Major Meghan, Harry Books Agree on One Thing—The Palace Has a Race Problem

While Meghan Markle and Prince Harry may be viewed as heroes by some and villains by others, one thing the major royal biographies agree upon is that the palace has a race problem.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex were showered with praise in Finding Freedom, by Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand.

Meanwhile Battle of Brothers, by Robert Lacey, described how Prince William became so fed up with Meghan mistreating Kensington Palace staff that he kicked his brother out of the shared household.

Tina Brown says her own book The Palace Papers is seen as too empathetic towards Meghan by its U.K. audience and not empathetic enough by Americans.

However, there is one observation that unites all three books, which each took the media by storm creating a tidal wave of headlines upon release.

All three books described the palace as having a problem when it comes to race, and particularly in terms of the lack of diversity among palace staff.

Finding Freedom on Meghan Markle's Experience With the Subtlety of Racism in Britain

Scobie described his own experience dealing with a palace staffer in the early pages of Finding Freedom.

The book reads: "Racism in the UK takes a different form than it does in the United States, but there is no mistaking its existence and how engrained it is.

"A major theme of racism in the UK centers on the question of who is authentically 'British.'

"It can come in subtle acts of bias, micro-aggressions such as the Palace staffer who told the biracial co-author of this book, 'I never expected you to speak the way you do."

As for the royals themselves, the book paints William as a snob and suggests family members were dismissive but stops short of accusing any royal of racism.

It describes how the Duke of Cambridge upset Harry by telling him not to rush his relationship with Meghan and "get to know this girl."

Scobie and Durand wrote: "In those last words, 'this girl,' Harry heard the tone of snobbishness that was anathema to his approach to the world.

"During his 10-year career in the military, outside the royal bubble, he had learnt not to make snap judgments about people based on their accent, education, ethnicity, class or profession."

It quotes a friend: "Harry could see through William's words. He was being a snob."

Battle of Brothers on the Palace Being Too White

The accounts in Battle of Brothers are far less flattering toward Harry and Meghan than the ones in Finding Freedom.

Lacey's book describes some difficult aspects of Harry and Meghan's story including allegations that Meghan bullied her staff.

One key dimension to the book that sets it apart from others is its account of Prince William kicking the couple out of the shared household at Kensington Palace in anger at those accusations.

However, despite reflecting much of the palace viewpoint, the book paints the royal household as too white.

Lacey wrote: "Diversity! Diversity! Meghan and Harry had delivered some low blows in talking to Oprah in a thoroughly non-familial fashion, but it was impossible to swat away their essential truth.

"When Meghan had arrived in Buckingham Palace some three years earlier and had walked down any corridor—or the corridor of any other palace—to enter any office, the face of virtually every senior official whom she encountered had been white."

The Palace Papers on How Race Was Not Taken Seriously Enough

Tina Brown's 571-page book again includes much of the palace perspective on Meghan and Harry's exit, painting them as volatile and demanding.

However, a palace source acknowledged the royal household was too white while Brown also chronicles extensive examples of past racist comments by family members.

A source told Brown: "We didn't take race seriously enough. There were hardly any Black people that worked in the royal household or almost none in senior positions."

The Palace Papers read: "That sorry fact alone made them insensitive to negative coverage and comments when viewed through the prism of race."

Among its examples of royal racism, the book recounts comments made by Queen Elizabeth II's sister Princess Margaret in 2000 about the Monarch needing a holiday after a Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting.

Margaret is quoted saying: "Every day a different blackamoor crying on her shoulder and you know, she's so wonderful. She knows all their names."

On Prince Philip, Brown writes: "An uncomfortable number of his 'gaffes' had a racial component that suggested they were not truly gaffes—that is, clumsy mistakes—but revelations of what he actually thought."

She cites as one of many examples an incident in 2002 when Prince Philip asked an aboriginal Australian whether he was still "throwing spears."

Harry referred to a fellow cadet at Royal Sandhurst Military Academy as his "little p*** friend" while William had an "Out of Africa" themed 21st birthday party, joking to a journalist: "Lots of people will be wondering if we're actually going to be eating crocodile, but obviously we won't be doing that."

Meanwhile, Prince Charles, the book says, gave the nickname "Sooty" to his Punjabi-born polo friend Kolin Dhillon.