Tessy Ojo, the chief executive of the Diana Award who was a guest at Harry and Meghan’s May wedding, tells PEOPLE having a person of mixed race in the line of succession is “exciting.”
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Meghan’s mother,Doria Ragland, is Black, while her dadThomas Markleis white.
“While my mixed heritage may have created a grey area surrounding my self-identification, keeping me with a foot on both sides of the fence, I have come to embrace that,” Meghan wrote forEllein 2015. “To say who I am, to share where I’m from, to voice my pride in being a strong, confident mixed-race woman. That when asked to choose my ethnicity in a questionnaire as in my seventh grade class, or these days to check ‘Other,’ I simply say: ‘Sorry, world, this is notLostand I am not one of The Others. I am enough exactly as I am.’ ”
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Dr. Sarah E. Gaither, an assistant professor of psychology and neuroscience at Duke University who also runs the Duke Identity and Diversity Lab, previously told PEOPLE thatMeghan’s marriage into the royal family made her a cultural icon.
“The U.K. has one of the fastest-growing mixed-race populations in the world,” she said. “To the biracial community, she’s really serving as a symbol of this changing demographic that Britain is facing in addition to the United States.”
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Harry’s brother and his wife are“delighted” for the couple, the palace says.
Queen Elizabeth,Prince Philip,Prince Charlesand Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, have also expressed their joy over the news. Senior members of the royal family who were in attendance atPrincess Eugenie’s royal weddingon Friday were able to congratulate the couple in person.
source: people.com
