For many African-Americans, England was a beacon of hope and freedom but was it an illusion? – Telegraph.co.uk

I have lived and worked in this country for half my life. The UK has generally been good to me and for me.

I was born in the United States, an African-American. So for some while, I got a pass that is, I was allowed. It took me a while to understand and know that. My experience of growing up in America was one of grand mal institutional racism: police violence, voter disenfranchisement and a general lack of access to a thriving society.

So at the beginning, in the UK, I had the feeling of a kind of freedom, a place to be. It was, and is, an illusion.

I watched the Oprah Winfrey interview with the Sussexeswith great sadness. Not so much because of them, but for this country. What I had suspected for a long time was pretty clear: Harry wanted to leave not only the Royal familybut the country of his birth.

Since the interview was shown in the United States on Sunday evening, my American relatives have bombarded me with questions, because they had been here and for them the UK is London, London is central Londonand everyone had been so kind, so welcoming.

My late father, Ben, who was stationed here in the Second World War, in the racially segregated US military, found the people here to be kind and warm. He never forgot England. It was a beacon to him.

How could he know what the reality was in regards to ethnic minorities, to black people here? He would have had to live in the UK to know that.

For many Americans many Americans of colour the entry of an American woman of African descent into the Royal family was a way to look to another place. To see what could be possible within a society and culture older than the US.

At the weddingthere was the glorious choir, the African-American preacher and Doria Ragland, an African-American woman in locks, beautiful and proud.

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For many African-Americans, England was a beacon of hope and freedom but was it an illusion? - Telegraph.co.uk