I couldn’t agree more with Prince Harry’s comment in the Netflix documentary series Harry & Meghan that unlearning racism is a lifelong journey. As a 50-year-old provincial white man, I only hope I live long enough. Nels Abbey (A white lens sees Harry and Meghan as villains – through a Black one, they’ve done Britain a favour, 9 December) is right that Britain needs the catharsis of a serious discussion about racism and our colonial history.
Just as the US has yet to come to terms with the horrors of native American genocide and slavery, the UK has never addressed its role as a builder of the slave trade and brutal conqueror of a hundred or more nations. I love my country, but that love is tainted with the myth of a noble imperial history taught with equal enthusiasm by family, school and jingoistic media that reflect society only too well.
After the second world war, imperial Japan and Nazi Germany were all but erased from their nations’ iconography. It was expected that past atrocities were acknowledged, and a new identity of self-aware nationalism forged.
Perhaps it is no coincidence that Germany is the only European country to pay reparations to a former colony (though it insisted its €1.1bn agreement with Namibia was a gesture of reconciliation rather than reparations). They tore down the statues of their historical monsters. There will be no sensible discussion on race and colonialism as long as we still venerate ours.
Alex Brown
Muscat, Oman
• Nels Abbey is on point when he says that “as Britons of different ethnicities, we are often viewing the same events very differently”. Living as a black woman in Britain is like living in a parallel world to my white counterparts, who are oblivious to my experience. Watching the bigotry and racism towards Harry and Meghan play out in the media has been soul-destroying. The false narrative constructed by the media, and the relentless attacks on the couple to avoid the elephant in the room of media racism being the main factor in their departure from this country, are particularly vexing.
Harry and Meghan were wise to leave. For many people of colour silently enduring this country, leaving is an unrealised dream.
Name and address supplied
• I have been amazed by the vitriol directed at Harry and Meghan after the release of their Netflix series (TV review, 8 December). It is only when one looks under the surface that it starts to make sense. They have poked at the identity of Britain.
Traditionally, British people saw their country as a robust white democracy, with global influence and a beloved queen at the apex of society. But this myth unravelled for many people in 2022. Our democracy was exposed as flaky and, at the moment of greatest political instability, our queen of 70 years died. Underlying all this is that many people in Britain, including the royal family, don’t seem to have got their heads round the fact that we lost our empire long ago.
Britain has been changing for decades, and those in the establishment who have had most to lose attack the changes and cling to the past. For many, though, change is welcome. I believe most white British people now see black Britons as “us” not “them”, Brexit as a chauvinistic disaster, and doing something about climate change as more important than looking at yet more photos of the Sussexes.
Cath Potter
London
• I was saddened but not surprised when Harry and Meghan fled the UK. Vast swathes of our society follow our tabloid press in blind ignorance. They turned Meghan into a villain and the public, like sheep, followed. My family is multicultural, and I have seen my son tread warily around countless subtle racist comments, as well as overt abuse from strangers. In some areas, the UK’s multiculturalism is a source of great pride to me. But we still have a long way to go.
Michaela Harte
Bromley, London
• The backlash from rightwing politicians and media against Harry and Meghan’s documentary amply proves their point.
Kit Jackson
London
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