Controversial French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo has once again made the case for its latest front cover that featured a cartoon of Queen Elizabeth UK kneeling on Meghan Markle’s neck, citing the death of African George Floyd -American in Minneapolis last year.
The title of the cartoon released on Saturday states, “Why Meghan Buckingham Left Behind”, to which the Duchess of Sussex left, pressing under the Queen’s knee, “because I could no longer breathe” .
The cartoon mimics the scene when George Floyd was killed after a White police officer pressed his knee against the 48-year-old man’s neck for about nine minutes while he was gasping for anail. The accused officer, Derek Chauvin, is charged with third-degree murder by a U.S. court. Floyd’s death sparked a wave of Matters of Black Life protests across America, calling for action against police brutality and racial injustice, which led a long way to Donald Trump being removed from the U.S. office of President in the past as things were politely well before the recent elections.
Meghan Markle accuses the Royal family of racism
The cartoon comes days after Meghan Markle interviewed Oprah Winfrey, accused by British journalists and the racist royal family. The American biracial actress said when she was pregnant with her son Archie, a member of the royal family expressed “concerns … about the color of his skin”. She also revealed that she felt so lonely and miserable as a working member of the royal family, that she had suicidal thoughts.
Buckingham Palace said in a statement that Meghan’s claims were “troubling” and would be investigated “in private.” Earlier this week, Prince William defended the monarchy against the allegations, saying, “We are not really a racist family.”
The cartoon drew widespread controversy on social media, with many users saying it was offensive. Dr Halima Begum, Head of the Runnymede Trust, a UK-based think tank on race equality, said the caricature was “wrong on every level”.
“This will not push boundaries, make someone laugh or challenge racism. It will ruin the issues and cause crime, in everything,” she tweeted.
Charlie Hebdo is known for being passionate about things, pushing the boundaries of what is considered permissible as free speech. In the past he has been targeted and attacked with terrorist clothing, most notably the 2015 attack on his office in which nearly a dozen employees were killed. However, in previous cases the conduct was motivated by an insulting accusation to religious figures, here, the news magazine has combined the event of George Floyd’s death with what is noted as a solution of centuries of racism sanctioned by the British royal family. Racism was rampant in the colonial era with examples of this still to be seen around the world.