Prince Harry admits he didn’t know ‘unconscious bias’ existed until he ‘walked a day in Meghan’s shoes’
Prince Harry made the revelation about seeing 'unconscious bias' through Meghan Markle's eyes in a British GQ interview with Patrick Hutchinson
Prince Harry has been royalty most of his life but has recently admitted he never really understood unconscious racist bias until he was “living a day or a week in my wife’s shoes” following his marriage to Meghan Markle who is biracial.
While sitting down for an interview with Black Lives Matter activist Patrick Hutchinson for GQ magazine, the Duke of Sussex admitted his “upbringing and education” did not equip him to understand the issue.
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“Once you realize or you feel a little bit uncomfortable, then the onus is on you to go out and educate yourself, because ignorance is no longer an excuse,” he explained.
“And unconscious bias, from my understanding, having the upbringing and the education that I had, I had no idea what it was. I had no idea it existed. And then, sad as it is to say, it took me many, many years to realise it, especially then living a day or a week in my wife’s shoes.”
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He then criticized thousands of complaints over a Black Lives Matter-inspired dance routine on Britain’s Got Talent last month, in which a figure representing a white police officer kneeled on dancer Ashley Banjo, a clear not to the death of George Floyd.
“We – Meghan and I – spoke to him (Banjo) shortly after that whole process, that whole moment in his life and Diversity’s life. But what was interesting there, from what I was told, was that there were a couple of thousand complaints that came straight after the performance,” said Harry.
“But it was three days later or even a week later that it got up to 20,000. So you start to think, well, how many people actually watch the performance that have complained? Or have they just had their opinion inflamed by what they’ve read?”
Watch the full interview below.
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