Earlier this month, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex revealed on Instagram that they planned to become financially independent. Since then, the media has had a field day with this information and everyone seems to have an opinion on it. However, they are not abandoning the United Kingdom altogether.

“We now plan to balance our time between the United Kingdom and North America, continuing to honour our duty to The Queen, the Commonwealth and our patronages,” Harry Windsor and Meghan Markle shared on their website.

The couple plans to move their family to North America, most likely somewhere in Canada. They will still help the Queen as much as they can and follow through with prior engagements, but aside from that they will be living independently.

Although we do not know which of the two decided to be financially independent, many people blame the decision solely on Markle. But why put the blame on her?

It is a common belief amongst Americans that the former actress is unfairly blamed due to her race, as the media has previously targeted her for her race before. She has been referred to as “(almost) straight outta Compton,” and the couple’s son has been said to look like a chimpanzee, according to Vox.

This blatant racism against Markle should not be tolerated, especially in 2020. It is particularly disgusting to read such criticism especially being from a university in New Britain, where 58.7 percent of the population is non-white based on a report from City-Data.

The British public are choosing to blame Markle as they believe it is she who has “brainwashed” her husband into thinking they should step back from royal duties. However, in an interview after the news broke, Windsor clearly explained that it was his decision as he believed it to be, “the best thing for his family.”

Buckingham Palace also announced a statement that the couple will no longer use their His/Her Royal Highness titles, are no longer going to receive public funds and will repay money used to renovate their Frogmore Cottage. In the same statement, the Queen thanked them for their dedicated work and supported their decision. She spoke of how proud she is of Markle to be one of the family.

Yet, some people of the British public beg to differ. As the royal family shows support for the couple’s decisions, Twitter frenzied with thousands of toxic tweets. One of which, tweeted @dasnjpa1, being: “The Queen and Prince Phillip did not deserve this at their advanced age. Harry could have put in a few more years until his grandparents have rested in peace. Shame on Me-gain for destroying family.”

How are they hurting the Queen? Just because they are The Royals, people believe that they have to live a perfect life. Also as the couples lives their lives in the public eye it means they are subjected to be intensely scrutinized on any decision they make by everyone. The average person can make the choice to not be apart of their family anymore without such judgment; it is amazing that being a monarch effects the little things you do.

One of the reasons they chose to leave is because of how they are treated by the media. The British media has double standards when it comes to Meghan Markle and the Duchess of Cambridge Kate Middleton. One thing that was acceptable for Kate is not the same for Meghan…we can only speculate as to why that is.