Is Meghan Markle Black? Biracial? White? Other? Race & Ethnicity Revealed

Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex has become an international subject of a lot of people’s interest and discussions. When talking about her, many often wonder about Meghan Markle’s race.
In this article, we break down all you need to know about Meghan’s background. From her nationality to her race, ethnicity and more.
Contents
What Race Are Meghan Markle’s Parents?
To understand Meghan Markle’s race, it is important to understand what her background is as it pertains to her parents.
Meghan Markle’s father, Thomas Markle, is an American Emmy Award winning lighting director who currently resides in Mexico.
Thomas was raised in Newport, Pennsylvia in the United States. Meghan’s father, however, is not originally from the United States or from Mexico.
He is actually of Dutch and Irish descent and also has Germanic roots on his father’s side (this is where the Germanic last name “Markle”, formally spelled “Merckel” comes from).
Because he is originally of European descent, Meghan’s father is white when it comes to his race.
Meghan Markle’s mother, Doria Ragland on the other hand is a social worker who is African American. She was born in Cleveland, Ohio but her family moved to Los Angeles soon after.
Doria was then raised in California. And racially speaking, because she is African American, Doria is black.
Are Meghan Markle’s Parents Still Together?
Another question that people tend to ask when they get to the subject of the parents of Meghan Markle’s race and background is the state of their relationship at present.
Meghan Markle’s parents met in California when Doria was working at a television station where Thomas was also working as a lighting director. The two would soon get together and they got married in 1979.
Meghan’s parents stayed together for eight years before they eventually got divorced in 1987. So, at present, Meghan Markle’s parents are not together.
As her parents are not together, Meghan has a relationship with each of them that is not interrelated.
When it comes to her relationship with her mother, Meghan has spoken about how she is very close to her mother and is appreciative of her support in all that she has experienced in her career and in the public eye.
Her relationship with her father is a bit more complicated and has its ups and downs, which apparently has been the case since Meghan’s childhood.
Where Was Meghan Markle Born And Raised?
Rachel Meghan Markle was born on August 4thin 1981. She was born in Los Angeles, California which is where her parents met and resided at the time.
Meghan’s father separated when she was two years old and divorced when she was six years old.
After her parents divorced, Meghan lived with her mother for the most part. Although she did still see her father a lot throughout her childhood.
Meghan continued to reside in Los Angeles with her mother and she attended and all-girls Catholic school.
Meghan would go on to attend Northwestern University and it was at this time that she then lived in Illinois.
Briefly, during her college career, Meghan worked for the U.S embassy in Buenos Aires, Argentina. But soon after, she returned to Northwestern in Illinois.
She also did a studying abroad program in Madrid, Spain and some point in her studies, eventually returning to her home city of Los Angeles.
This is when Meghan Markle began to pursue her acting career that led to her fame before she became the Duchess of Sussex.
Meghan Markle would go on to live in Toronto, Canada at the time that she was on the show “Suits” which was one of her biggest acting jobs.
After she began her relationship with Prince Harry, Meghan Markle would continue to reside mostly in Toronto. This was up until the point when they got married, then she relocated to London.
For a while, the two lived in Kensington Palace in London. Eventually though, the couple bought a house in California and Meghan found herself once again living in the state she was born and raised in.
What Nationality Is Meghan Markle?
Another thing people ask about often when it comes to Meghan Markle’s race is what her nationality is.
Nationality is something that a lot of people have misconceptions about.
Because people sometimes perceive that nationality determines someone’s race or ethnicity.However, this isn’t true.
A person can be of any race or ethnicity and still have the same nationality as another person with completely different racial and ethnic backgrounds.
For instance, if we take the United States as an example, we will find that there are many Americans who share that same national identity but have different ethnic and racial identities.
You will find people who are white, black, Asian, American Indian, Pacific Islander or mixed.
And you will find that people will also have varying ethnicities such as Latino or other non-Hispanic ethnicities.
When it comes to nationality, it only refers to the place that someone has their citizenship and not any other part of their identity.
For many people, this place that determines their nationality is often just where they are born.
For Meghan Markle, this is the case, although there are added layers to it as well due to her status as Duchess of Sussex.
Meghan Markle is considered American when it comes to nationality because she was born in the United Sates and was thus granted citizenship there by birth.
Meghan Markle can also be considered American-British, however. This is because of her marriage to Prince Harry.
Prince Harry is a part of the British royal family and has British citizenship. And through their marriage, Meghan also became a part of the royal family and also became a British citizen.
So, when it comes to nationality, we can safely say that Meghan Markle is American-British.
What Is Meghan Markle’s Ethnicity?
Meghan Markle’s race is also something that brings up questions of what her ethnicity is. Ethnicity can sometimes be confused as being the same thing as someone’s race.
But ethnicity and race are actually quite different from each other. Ethnicity refers to the specific culture, traditions, language and other learned aspects of someone’s identity that are passed on to them.
These traits are usually passed on by their parents, or they learn them from the culture of the environment they grow up in.
Race is different because it is something that depends only on biological traits that you get from your parents such as skin color.
When it comes to ethnicity then, in order to understand Meghan Markle’s, we have to look at her parents’ cultural backgrounds.
Meghan’s mother is African American and she was also born and raised in the United States. So from her mother’s side, Meghan is African American in terms of ethnicity.
Meghan’s father was also raised in the United States, But he has family origins in the Netherlands, Ireland and Germany.
The extend of how much of his background he passed on to Meghan growing up is not very clear.
However, knowing where his family is descendent from, he is ethnically Dutch, Irish and German.
And Meghan would also then be part Dutch, Irish and German in terms of her ethnicity.
So now knowing both sides of Meghan Markle’s family and their ethnic background, we can see that her ethnic identity is very diverse and mixed.
She can be identified as being African American, Irish, Dutch and German all at once when it comes to her ethnicity.
What Is Meghan Markle’s Race?
Now that we know all about her ethnicity, nationality and family background, we can better answer the question of Meghan Markle’s race.
Meghan Markle’s mother, being African American has African descent and because of this, she is black when it comes to her race.
So from her mother’s side, we know that Meghan Markle is black.
Meghan’s father is descendent from the Netherlands, Ireland and Germany. All of these places are in Europe. And because of his European descent, Meghan’s father is white.
So when it comes to her race, Meghan Markle is half black and half white. We can also refer to her as being mixed race or biracial.
Meghan has frequently identified herself with the term biracial in the media.
Why Do Some Consider Meghan Markle Black?
Some people will refer to Meghan Markle as black and not as biracial or as mixed race.
This is because in some parts of the world, having any level of blackness in you means that that is the racial category you will be societally understood to be. This is regardless of your other racial makeup.
A big reason for this way of categorizing race in some parts of the world such as the United States is that black people are a minority. And they have faced a lot of oppression over time.
And regardless of how black you are, being any level of black that can be perceived by others can result in you facing the oppression of being a minority in this way.
So many people in the United States identify as black whether they are mixed with any other race because that is how they are perceived.
Is Meghan Markle Black? Biracial? White? Other? Race & Ethnicity Revealed, Conclusion
Meghan Markle is a very interesting person in the public eye to discuss given her unique background.
A lot of people get confused about her identity and there are often many questions about it that people have unanswered.
Hopefully, with this article, we have shed some light on the Duchess’ history and answered any questions you may have had about her racial identity.