and it was refreshing to see so many supporters unite behind our outlet standing up to their negativity. What they underestimate is the resilience of Black women to keep persevering despite those who wish us harm. Love and kindness will always outshine hate.
@glittermagazine is calling out the haters in the comments. FOLLOWED. https://t.co/2YjNn5JrvB
— PhlyGerl (@PhlyGerl) October 13, 2024
And for those who want to challenge whether Meghan is a Black woman, in my own words, “they can take several seats.” As someone who is Black and Ukrainian like myself, there has never been one person who stated I was Ukrainian. People see me as a Black woman, and I identify as a Black woman, and no one can tell me otherwise. They can scream it until they are blue in the face, but they are only wasting their time. It’s the same vile conversation that is happening with VP Kamala Harris with Donald Trump and other online commenters challenging her ethnicity. They can keep losing their voice in vain, chanting into the void, and we can keep dumbing them down to exactly what it is: their irrelevant opinion.
You reaching for damn Pluto .. Megan Markle’s mother is a whole Carmel colored natural hair wearing black woman pic.twitter.com/BHAGUCN8yU
— Strawberricurls (@StrawberriCurls) November 28, 2017
Larissa May, founder of #HalfTheStory, a nonprofit focused on improving young people and how they engage with technology, shared personal conversations that Meghan had with a group of teens while visiting the nonprofit Girls Inc. in Santa Barbara, California, this month.
Dreams come true.
— Larissa May (@livinlikeLARZ) October 11, 2024
For all the girls out there, if a girl from the Midwest can do this, you can too.#InternationalDayoftheGirl2024 @pivotalventures @girls_inc pic.twitter.com/2TJDj8Ig3w
“We did an activity where we talked through a bunch of scenarios, and Meghan talked about being one of the most bullied people in the world,” May stated to Vanity Fair. “We had girls wave these little emoji signs and talk about how each one of these scenarios would have impacted them emotionally,” she added.
Online harassment is nothing new, and that’s why our team at Glitter started our ‘Self-Love Campaign’ in 2015. This campaign sparked a movement worldwide where brands, celebrities, and fans came together to share what self-love means to them. We reached over 300 million eyes, and to this day, we ignited the hashtag #SelfLove, which was not a part of mainstream conversations and pop culture until our launch.
What’s happening now, is that not only are Meghan’s haters posting vile messages about her, but they are also sending hateful messages to our outlet for sharing news on Meghan, which is reaching our fans and fans of Girls Inc. Taking it a step further, they have now verbally attacked our staff. Our response: “Love yourself.”
In honor of International Day of the Girl, Meghan Markle, The Duchess of Sussex, visited Girls Inc. of Greater Santa Barbara.#MeghanMarkIe #GirlsInc #InternationalDayOfTheGirl pic.twitter.com/dYwYzP8Gvs
— Glitter Magazine (@glittermagazine) October 11, 2024
Here at Glitter, we pride ourselves on standing up to hate and bullying, sharing inspiration with our fans, and speaking out when appropriate online. Haters do not have a free pass to threaten us or anyone else. If you’ve learned anything from Meghan’s situation, it’s to clap back at haters like a kindergarten school teacher and let these bullies know that their time is up.
While we don’t know Meghan, our outlet will not stand by silently as these hate-fueled accounts use photos of her as a child or her children to mock her natural hair, to state explicit slurs, or to harass her every movement on our social timelines. While some of these posts are made by what seems to be bot farms, many of them are from accounts of women who should know better, including grandmothers, which is really just sad. When hate consumes someone, it’s like a drug; they just can’t let it go.
Black women, in general, receive some of the most hateful comments online from Leslie Jones, Normani, Michelle Obama, and Kamala Harris, who has in the past days been allegedly called “r*tarded” and a “dummy” on camera by Donald Trump, to Meghan, Duchess of Sussex. Yet Black women are out educating all other demos and thriving. As a Black female, I have experienced frivolous bots online attacking any and everything I have an opinion on, including film and politics, and I have no problem pushing back. That’s all they are: sad and miserable people hiding behind fake profile pics and thinking that they have power when they are just weak-minded online wannabe bullies.
This message isn’t rocket science; this is just a simple message to young women, especially Black and brown women: do not let anyone silence your voice, push you into a corner, or scare you with their vile memes and hate. It’s also a message to haters that “we aren’t here for you.” The internet is getting more appalling by the minute, with trolls coming out of the woodwork when they see those they want to look down upon living their best life. So keep rising and shining, and know that you can always hit that block button but also “clap back.”
Text CONNECT to 741741 if you need free, confidential, 24/7 mental health support.
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