STRAIGHT TALK

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle Declare: ‘Structural Racism’ Exists in the U.K.

The couple spoke to a London newspaper via video link from their home in California.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle told a British newspaper Thursday that “structural racism exists” in the U.K. and warned that young people of color will be held back as long as it persists. Harry, 36, who is sixth in line to the throne, described his own “awakening” to racial discrimination since meeting Meghan. Harry said: “When you go in to a shop with your children and you only see white dolls, do you even think: ‘That’s weird, there is not a black doll there? … the world that we know has been created by white people for white people.” In the interview with the Evening Standard to mark the start of Britain’s Black History Month, Harry and Meghan said they were “doing well” and that their 17-month-old son Archie keeps them “on their toes.” The couple sat on a beige sofa in front of a wall of drawings of birds’ nests in the nine-bedroom Montecito mansion they bought in June. At one point, their beagle, Guy, jumped on the sofa and Harry affectionately held out the dog’s droopy ears.