The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, whose marriage last year brought historic change to Britain’s royal family, on Monday welcomed a son, the first interracial baby in the monarchy’s recent history.
The newborn is seventh in line to the British throne, behind his father, Prince Harry. It is not clear whether the child will receive a royal title, like those bestowed on the three children of Prince William, Harry’s older brother, and William’s wife, Catherine.
The baby is sure to be the object of uncommon fascination, adored and criticized as a symbol of the modernization of Britain’s royal family.
The duke and duchess — better known as Prince Harry, 34, and Meghan Markle, 37 — have shaken up the royal family in a number of ways: Their wedding last May featured a gospel choir, a freestyling African-American preacher and a gaggle of Hollywood celebrities.
They continued to set aside convention after the wedding, opening their own Instagram account and offering little access to the royal-obsessed British news media. In April, they announced they were canceling the traditional photo opportunity outside the Lindo Wing at St. Mary’s Hospital in the heart of London, curtailing the ritual hullabaloo that usually surrounds royal births.
The Sussexes, in short, have become another front in the British culture wars, like the vegan sausage roll, or Brexit. The tabloids have pounced: Prince Harry is making a television series on mental health with (gasp) Oprah Winfrey! The duchess keeps hugging members of the public! They may choose an American nanny! Baby Sussex may not attend Eton!
For many, the new baby’s importance will be indelibly linked with race.
Britain is 87 percent white, but interracial children make up its fastest-growing ethnic category, and will soon be the country’s largest minority group. The entry of Meghan Markle, the descendant of plantation slaves, into the royal family resonated deeply with many people of African descent, who almost immediately began to anticipate the birth of the couple’s first child.
“It’s hopeful for people of my kids’ generation to see a princess of mixed race,” said Lise Ragbir, who is black and has written of her own experience raising a lighter-skinned child.
Repeatedly, beginning when her daughter was 6 months old, she said, strangers have approached her to ask, “Is that your baby?”
“It will be such a recognizable baby that it could shift people’s awareness,” said Ms. Ragbir, 45, a gallery director in Austin, Tex. “When one of the most famous families in the world does not have the same skin tone, people might pause before asking a stranger, ‘Is that your baby?’”
Historians have noted that the duchess herself cannot be definitively described as the first interracial royal. Some scholars have argued that Queen Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, the wife of King George III, had African ancestry through the Portuguese royal family. If true, it would have been passed on to her own descendant, Queen Victoria.
The Sussexes, in short, have become another front in the British culture wars, like the vegan sausage roll, or Brexit. The tabloids have pounced: Prince Harry is making a television series on mental health with (gasp) Oprah Winfrey! The duchess keeps hugging members of the public! They may choose an American nanny! Baby Sussex may not attend Eton!
For many, the new baby’s importance will be indelibly linked with race.
Britain is 87 percent white, but interracial children make up its fastest-growing ethnic category, and will soon be the country’s largest minority group. The entry of Meghan Markle, the descendant of plantation slaves, into the royal family resonated deeply with many people of African descent, who almost immediately began to anticipate the birth of the couple’s first child.
“It’s hopeful for people of my kids’ generation to see a princess of mixed race,” said Lise Ragbir, who is black and has written of her own experience raising a lighter-skinned child.
Repeatedly, beginning when her daughter was 6 months old, she said, strangers have approached her to ask, “Is that your baby?”
“It will be such a recognizable baby that it could shift people’s awareness,” said Ms. Ragbir, 45, a gallery director in Austin, Tex. “When one of the most famous families in the world does not have the same skin tone, people might pause before asking a stranger, ‘Is that your baby?’”
Historians have noted that the duchess herself cannot be definitively described as the first interracial royal. Some scholars have argued that Queen Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, the wife of King George III, had African ancestry through the Portuguese royal family. If true, it would have been passed on to her own descendant, Queen Victoria.
Prince Harry, in particular, has been alert for racism in the discussion of his young family.
In 2016, he took the unusual step of condemning British tabloids and social media commentators for the “racial undertones” and sexism of their coverage of Ms. Markle. Last year, the right-wing U.K. Independence Party ousted its leader after it was reported that his girlfriend had used racist language to deride the future duchess.
The duchess, the daughter of a white man and a black woman, has sidestepped discussions of race in the months before and after her wedding.
But as a young actress, she discussed it passionately. She described growing up in an overwhelmingly white neighborhood, where her mother was often mistaken for the nanny. As a seventh grader, she hesitated when she was asked to fill out a census form that identified her as either white or black.
“There I was (my curly hair, my freckled face, my pale skin, my mixed race) looking down at these boxes, not wanting to mess up, but not knowing what to do,” she wrote in an essay for Elle Magazine published in 2015.
When her teacher told her to check “Caucasian” because that was “how she looked,” she refused.
“I left my identity blank — a question mark, an absolute incomplete — much like how I felt,” she wrote. Her father advised her, “If that happens again, you draw your own box.”
As the duchess’s due date approached, some Britons voiced concerns about the conversation around the child’s race.
