Can A Black Man Get an Amen At a Royal Wedding?

Hello Meltingpot Readers,

I’m sure it will come as no surprise that I watched Meghan and Harry’s wedding from start to finish on Saturday. Please note, I did not get up at four in the morning to watch it live because I don’t stan for the royals like that, even if this was the first British royal wedding with a Black girl in a starring role.

Before I could enjoy the royal nuptials, I had to take two kids to karate, clean the parts of my house that people can see from the front porch and build a robot out of recyclable materials with babygirl. Only then could I sit down and cue up the wedding on YouTube. I’m a sucker for romance and I love a good wedding, but really what I wanted to see was just how Blackity Black this wedding was going to be. I told my kids (yes, I made them watch with me) that they should help me look for Black people in the audience and elsewhere and they took it as a challenge and a game (because otherwise why would a 13-year-old boy be watching a royal wedding on a Saturday afternoon.)

FAILED INTEGRATION
Alas, in my opinion, #TheRoyalWedding2018 felt like a failed attempt at forced integration. You know, kinda like how wealthy private schools give scholarships to Black students from underserved communities, bring them into the school but do nothing to change the culture of the school to welcome them in. So, then these students walk around the hallways feeling grateful but out-of-place and just a little bit awkward and unwanted. That’s how I imagined the Reverend Michael Curry must have felt as he preached in that pulpit and the mostly white British audience stared at him impassively with the same level of enthusiasm one has when waiting at the DMV to get a driver’s licence renewed.

Reverend Curry clearly came ready to claim his 15 minutes of fame. He preached an impassioned sermon on the power of love. He invoked Martin Luther King, Jr. and African-American slaves and dipped into some liberation theology too. He was on fire, but it seemed that the only two people feeling his message were Meghan and her mother. Everybody else in that room seemed hell-bent on betraying zero emotion. I hate to resort to stereotypes, but the British are known for their stiff upper lips and those lips looked pretty stiff while Rev. Curry was preaching. I just wanted somebody, anybody, to give that man an Amen. But no, the emotions were on lock. The reverend must have felt like he was talking to an empty room.

But Reverend Curry wasn’t the only bit of color in the otherwise very traditional ceremony. There was the Kingdom Choir Gospel Choir and their stirring rendition of Stand By Me. They sang accompanied by a simple piano, and like all good gospel choirs they didn’t just sing, they SANG that song and did a little swaying and moving towards the end. In return the audience gave them…nothing. The only person I saw moving in her a seat during the song was Meghan’s mama. And nobody even clapped at the end. Perhaps that’s not British protocol to clap at a wedding, but still, can’t a choir get a little clap? One enthusiastic snap and an amen? Apparently not.

The wedding ceremony ended with three musical selections featuring 19-year-old Black British cellist, Sheku Kanneh-Mason. Now, if I had been at the wedding, I definitely would have clapped after his amazing performance, but clearly I wasn’t there and nobody else felt compelled to applaud the young virtuoso. Then as Harry and Meghan made their way out of the chapel, the choir sang the traditional African-American spiritual, This Little Light of Mine which was a nice Blackety Black, touch.

NOT QUITE READY FOR MELTINGPOT STATUS
So, yes, there were nice bits of color sprinkled throughout this royal wedding, but the color didn’t seem to penetrate, much like a scoop of vanilla ice cream with rainbow jimmies thrown on for color not taste (because we all know jimmies are really just wax shavings and taste like wax shavings). I completely applaud Meghan Markle’s attempts to bring some color to her wedding and ultimately I think it was a win for diversity just to have the presence of Black people included in such a high-profile ceremony; representation always matters. But at the end of the day, until a Black man can get an Amen from the audience, I’m not ready to give this wedding the Meltingpot stamp of approval. Flavors weren’t melting together in that royal pot, they were just co-existing, wearing those fabulous hats, doing their own thing.

What did you think or the wedding, dear readers? Did you even watch? I’d love to hear your takeaway thoughts.

I’m listening.

Peace!