Prince Harry sat down with Black Lives Matter activist Patrick Hutchinson for a conversation about how his own perception of bias, and how it has changed since falling in love with Meghan Markle, who is biracial.
Harry said: “Unconscious bias, from my understanding, having the upbringing and the education that I had, I had no idea what it was. I had no idea it existed. And then, sad as it is to say, it took me many, many years to realize it, especially then living a day or a week in my wife's shoes.”
The pair were chatting over video as a part of GQ‘s Heroes conference. Hutchinson has been hailed for going into a crowd at a BLM protest in London and carrying a counter-protester to safety. He continued to act as a safety guard for all.
Harry said: “To me, you seem a form of guardian angel, that you were there to protect everybody from that red mist that comes in when you're acting as a group against another group.”
He added that unconscious bias frequently starts with “people within positions of power.”
“Whether it's politics or whether it's the media, where if you're not aware of your own bias and you're not aware of the culture within your system, then how are we ever going to progress? How are we ever going to get to that point where there is more fairness?” the Duke of Sussex said. “Because it's not a zero-sum game, right? Everyone benefits if the black community gets treated the way they should be treated.”
The 36-year-old, who shares Archie with Meghan called for real and continued change, starting with ourselves: “Being a dad myself, the whole point in life, I guess, for me, is to try to leave the world in a better place than when you found it. It's going to take every single one of us to really change things and anyone that's pushing against it really needs to take a long, hard look at themselves in the mirror.”
Meanwhile, Harry’s lawyers have issued legal warnings to the Mail on Sunday, which claimed that Harry has not been in touch “by phone, letter nor email” with the Armed Forces in the UK since stepping down from his formal Marine duties.
A source told Vanity Fair: “He might have been made to give up his titles, but he has not given up on the military, far from it.” An aide for the Duke clarified, “To say he has not been in touch with the Marines is not the case. He had many conversations with former colleagues during the lockdown and is in regular contact with a lot of military personnel on a private and personal basis.”