The Duchess of Sussex participated in The 19th* Represents 2020 Virtual Summit on Friday. The 19th* describes itself as “a nonpartisan newsroom reporting at the intersection of gender, politics and policy.” The nonprofit hosted conversations with familiar faces like democratic VP running mate Kamala Harris and Hillary Clinton.
Meghan reached out to The 19th* to find a way to contribute to the organization. The Duchess was set to interview Emily Ramshaw but found the tables turned on more than one occasion during the live stream. Meghan opened up about her tense relationship with the media since beginning her relationship with Prince Harry… with subtle hints at the monarchy muting the former HRH.
“I come back after being away for so long and, because really, I haven’t lived in the states for almost 10 years. I lived in Canada for seven years for work. So, it’s a really long lapse in time from being here and to come back and to just… see the state of affairs, I think at the onset if I’m being honest, it was just… devastating. It was so sad to see where our country was in that moment and if there’s any silver lining in that, I would say that, in the weeks that were happening after the murder of George Floyd, in the peaceful protests we were seeing, in the voices that were coming out, in the way that people were actually owning their role in acknowledging their role that they played in either actively or passively… in the discrimination of other people, specifically of the black community, it shifted from sadness to a feeling of absolute inspiration because I can see that the tide is turning. And I think that for so many of us, it’s very easy to focus on the negativity. It’s very easy to focus on that because it’s what you hear out there, right? I think I said to the high school girls when I was speaking to them, the loudest voices are often the negative ones – sadly. From my standpoint, it’s not new to see this undercurrent of racism and certainly, unconscious bias, but I think to see the changes that are being made right now is really, it’s something that I look forward to being apart of and being apart of using my voice in a way that I haven’t been able to of late. So, yeah. It’s good to be home.”
On why Meghan believes in the 19th*? “Do you know what is so interesting? And I was actually reading, just a couple of weeks ago, the most fascinating article about the suffrage movement. And what resonated with me about it is specifically the term ‘suffragettes.’ You’ll follow my train of thinking in a moment because the impetus for the word suffragette started in a UK newspaper in 1906 and it was meant to belittle the women that were part of the suffrage movement. Oh, I’ll just add a little ‘ette’ to the end here. And what I find so fascinating is that was then, before digital media before the online space, before things could travel around the world with rapid fire, and the American women as part of the suffrage movement didn’t want to called, ‘suffragettes.’ Yet this term coined by one man in 1906 has stuck as part of a movement. And I think when you look at that, and you look at it through that lens of the power of one person’s influence in the media, to be able to shape an entire movement or way of thinking of even an ideology or identification. If women have their voice heard as equally, how different that would have been. Right? And so even though in that article, the point was not about the term suffragette, what stuck with me, is the ability of influence and if it’s only coming from a patriarchal lens, how that’s shaping everything that we see. And whether you actually read the article or not, this one or any other one, I think what’s so fascinating, at least from my standpoint and my personal experience for the past couple of years, is the headline alone, the clickbait alone makes an imprint. That is part of how we start to view the world, how we interact with other people and I think there’s so much toxicity out there… um… in what is being referred to, my husband and I talk about it often, this, ‘economy for attention.’ Right? That is what is monetizable right now. When you’re looking at the digital space and media. So if you’re just trying to grab someone’s attention and keep it, you’re just going for something salacious vs. something truthful. I think that once we can get back to the place, which is what you’re creating here, which is why I think it’s so important, where people are just telling the truth in their reporting and telling it through a compassionate or empathetic lens is going to help bind people as community in a way, that I think, the moment we’re feeling much more of a disconnect in a space where I think we could be feeling more of a connection.”
It sounds like we can expect to hear a lot more from Meghan Markle and Prince Harry. Interested in learning more about the 19th*? We have additional pieces of the interview available on Instagram.
Kinsey Schofield is the Editor-in-Chief of To Di For Daily and you can follow her on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook.