A senior Buckingham Palace source revealed Prince Harry and Meghan Markle should up their work in diversity after the release of the Royal Foundation's annual report. The account revealed the "formal targets for diversity had not been previously set."
Royal aides declared the target would be "monitored and reported on" as diversity had always been considered in trustee recruitment. The work to improve this was the board, governance and nominations committee's main focus 2020.
According to Express, the report covered the period of January to December 2020, when Prince Harry and Meghan left the royal family. From here, the couple made a number of bombshell allegations against the Firm.
In fact, in their controversial interview with Oprah Winfrey, the Sussexes accused the British institution of racism. They even claimed that a royal family member expressed some concern about Archie's skin tone when the former actress was still carrying him in her womb.
Then, the Duke of Sussex alleged racism was one of the reasons why they left the U.K. Despite this, the senior Buckingham Palace source saw the dire need for Prince Harry and Meghan to "do more to improve diversity" in the royal family.
"We are not where we would like to be despite our efforts," the insider said. Meanwhile, issues about racism are not new in the Palace after all.
Though there is no evidence to back up Prince Harry and Meghan's claim about the fear of Archie's would-be skin color at the time, The Guardian unearthed decades-old documents about hiring ethnic minorities. The papers revealed Queen Elizabeth II's courtiers banned ethnic minority immigrants and foreigners from having clerical positions at Buckingham Palace until the late 1960s.
The Queen's chief financial manager said back then that it was not a practice to hire "colored immigrants or foreigners" to do clerical works. Anyhow, they could be domestic servants.
To clear this, the Palace told CNN that conversations from over 50 years ago should not be used to prove the claims of modern-day issues. It also asserted that the Royal Household and the Sovereign comply with the Equality Act's principle and practice.
In fact, it can be seen in the diversity, inclusion and dignity at the Royal Household's work policies, procedures and practices. Also, to recall, Prince Harry himself clarified that it was not Queen Elizabeth or Prince Philip, who were worried about Archie's skin color, though he and Meghan did not reveal who.
