Black Lives Matter (BLM) co-founder Opal Tometi has reportedly called for a boycott of the Royal Family following Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s controversial interview with Oprah Winfrey.
Ms Tometi told news outletTMZ on Tuesday that people should stop standing-by the Royal Family, and called for a boycott of the institution, over claims by the couple that their son’s skin tone was called into question.
The duchess said during the interview that “concerns” were raised about the skin colour of their son Archie, who was born in May 2019.
She added there were “concerns and conversations about how dark his skin might be when he was born,” and that some of those conversations were “relayed to me from Harry.”
The claims were made during the CBS interview that first aired on Sunday night in the US, and on Monday in the UK. Ms Winfrey, the interviewer, said she was “shocked” by the claims.
The couple clarified that neither the Queen or her husband, Prince Phillip, were responsible for the remarks about Archie’s skin tone, Ms Winfrey added on Monday.
Ms Tometi reportedly told TMZ that the remarks about Archie’s skin tone shows that Black lives did not matter for the Royal Family, and that black women should be listened to — and believed — when they speak out about racism.
It follows revelations by the duchess that she was prevented from finding help for suicidal thoughts by royal aides, and that she felt as if she was being unfairly treated in the months of her first pregnancy.
Prince Harry added that racism was “a large part” of why the couple chose to step-down from royal duties last year, to leave the UK for the US, in previously unseen clips from the three hour long video.
The prince praised the Black Lives Matter movement in a virtual speech last year, and said that “institutional racism has no place in our societies, yet it is still endemic.”
“Unconscious bias must be acknowledged without blame to create a better world for all of you,” he added at the time.
Buckingham Palace is yet to issue a response to the interview.
