When Broadcaster and former Top Gear host Jeremy Clarkson, who is loved by millions around the world for his often frank sentiments, wrote in his column for The Sun this week, "At night, I'm unable to sleep as I lie there, grinding my teeth and dreaming of the day when she [Meghan] is made to parade naked through the streets of every town in Britain while the crowds chant 'Shame!' and throw lumps of excrement at her," adding, “Everyone who’s my age thinks the same way,” he was condemned by the public.
His own daughter, Emily Clarkson, spoke out against Clarkson on Instagram. Celebrities like Carol Vorderman, Dom Joly and author Phillip Pullman also publicly called out his comments. A letter has now been signed by over 60 MPs, reading, “Hateful articles like the one written by Mr Clarkson do not exist in a vacuum, and directly contribute to this unacceptable climate of hatred and violence.” The public was affronted too. At the time of writing, the article - which has since been taken down - received 20,800 complaints.
In my opinion, Clarkson’s comments were hate speech and incited violence against Markle, who has spoken out about the death threats she faces daily. Many were shocked by Clarkson’s comments but I wasn’t shocked or surprised at all. As a Black British woman in my 40s, the last few days perfectly illustrate and highlight what Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, and Prince Harry have spoken about. This is what racism looks like in the 21st century.
Clarkson said he hates Meghan on a “cellular level” more than he hates Nicola Sturgeon and Rose West. What has made Clarkson hate Meghan more than a woman calling for the breaking up of the old world construct of a united kingdom and a serial killer and abuser of women? Has Meghan cheated on Harry for decades? Has Meghan been hanging out with convicted Billionaire paedophiles to invite such a bizarre and disproportionate outpouring of bile?
I think Meghan’s very presence and refusal to be grateful and subservient in the face of her treatment of the media and the Palace is to blame. Meghan has held up a mirror exposing people’s modern-day racism and misogyny and this is deeply triggering for those with so much latent hatred.
You don’t have to like Meghan to believe what she is saying, but you should understand that her speaking up and her unapologetic display of power, assertiveness and truth-telling is a lightning rod for racism and misogyny.
In my opinion, I’m sure lots of people would love to go back to the good old days of Black and mixed-heritage women’s enforced subservience. A time when women were punished by having their bodies beaten, and “paraded in the streets”, as Clarkson mentioned, where their bodies would regularly be branded, broken, raped, gagged and violated.
That was the disturbing fate for many women labelled “uppity” - a word derived from slavery terminology that describes a slave who dares to think they are equal to their white slave owners and to raise their eyes to the same level.
Does this sound familiar to how Meghan has been treated and viewed? So many would love to go back to the days for women like Meghan - and like me - to be grateful and shut up because, on a cellular level, they feel they are less important and should be grateful they are not still in chains, let alone walking the corridors of power and palaces.
Meghan living her best life feeding chickens, in a beautiful estate with her man and her babies, making money (not taking taxpayers' coins, the same taxpayers' money that also compensated British slave owners for abolishing the profitable slave trade, which we all paid off in 2015) is an abomination to many. In the same way, I get strange looks, chuckles and the who-the-fuck-does-she-think-she-is-for-living-in-the-Cotswolds stare for being my unapologetic self. I get it.
I’m not surprised or shocked by Jeremy Clarkson's remarks. The truth is so many people don’t really know where their unconscious bias has come from.
Clarkson’s comments illustrate and underline her points and what we have all been saying since BLM (have we forgotten about this already?). This has to stop and be recognised. If Lady Hussey can have a sit down with Sistah Space founder, Ngozi Fulani after the demanding and racist questioning she received, and prompted the Palace to say the comments were “unacceptable” and that “racism has no place in our society”, then the lack of response over Clarkson’s words is deafening.
People always say ‘slavery was hundreds of years ago’ and ‘what has it got to do with what’s happening today?’ But I think Clarkson’s comments highlight that we are still living with the hangover of slavery and an empire that was built on the foundations of supremacy - you have to believe you are superior to another tribe of people in order to murder and steal from them.
It’s worth noting that Clarkson has issued an apology which read, "Oh dear. I’ve rather put my foot in it. In a column I wrote about Meghan, I made a clumsy reference to a scene in Game of Thrones and this has gone down badly with a great many people. I’m horrified to have caused so much hurt and I shall be more careful in future.” However, this is not an apology in my opinion.
To me, it reads as ‘I’ve been busted and I have to make nice to flog my beer and not get cancelled’. There is zero accountability here and blaming his misogynistic violent and racist imagery and wish fulfilment of Duchess Meghan, which he said he lay in bed thinking of - creepy and disturbing in itself - on a “clumsy” Game of Thrones reference is ridiculous. The “I shall be more careful in future” reads to me in my opinion, as in I’ll keep my disturbing misogynistic and racist comments behind closed doors at dinner parties and Christmas parties and amongst PLU (people like us).
The total lack of accountability and awareness is baffling and highlights and represents what modern-day racism looks like. You don’t have to shout the N-word at the top of your lungs to be racist. The lacklustre apology and zero sense of accountability from Clarkson and lack of support for Meghan from the Palace just further bolstered the fact that I think, as a society, we need to discuss and have proper conversations and dialogue about the misogyny and racism we still have to deal with and tackle today.
Words have meaning, our history carries weight and until we look in the mirror and acknowledge these facts it will never go away.
I don’t believe in cancel culture - this plays into the hands of the far right. Instead, can we heal, celebrate each other, be joyful, loving and know you don’t have to dominate and put someone down to be your most powerful and authentic self? I believe in accountability, respectful conversations and moving forward. People are good and kind.
I am hopeful for the future and for our children and for the next generation.
