Contrary to what the liberal gushing might suggest, Meghan Markle marrying Prince Harry and joining the royal family is a very modest step forward for racial equality.
The much bigger issue is that for the foreseeable future the UK’s head of state can never be black. The hereditary system excludes by default the possibility that the symbol of the nation could be non-white. This is a form of institutional racism.
No one is suggesting that the royal family are racist, but the current method of appointing the head of state is racist by default. Although it was not devised with racist intent, it reflects an institutional racism, where the system of appointment favours one race over others. This is not compatible with the democratic, multicultural, egalitarian and meritocratic ethos of modern British life.
One of the drawbacks of our constitutional system is that the monarch is our head of state. The only person eligible to be monarch, and therefore head of state, is the first-born of the all-white Windsor family.
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