Two black callers disagree over whether the treatment of Meghan Markle is racist

18 January 2020, 08:06 | Updated: 18 January 2020, 08:11

Two black women disagreed about whether there is a racist layer to Meghan Markle's treatment by the press.

Two black women called in to debate Meghan Markle and racism.

The first caller, Bella, said: "I think the race card, personally, is in play too much."

She then argued that Meghan Markle saw "dollar signs" and thought the Royal family would "bring her luxury and wealth".

She also thought Harry should have resigned before the marriage.

Another caller, Kukua, was brought into the conversation. She did not agree with Bella.

Kukua said: "I'm quite sad not to agree with her because I also I'm black and I'm first generation African descendant living in this country. I don't think it's played out.

"But I also want to be clear that they haven't made any statements of racism. they barely barely said anything themselves. They've not spoken on the issue.

"They've made a statement saying that they wish to step back from their jobs, we're all making summations about what they think and how they feel. This is us putting things on them. That's that's my first point."

She added: "Secondly, I don't think the racism card is overplayed. I don't think we speak about it enough in this country.

"I think we sweep a lot of things under the carpet and act like it's not happening.

"I, for example, have worked in an industry where only a few months ago, I was asked to twerk for a set of colleagues because they'd seen something on the TV show and they assume that being a person of colour, I would know how to do such a thing"

Bella responded to Kukua: "I don't dispute the fact that systematic racism happens all the time. I completely agree with that.

She continued: "But if we were to look at the whole situation with Meghna and put race aside and you look at Diana, who was purely white, look at how she was treated.

"Look at how she was hounded by the press. I think for this scenario, race is being overplayed because look at Diana and look at what happened to her."

Kukua argued: "It's not the whole story, but it's a layer of the story.

Bella argued that Meghan should have thought about what she was getting into the Royal family.

She explained: "She was warned by her friends. This is the Royal family, they will do whatever they need to do. It is the Royal family."

The callers, despite disagreeing, finished the conversation having found some common ground.