From Suits to Royals: The politics of Meghan Markle's racial ambiguity

Abstract

Meghan Markle's ascension into the Royal family and subsequent exit caused a media flurry at the same time as sparking conversations about race, royalty, and representation. Markle's public persona as biracial locates her at the nexus of racial and class politics. We analyze her self-definition and presentation in contrast to her reception by media outlets and the public and present the biracial identity as both transgressive and limited. We question the concepts of race and royalty as fixed categories and explore how biracial identity offers a possibility for an ambiguous middleground. In this article, we consider how Markle's biraciality is contextualized within contemporary portrayals of black and multiracial individuals in the media. We analyze popular media representations of Markle to reveal the significance of the discursive debate over her public identity. We argue that Markle's biraciality is a demonstration of her agency in shaping the public perception of her racial identity that challenges biological constructions of race. At the same time, her inability to transcend racial classification reveals the limitations of an individual's ability to control and define their public persona.