Bombshells from Spare are missing their mark

Almost everyone (with perhaps the exception of Gen Z) can't stop talking about the back-to-back Bombshells coming out from Spare, the upcoming memoir from Prince Harry.

We'll confess we grew up minorly obsessed with the Royal family (which tracks, considering the extensive media coverage around Princess Diana's life, death and funeral).

But as we got older (and unpacked that internalized racism), we became disillusioned, and we saw that the glitz, glamour and tradition concealed an archaic institution with one of the oldest and most evil legacies in the world.

This is all to say we’re not royalists and rarely care about the royals unless, of course, it relates to human rights violations and systemic inequities.

But then the Sussex's sat down with Oprah Winfrey, and shit got real. Of all the things the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have done since leaving the Royal Family, nothing quite hit its mark as perfectly as the Oprah interview did, because you had to be a deeply devout royalist or racist not to finish that interview feeling supportive and sympathetic to Meghan Markle (and, by extension, her husband, Prince Harry).

It wasn't surprising information really, because it tracks that the British Royals are deeply racist, considering that's how they "earned" their money in the first place.

Pairing that with their immense privilege, job security, and a life of little to no consequences, what opportunity or reason would these people have had to confront and unlearn their deeply rooted white supremacy beliefs?

In the aftermath of the Oprah interview, we saw what we now know to be the usual suspects in the anti-Sussex campaign:

• Meghan should have known what she was getting into;

• Harry is jealous of the heir;

• Kate and Diana did it, Meghan should too;

• "I thought they wanted privacy";

• and that the symbiotic relationship between the Royal Institution and the British tabloids requires protecting the royal succession, resulting in a pecking order, to ensure the longevity of both those institutions.

And to all that we say, Okay, and?

Because here is what keeps being left out of that Anti-Sussex discourse: Meghan is the first non-white person to marry into that family. Her experiences were going to be different. The Royals either pulled a "we don't see colour, she'll be fine" or saw the colour and thought, "goodie, this will help us use the Sussex's to protect more senior royals."

Both these motivations are awful for different reasons, yet they don't matter either way because Meghan and Harry complained to their employer that she was experiencing unprecedented hate and mental distress, and her employer should have done something to address it.

[see our post on how Anti-Meghan hate is about white fragility]

So most decent people (regardless of whether they considered themselves fans of the couple) would say they had sympathy and respect for the experiences the Sussex’s were going through. Many of us also appreciated the mainstreaming of some of the critical discourse about the family and institution post-interview.

Then came the docu-series Harry and Meghan, and we admit, we fell a little in love with their love story. They addressed all the negative tabloid stuff that came out about them while they were working royals and shared what happened after they left.

So, with Harry's book coming out, we assumed the point of Spare, like everything they do, was to make money and stay relevant so they can continue their work in social causes.

Which, tbh, is basically the same job they had as working royals, except they are actually making their money and not being handed it by the aforementioned archaic and evil legacy institution commonly referred to as the British Royals.

Everything Harry and Meghan have done to this point has followed certain narratives and themes, which has helped them craft their image and brand a certain way.

But Spare without the context (please god, let there be context) diverges from this image and comes across as a petulant nepo-baby complaining about his privileged life or a personal diary that should not be made public until several generations after Harry's death.

What exactly are we supposed to be taking away from his book because so far we've gotten a confusing combination of sexual exploits, google search histories, drug use, his time in the army, painting his brother in an even worse light, shitting on Camila (which, okay who hasn't), shitting on William's baldness and details about when Harry had frostbite on his...crown jewels?

And maybe this reflects some naivety on our part, but we thought they were starting with their personal experiences with racism to enter the chat and talk about the systemic racism and inequities the royal family, including Harry, represents and upholds.

Let's take the whole Willy (we don’t know who we hate more for this nickname, William or Harry) and Kate egging him on to wear that infamous Nazi costume.

And for the Gen Z's, we'll offer some context (god, we love context): In 2005, when he was 21, Harry wore a nazi costume to a costume party.

In the docu-series Harry and Meghan, Harry spoke about how much he was experiencing mentally during this time and how the costume was one of the worst decisions of his life, which he is still so ashamed of.

While we aren't the ones that should forgive him for that, we will say that in the docu-series, it came across as a man taking ownership of his poor choices.

So the circulating bombshell from Spare, without context, sounds like he's blaming his brother and then-girlfriend Kate for a choice he made as a grown-ass man.

Even without mentioning the long history of Nazi sympathizers in the Royal family, this leaves us feeling so disgusted by someone we thought had grown up since 2005 and begun to show some moral character.

Enter Bombshell No. 2.

Prince Harry, who served in the British army, and did two tours in Afghanistan from 2007-2008 and 2012-2013, discusses how the 25 people he killed in Afghanistan were "enemies of humanity" and he was fighting them as an act of vengeance for a crime against humanity.

Again, perhaps there is context missing here, but this bombshell reads like Harry doesn't understand that his military services upheld imperial interests that stem from, and help uphold, the very same racism and white supremacy his wife experiences today.

And yet he is unrepentant in his participation in imperial violence. His unlearning doesn't extend past his personal experiences of watching his wife Meghan deal with such hate and mental anguish.

It's giving zero character growth.

So, yeah, we knew there would be sordid inner details of his family drama and the institution's inner workings. Still, we were hoping that Harry would unpack where his family gets their unearned privilege, wealth and power from.

Because we've seen the boy behind his mother's casket, the prince, the solider, and now the husband and father.

What we are yet to see is accountability from the man, Harry.

The global majority still haven't seen accountability, truth, reconciliation or reparations from the British monarchy, British government, and settler colonies (Canada, USA, etc.) on how colonization, imperialism and the slave trade are what gave them the wealth and power that they used and use to oppress the rest of us.

We know it won't be Charles or Willy who owns this truth, and British PM Rishi Sunak is playing for the oppressor's side.

So really, the only chance we get at some accountability for the violence that was done and continues to be done is from Prince Harry.

(Worth noting that Western legacy media continues to fail the people by not reporting the whole truth when discussing both historic and present-day issues that stem from colonial violence.)

So despite promising our therapists that we'd never wait for prince charming to save us, we find ourselves waiting for Prince Harry to drop the truth we need to hear from a member of the British Royal family.

Own that the British Government and Royal Family are the big bad that won. They are an evil, comparable, if not worse, to the Confederacy and Nazis.

Own that the British Royals/British Government are a real-world Jekyll/Hyde act. That the "cost" of accruing their wealth was crimes against humanity.

Own that it was stolen resources, stolen lands and stolen lives that gave them all, including settler colony countries like Canada, the power and wealth they have to this day.

So, we're hoping that somewhere amidst all these peculiar details of the sordid inner workings of a family business is a story of a man owning his privilege and power.

So please, god, let there be context, and please don't let it be cringe.