Meghan Markle unpacks the history and meaning of the word “diva” on the latest edition of her new “Archetypes” podcast. Moreover, she appropriately delves into the topic with the performer who has most brilliantly defined the phrase for over three decades: Mariah Carey.
The Duchess of Sussex is eager to discuss the difficulties of being biracial on the upcoming episode of her Spotify pod with MC, titled “Duality of Diva.” Markle has previously spoken about “her [Carey’s] constant struggle to find her place and to fit in,” describing a sentiment that Markle says she can relate to.
Carey, who lived with her mother following her parent’s divorce, talked of changing houses 14 times as a child and how she idolized people she watched on TV whose hair was constantly “flowing in the wind” (thus, her always perfectly breeze-tossed tresses) (hence, her always perfectly breeze-tossed tresses).
“There was a void which I could not fill. I didn’t fit in.” Carey explained that the white communities were not as safe as the black neighborhoods. And there was no group to which I belonged.
The Duchess of Sussex highlighted why having Carey on the pod was so significant to her, and Markle said she could empathize as Carey detailed trying to find her place at a predominantly white school where a student insulted her attire.
“I had to talk to you,” she continued. “You had such a profound impact on me. Representation matters so much. But when you are a woman, and you don’t see a woman who looks like you someplace, in a position of power or influence, or even just on the screen… you came into the scene, and [I said], ‘Oh my gosh, someone kind of looks like me!’”
Markle responded to Mariah’s inquiry about whether or not she knew the singer was biracial by noting that she understood the significance of others’ first impressions of her from an early age.
Markle remarked, “They were asking her how she felt being treated as a mixed-race woman in the world,” referring to an article she read about actress Halle Berry. And her response was her saying, ‘Well, your journey through the world is how people regard you.”
Because of her deeper skin tone, she claimed, she was mistaken for a Black lady rather than a mixed-race woman.
Because she and Carey are light-skinned, Markle claimed, “you’re not treated as a Black woman. You don’t get treated like a white lady. You occupy a middle ground, I guess.
However, the extreme scrutiny of her marriage to Prince Harry meant that once they started dating, “I started to grasp what it was like to be viewed like a Black lady. This is because I had always been considered a white woman while being biracial. And things really shifted.”
Saying she could totally relate to the “interesting” idea of being forced to choose between identifying as Black or white, Carey — who noted that her father is Black and that her great-great-grandmother was Venezuelan — added, “As a mixed woman, because I always thought it should be okay to say I’m mixed. That’s right; that sort of thing ought to be tolerated. But the public expects you to make a decision.
She elaborated, “Everyone was like, ‘her father is Venezuelan and Black,’ because they didn’t know how to place me in that box because my father’s family is black. Carey stated, “They want to put you in a box and categorize you, and my mother is Irish, all the way back to the Blarney Stone.”
Below is a link to the complete “Archetypes” podcast.
