Entertainment

Meghan Markle Discusses the Angry Black Woman Trope: Being ‘Particular’ Does Not ‘Make You Difficult’

The Duchess of Sus𝓈ℯ𝓍 also shared with Ziwe that she found out she’s 43% Nigerian after doing a genealogy test

Meghan Markle says there’s a difference between “difficult” and “obvious.”

The Duchess of Sus𝓈ℯ𝓍 released the latest episode of her Archetypes podcast on Spotify on Tuesday, welcoming Issa Rae and Ziwe to the show to discuss the “angry black woman” stereotype.

Issa shared that she received advice from other black women in entertainment to not be afraid of being called a b— and she received compliments from a friend calling her “special.”

“For me, it means I know what I want,” the Insecure star said.

“I’m very special,” Meghan agreed. “A. I think a rising tide lifts all ships—we’re all going to be successful, so let’s make sure it’s really great because it’s a shared success for everyone.” But I also know that I will find myself cowering and tiptoeing into the room – I don’t know if you’ve ever done that, the thing I find most embarrassing – when you say a sentence and your intonation rises like Maybe it’s a question. And you say, ‘Oh my God, stop! ‘ Stop whispering, tiptoe and say what you need, you’re allowed to set boundaries, you’re allowed to say it clearly, it’s okay. That doesn’t make you demanding, doesn’t make it difficult for you.

PHOTO: Jon Kopaloff/WireImage; Chris Jackson/Getty Images; Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images

Meghan asked Issa, “Was there a point in your life, and maybe it still happens to you now, because of the archetypes, especially as a black woman, do you feel that you’re allowed to be angry in certain moments?”

The actress replied, “Absolutely not. Because I can’t lose my cool, I can’t do that, especially as a black woman, but also just even as a public figure now. Because people are looking for ways to justify their perception of you. That doesn’t mean I don’t get angry. That might mean that I will vent my frustrations to someone that I trust, get it out of my system and then go in fix mode. And I think even personality wise, I’m always like, I don’t want to sit in my anger too long anyway because what does that do? I want to work on fixing something, but I want to be allowed to have that emotion because it’s a natural…like, it’s an emotion.”

The Duchess of Sus𝓈ℯ𝓍 also recalled her acting days, complimenting Issa on creating “nuanced, layered, multifaceted women” in her shows.

“I mean, I remember when I was auditioning, the idea of even Black roles, I remember those casting sheets where the description of the character, she always had to have an edge or an attitude,” Meghan said.

Meghan Markle. PHOTO: Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty

At the start of their chat, Meghan also revealed she was back to drinking coffee after a break.

“I didn’t even think about it,” she said. “When I was on set, of course! Like Nespresso all day, every day. And then I didn’t really drink it in the U.K.”

When Issa asked why she went back to drinking it, Meghan said, “I guess because life started to come back and so people started to come. When guests come or meetings or when they’re like, ‘Oh, would you like coffee?’ And I was like, ‘Maybe I should join them.’ It’s a ritual.”

Issa Rae. PHOTO: FilmMagic/FilmMagic for HBO

Meghan also sat down with Ziwe, where the Duchess of Sus𝓈ℯ𝓍 said she “just did my family tree a few years ago”. Meghan revealed she is 43% Nigerian and said: “I’m going to start looking deeper into all of this because anyone I told, especially Nigerian women, would say ‘What the hell? What? What!’ ”

“This means a lot to our community,” Ziwe said. “No, honestly, you look Nigerian, you look like my aunt Uzo. This is great.”

The star of Showtime’s Ziwe said interviewers often tell her that they’re “terrified” of her.

“I’m like, ‘Oh my God, that hurts my feelings,’ ” she said. “I’m a sensitive Pisces. Like, I don’t want you to be scared of me. That’s not my goal.”

Ziwe explained, “I grew up with culturally conservative parents who had a really like strict understanding of women, what women did and how they lived and they cooked and cleaned, etc. And so, from that understanding, I also exist in society and I know what the expectations are of women there as well. And these things correlate. And so to be the character of Ziwe that is brash and rude and thoughtful is in direct opposition to what a woman should be publicly, according to 𝓈ℯ𝓍ism.”

PHOTO: Daniele Venturelli/WireImage)

Last week, Meghan interviewed Paris Hilton for an episode titled “Breaking Down the ‘Bimbo.’ ” In it, the former Suits actress recalled being a model on the show Deal or No Deal.

She recalled that while Deal or No Deal wasn’t so much about acting, which she was pursuing, she was grateful to have a job to pay bills while she was auditioning.

“I had also studied international relations in college, and there were times I was on set at Deal or No Deal and thinking back to my time working as an intern at the U.S. Embassy in Argentina in Buenos Aires and being in the motorcade with the security of treasury at the time and being valued specifically for my brain. Here, I was being valued for something quite the opposite.”

The former Suits actress said that before tapings of the show, the models would line up for different stations: lashes, extensions, bra padding. The women were also given spray tan vouchers every week.

“There was a very cookie-cutter idea of precisely what we should look like. It was solely about beauty — and not necessarily about brains,” Meghan said.

PHOTO: Eric McCandless/ABC via Getty Images; Trae Patton/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images

“When I look back at that time, I’ll never forget this one detail — because moments before we’d get on stage, there was a woman who ran the show and she’d be there backstage, and I can still hear her. She couldn’t properly pronounce my last name at the time and I knew who she was talking to because she’d go, ‘Markle, suck it in! Markle, suck it in!’ ”

The Duchess of Sus𝓈ℯ𝓍 said she eventually quit the show: “I was thankful for the job, but not for how it made me feel, which was not smart. And by the way, I was surrounded by smart women on that stage with me, but that wasn’t the focus of why we were there. I would end up leaving with this pit in my stomach knowing that I was so much more than what was being objectified on the stage. I didn’t like being forced to be all looks and little substance, and that’s how it felt for me at the time — being reduced to this specific archetype.”

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