- Netflix's "Harry & Meghan" addresses controversial incidents related to racism and the monarchy.
- Princess Michael of Kent wore a Blackamoor brooch, an art style widely regarded as racist by historians, in 2018.
Netflix's "Harry & Meghan" docuseries addresses several controversial incidents related to racism and the monarchy, including the time Princess Michael of Kent wore a Blackamoor brooch to an event with Meghan Markle in 2018.
Princess Michael of Kent, formerly known as Baroness Marie-Christine von Reibnitz, married Queen Elizabeth's first cousin Prince Michael of Kent in 1978.
In 2018, she made headlines when she wore a Blackamoor brooch — a style of art widely regarded as racist by art curators and historians — to the Queen's Christmas lunch where Meghan was also in attendance.
Blackamoor is a style of art that often depicts people with dark skin in subservient positions
The style dates back to Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries. It's considered controversial because the motif features exoticized portrayals of enslaved Africans and servants, Awam Amkpa, associate professor of Drama and Africana Studies at NYU, previously told Insider.
Princess Michael subsequently apologized through a spokesperson.
"The brooch was a gift and had been worn many times before. Princess Michael is very sorry and distressed that it has caused offense," her representative said in a statement in 2018.
It was not the first time Princess Michael had been at the center of a controversy regarding racism
In 2004, a group of Black patrons at a New York restaurant said the princess told them to "go back to the colonies" during an argument about their noise level, the New York Post reported at the time.
Lord John Taylor of Warwick, who served as Britain's first Black government special advisor and was the only Black member of the House of Lords when appointed in 1996, condemned the remarks that witnesses attributed to the princess.
"This is bigotry — it is racism," he told the New York Post in 2004. "It is saying, 'Go back to where you came from when we ruled the world.'"
Her spokesperson denied the report, telling the Post that Princess Michael "flatly denies making any racist slur" and "any suggestion the princess made such a comment is untrue."
'One of the realities of life in Britain'
The royals have been accused of turning a blind eye — and in some instances, even enabling — racism since the early years of the monarchy, Insider's Mikhaila Friel, Rachel Hosie, and Taiyler Simone Mitchell previously reported. Buckingham Palace has denied these accusations.
For example, Queen Elizabeth I was connected to Britain's slave trade in the 1500s, a historical fact that Queen Elizabeth II never publicly acknowledged or apologized for. More recently, Prince Philip was known for his controversial sense of humor and often made remarks during royal engagements that landed him in hot water, such as comparing Ethiopian art to "the kind of thing my daughter would bring back from school art lessons" in 1965.
Some members of the royal family have taken accountability for their own racist behavior, such as Prince Harry learning to recognize his own unconscious bias after wearing a Nazi costume to a party in his youth.
"In this family, you're part of the problem rather than part of the solution. And there is a huge level of unconscious bias," he said in the Netflix docuseries, streaming now. "The thing with unconscious bias is it's actually no one's fault. But once it's been pointed out or identified within yourself, you then need to make it right. It's education, it's awareness. And it's a constant work in progress for everybody, including me."
Afua Hirsch, a journalist and author of "Brit(ish): On Race, Identity and Belonging," appeared in the docuseries to provide more historical context for the Blackamoor brooch incident.
"When I heard about Meghan at an event where a member of her soon-to-be family was wearing a Blackamoor brooch, I wasn't hugely surprised because one of the realities of life in Britain is that if you go into a palace or a stately home or anywhere that represents tradition, you are likely to be faced with racist imagery," she said. "There are murals on the wall, carvings on the ceiling, that depict enslaved people in a way that glorifies the institution of slavery."
Princess Michael's representatives and Buckingham Palace did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.