Dear Black Women, Meghan Markle is not your political emissary.

A certain Vogue writer of African descent had written in a now revised article that, “Black girls all over the world can finally look at the royal family and see someone like them.” Though “Black girls” in the piece have been amended to “All girls”, this point of view shows how the royal engagement is perceived by many, especially black women, as a political event that spells inclusion for the black race, and as an hour of racial awakening for Buckingham palace and its royal occupants in which black people are on the winning side.

At the announcement of the engagement, black twitter went amok with excitement, with hashtags in tow such as: #BlackinBuckingham #mysisterisaprincess #firstblackprincessever.

And I am here wondering if I missed the joke. How is this a feat for an entire race and how does this hold a drop of significance for black women the world over? I understand the fandom and glee that accompany the royal family and weddings respectively, but to translate this to a political landmark is base. I too ah-ed at the announcement of the engagement being a Meghan fan and someone who liked the Prince for his whiff of notoriety, but that was it; it meant nothing more than a celebrity engagement.

As a black woman, I do not see myself in Meghan and I do not mean this in terms of physical appearance or because my black is coffee and hers latte. I am not about to join the debate of the authenticity of her blackness seeing she is mixed. But still, I do not look at her and elevate my aspirations and dreams to collapsing into the arms of any European prince.  This is not a yes-we-can! moment for me. And it shouldn’t be for any black woman.

Meghan is no emissary of the black race. This is only a love story unfolding before us. To twist it into fitting in the hole of anyone’s gapping insecurity is a personal problem and like Swift, I exclude myself from that narrative. Telling girls, especially black girls, to see this engagement as a symbol of hope is downright patronizing and too fawning to hold meaning.

If this should mean anything, it should be for the people world over who do not regard nor hold transactions with people they believe are of an inferior race to theirs. But I doubt if this union would banish racism because it has nothing to do with it in the first place.

With the way black women are carrying on about this makes it appear as if Ms. Markle’s existence is more validated by this engagement, as if she has been upgraded to a level of humanity that has never been availed her. Whereas this is a woman with a robust repertoire before the prince came along; an actress, an editor and a UN Ambassador.

These black people are acting like they do not have royalty of their own. Dig deep into your history and find your ancient kings and queens in kingdoms that were demolished at the advent of colonialism and stop seeking validation from all things western.

Tonight, if you are a black woman about to tuck your little black girls in bed and you feed them with this farce that this royal engagement is a substance to their hopes of being real princesses some day, then you are a problem. First, there are not enough princes to go round and secondly there are more feasible ambitions for your black girls to aspire to.

Being a princess is not even an ambition.

Image source: vogue.com