Spice is being dragged by fans online as she has compared the recent racism Meghan Markle has disclosed that she allegedly experienced from unnamed persons within the Royal family to her song “Black Hypocrisy,” which speaks to colorism in Jamaica among the black community.
Previews of an upcoming interview with the Duke Prince Harry and Duchess Meghan Markle, and Oprah Winfrey revealed explosive details regarding the Royal family and the way their son Archie was treated.
According to Meghan, unnamed members of the family (not the Queen), contemplated what they would do should Archie be born with darker skin. They also did not want to give him the title of Prince even though other children in the family – those of Duchess Kate and Prince William- have the same title or security. Meghan is a biracial child with an African American mother and a white father. She said her race was an issue for the royal family and came to the fore when she was pregnant with her first child. She’s presently pregnant with her second child, who is said to be a girl.
According to the couple, those issues were all part of the reason they decided to leave the royal family and move back to the United States, her birth country, where she was born and raised and up to the time of marriage, pursued a highly successful career as an actress.
Fans and well-wishers of the couple immediately sent their support following the revelations by Harry and Meghan as they bashed the apparent racism by the Royal family. The discussion has not escaped the attention of the Caribbean fans who love both Harry and Markle and shared their reactions which bordered on shock and surprise.
Spice, too as apparently appalled by the revelations and took to social media to react to the news.
On a Shaderoom post with the headline- ‘Meghan Markle alleges there were concerns about her son’s skin color at the Palace,” Spice commented, “imagine these words coming from Meghan who’s a lighter shade than I am, and you can only imagine what I went through #blackhypocrisy.”
She also commented on Shaderoom in which she says, “And Meghan is a lighter skin tone than I am so just imagine what I’ve been through along withal [sic] the other dark skin women within today’s society SMH,” she said.
Fans, however, became irritated after Spice inserted herself on the comment threads as she likened the colorism she faced to the racism Meghan has faced. Many took to Twitter as they discussed her comments.
Some fans felt there was nothing wrong with what she has said since the topic of racism and colorism is very relevant, and that Spice is sharing her own experience in order to relate to what Meghan has gone through. “Spice has spoken at length about colourism in the Black community so I imagine this topic is sensitive to her. But Meghan married into a white racist family so idk how Spice’s example applies here,” one supportive Spice fan said.
Others, however, felt that Spice’s comment at this time is inappropriate as she is trying to make the situation about herself. “someone is trying to tell their struggle and their story and she found a way to make it about her!!! She could’ve simply supported Meghan instead of basically saying lightskins don’t suffer as much as darkskins….TIMING,” one person commented.
Another said, “Spice can’t let someone else have the moment.” Another said, “if attention seeker was a person.”
Meanwhile, fellow singer Sevana is defending Spice and has said, “I need all the lightskins to stfu about Spice, immediately.” She added, “I would investigate that Spice feels muted and thisi is why she is being loud at every opportunity. Let her talk. Idgaf if it mek sense to unu,” she tweeted in response to criticisms of Spice.
She also added that Spice should not be dismissed because the reality of her situation is still pervasive.
“What I see is that Spice didn’t get a shade name right and her intelligence immediately called into question and dismissed. She went on to highlight that her experiences are 10x worse vs Meghan as a dark-skinned black woman and was told to be quiet because it’s not the right space and time.”
She took the discussion further by saying as a dark-skinned woman, she can relate to the pain of the issue Spice is speaking about. “These are the same reasons anti-black movements have used to silence and gloss over issues surrounding racism and colorism. As a dark skinned black woman myself, it hits home to see her voice being quieted. What’s more important here, the delivery or the message? I think we have to maintain that no matter how it is expressed we should give some consideration and compassion to dark skinned black women when we speak about what hurts us.”
One Twitter user, however, did not agree with Sevana and said, “People are not dismissing this. The core problem is that what Spice did was like if you came to someone telling them you just got stabbed, and instead of being empathetic to YOUR situation, they just turn around and tell you they got shot. It’s an invalidation technique.”
No man good God have GRACE… pic.twitter.com/Lh5YMldnRl
— DG (@hey_debz) March 8, 2021
????????spice said Meghan aside… https://t.co/HkBtXpTAjV
— ??? ?? (@shakwco) March 8, 2021
Jamaicans trashing Spice for responding to Meghan's story by reflecting on what she's experienced as a much darker woman. Lawd we have a long way to go. Mi tired. Our issues are so deeply tied up with a reverence for colonialism and an addiction to colorism.
— Ishena (@ishenarobinson) March 8, 2021
Shame on West Indians for trying to insult/shut up dancehall singer Spice.
She stated (just like everyone else) that if treatment is so bad for someone as light as Meghan Markle imagine how bad it is for people with deep dark skin like Spice
And u bums attacked her pic.twitter.com/p5nffYqzMD
— BijouxFleur (@BijouxFleurette) March 8, 2021
However, Sevana said, “I really would agree with you if Spice were the archetype of privilege.”
Spice has been in the news quite a bit lately. More than a week ago, she was caught up in controversy for a failed attempt at calling out NARS, the French cosmetic brand, for what she perceived to be in poor taste – their labeling of one of their darkest shades of foundation – Zambie, which does sound very close to the word ‘Zombie’.
She said in relation to a photo of her holding the product and tagging NARS, “…I FEEL AWAY!!! I need this name changed ASAP. Why your darkest foundation name is “Zambie” out of all the names in the world couldn’t you have chosen a better name?” she asked while also asking fans if they thought she was petty and reading too deeply into things.
Fans, though, were quick to call her out for being ignorant as they pointed out that the darker foundations are named after African countries and that Zambie is the French spelling of the country Zambia. Spice, however, defended her comments by asking why other countries like Ethiopia and Gambia etc., were not named. She, however, later edited her post to say, “I know French word for Zambia is Zambie but African has 54 countries.”
One person commented on the stubbornness of Spice in admitting that she was wrong by saying, “I hope to god she knows Zombie and Zambia are two different things Sis is so triggered,” while another said, “I love that she doesn’t know the difference between Zombie and Zambia and she would die on the hill.”
Other fans felt that Spice had a deeply troubling issue about her skin color and that she was easily triggered by things that weren’t really issues to be worked up about.
