Prince Harry calls on ‘every single person on the planet’ to help tackle racism
All of us have a role to play in helping to defeat racism, Prince Harry has said in a candid new virtual interview with a civil rights campaigner.
The Duke of Sussex praised younger generations for acting on, rather than just speaking about, the problem and insisted it’s not just ‘down to the black community’ to have to deal with it.
The royal was being interviewed by Rashad Robinson, the president of the Color of Change initiative and a clip is being shared online ahead of the full video being released.
In the clip, Rashard said: ‘Part of this work, part of this moment that we’re in, is that making sure from analysis to action that we drive action toward structural and systemic change. Changing the rules that have held people back.’
Harry responds: ‘You say this so beautifully Rashard, and it’s so true. There’s so much that has happened for so long and once those problems exist, charity is crucial in so many areas but it can’t fix the problem. The problems already exist, and are too big.
‘As I’ve said to you before, it’s like bringing a bucket of water to a forest fire.
He added: ‘We have to go to the root of the problem, the source of the problem, and actually fix it there.’
‘As we’ve discussed before, it is going to take every single one of us, this is not down to the black community, it’s going to take every single person on the planet right now.’
The prince has spent much of lockdown living in Tyler Perry’s $14 million mansion in Beverly Hills with Meghan Markle, 39, and their son Archie, one.
The couple stepped back from senior royal duties earlier this year in order to concentrate of their charity work.
The clip of the interview was shared over the weekend on Instagram with the caption: ‘Inequality is not unfortunate like a car accident, it has been manufactured.’
It trails the interview which is said to be ‘coming soon’ and will feature conversation about ‘systemic racism, hate online and people with privilege, using their privilege for change.’
In the clip Prince Harry is also heard speaking in support of young people who he said are ‘leading the movement’.
He said: ‘To be led by the younger generation and to act rather than just say, it’s like okay so you’ve said it and now you’ve got to follow through with it.’
Harry’s comments come as the authors of the couple’s upcoming biography, Finding Freedom, claimed Meghan has helped him become much more attuned to racism as part of what’s been described as his ‘public journey to wokeness.’
One of the authors of the book, Omid Scobie, spoke on National Public Radio in the United States about how Harry became ‘woke.’
Mr Scobie said: ‘Harry’s journey to wokeness has been very public. We’ve seen him learning and educating himself along the way, but this experience of witnessing Meghan face racist remarks and commentary would have been the first time he’d seen someone in his life or someone he was particularly close to affected by it in a certain way.
‘We talk about some of the more obvious examples in some of the media coverage but I think that the things that have flown under the radar are some of the othering of Meghan we’ve seen.’
‘We’ve sort of seen it repeatedly that she’s not one of us. And now, what do they mean by not one of us?
‘And I think there are things like that which Harry’s really had to become more attuned to and learn to see when it happens in front of him. And Meghan would have been the person that guided him on that journey.’
Mr Scobie was speaking just two days before Finding Freedom is released on August 11. The biography is widely claimed to be giving the side of Harry and Meghan about why they quit the Royal family and the authors have been given extensive access to the couple’s inner circle.
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