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(Almost) straight outta Compton is part of a headline from a 2016 article written by Ruth Styles and published by the MailOnline, the website of the British tabloid newspaper the Daily Mail . The headline has been criticised and described as being an example of racist press commentary towards the American former actress Meghan Markle, prior to marrying the British Prince Harry.
The November 2016 MailOnline article is about the inferred family background of American actress Meghan Markle (born 1981) and her upbringing in the Los Angeles district of Crenshaw with her mother, Doria Ragland. [1] It was published after Markle began dating Prince Harry. [2] The full headline is: "Harry's girl is (almost) straight outta Compton: Gang-scarred home of her mother revealed—so will he be dropping by for tea?". It was also published on 2 November 2016 in a byline given to Ruth Styles "in Los Angeles for Dailymail.com". [1] Crenshaw is portrayed in the article as having a high crime rate with the first paragraph stating that "Plagued by crime and riddled with street gangs, the troubled Los Angeles neighborhood that Doria Ragland, 60, calls home couldn't be more different to London's leafy Kensington. But social worker Ragland might now find herself welcoming a royal guest to downtrodden Crenshaw after Prince Harry was revealed to be dating her daughter— Suits actress Meghan Markle". [1]
The headline references the 1988 song "Straight Outta Compton", the debut record by the American gangsta rap hip hop group N.W.A. [3] The city of Compton in southern Los Angeles County, California, was historically associated with gang violence. [4] Compton is located 14 miles from Crenshaw, the area profiled in the article. [5] A separate article by the British tabloid the Daily Star had a headline querying whether Harry would "marry into gangster royalty?". [6]
Markle grew up in the 1980s and 1990s. She became engaged to Prince Harry in 2017. Upon their marriage in 2018, she became the Duchess of Sussex. Their son, Archie Mountbatten-Windsor, was born in 2019. The following year, the couple stepped down as senior members of the royal family, moving to Canada and then to the Duchess's native Southern California.
In reaction to the March 2021 Oprah with Meghan and Harry television interview with Oprah Winfrey, Finlay Greig wrote in the Edinburgh Evening News that the headline insinuates that Meghan comes from a "life of crime", despite being brought up in a middle class area, [5] which had suffered significant damage from both the 1992 Los Angeles riots and the 1994 Northridge earthquake, but was able to rebound in the late 2000s with the help of redevelopment and gentrification. [7] The 2016 "(Almost) Straight Outta Compton" article also captioned a picture: "Prince Harry's new girl, Meghan Markle, grew up in this house in Crenshaw, Los Angeles, a troubled area that had 47 crimes in the past week—including murder." [4]
The tone of this and other articles prompted Prince Harry's Communications Secretary to issue a statement that deplored the "racist" and "sexist" commentary and coverage received by Meghan. [8] [9] [2] The statement described Meghan as having been "...subject to a wave of abuse and harassment. Some of this has been very public—the smear on the front page of a national newspaper; the racial undertones of comment pieces; and the outright sexism and racism of social media trolls and web article comments". [8] The statement described Harry as worried about Meghan's safety and concluded that he had asked for the statement "to be issued in the hopes that those in the press who have been driving this story can pause and reflect before any further damage is done". [10]
The Los Angeles Times clarified that the area "described by the British press as Crenshaw" was, in reality, the "more upscale" area of Baldwin Hills. [9] Writing for BBC News in September 2017, Regan Morris wrote that "When one newspaper dubbed Markle '(Almost) Straight Outta Compton' last year, there was an outcry" and that "If you read the British tabloid press you would think the actress grew up in LA's notorious gang culture and was lucky to escape a life of crime". [2] In a January 2020 opinion piece for The New York Times , published in the wake of 'Megxit', the writer and broadcaster Afua Hirsch wrote that "From the very first headline about her being '(almost) straight outta Compton' and having 'exotic' DNA, the racist treatment of Meghan has been impossible to ignore". [11]
The headline was highlighted in the reaction to Meghan and Harry's interview with Oprah Winfrey in March 2021. Hanna Ziady wrote for CNN that "The first round of headlines back in 2016 played on harmful stereotypes and helped set the tone for how parts of the UK media, and especially its tabloid newspapers, would treat this newcomer to the royal family who stood out in one very obvious way: her race". [6] Activist and lawyer Shola Mos-Shogbamimu wrote for The Guardian that she "[could not] believe that we are still having this debate about whether the way that Meghan has been treated is racist. It is misogynoir, pure and simple. Look at the media coverage of her. The Daily Mail said that she was "(almost) straight outta Compton"....That tells you what kind of society we live in". [12] The headline was raised in an interview by Victoria Derbyshire with Ian Murray, the head of the Society of Editors. Derbyshire asked Murray if the headline was bigoted or racist, Murray replied that it was "disputed" as to whether the headline was offensive and said that it was "not acceptable" to describe sections of the British press as "bigoted". Murray described the article as a "rags to riches" story. [5]
Murray has since stepped down from the Society of Editors after releasing a statement headlined: "UK media not bigoted: SoE responds to Sussexes' claims of racism", [13] denying racism and bigotry in the UK press. The statement received an immediate backlash in the form of an open letter [14] signed by over 250 "journalists of colour from the Guardian , Metro , the New York Times , the BBC and others", [15] calling the initial statement "laughable" proof of "an institution and an industry in denial". [16]
Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, is a member of the British royal family. As the younger son of King Charles III and Diana, Princess of Wales, he is fifth in the line of succession to the British throne.
Straight Outta Compton is the debut studio album by American gangsta rap group N.W.A, which, led by Eazy-E, formed in Los Angeles County's City of Compton in early 1987. Released by his label, Ruthless Records, on August 8, 1988, the album was produced by N.W.A members Dr. Dre, DJ Yella, and Arabian Prince, with lyrics written by N.W.A members Ice Cube and MC Ren along with Ruthless rapper and unofficial member The D.O.C. Not merely depicting Compton's street violence, the lyrics repeatedly threaten to lead it by attacking peers and even police. The track "Fuck tha Police" drew an FBI agent's warning letter, which aided N.W.A's notoriety, with N.W.A calling itself "the world's most dangerous group."
Piers Stefan Pughe-Morgan is an English broadcaster, journalist, writer, and media personality. He began his career in 1988 at the tabloid The Sun. In 1994, at the age of 29, he was appointed editor of the News of the World by Rupert Murdoch, which made him the youngest editor of a British national newspaper in more than half a century. From 1995, Morgan edited the Daily Mirror, but was fired in 2004. He was the editorial director of First News from 2006 to 2007. In 2014, Morgan became the first editor-at-large of the MailOnline website's US operation.
Meghan, Duchess of Sussex is an American member of the British royal family and a former actress. She is married to Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, the younger son of King Charles III.
Straight Outta Compton is a 2015 American epic biographical drama film that depicts the rise and fall of the hip hop group N.W.A under the management of Jerry Heller. It was directed by F. Gary Gray from a screenplay written by Jonathan Herman and Andrea Berloff based on a story written by Berloff and executive producers S. Leigh Savidge and Alan Wenkus. Co-produced by Gray, former members Ice Cube and Dr. Dre, Eazy-E's widow Tomica Woods-Wright, Matt Alvarez and Scott Bernstein, with MC Ren and DJ Yella serving as creative consultants, the film stars O'Shea Jackson Jr. as his father Ice Cube, alongside Corey Hawkins, Jason Mitchell, Neil Brown Jr. and Aldis Hodge as Dr. Dre, Eazy-E, MC Ren and DJ Yella, respectively, and Paul Giamatti as Heller. Rounding out the rest of the ensemble cast include Marlon Yates Jr, R. Marcos Taylor, LaKeith Stanfield, Alexandra Shipp and Keith Powers.
The wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle was held on Saturday 19 May 2018 in St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle in the United Kingdom. The groom is a member of the British royal family; the bride is American and previously worked as an actress, blogger, charity ambassador, and advocate.
Doria Loyce Ragland is the mother of Meghan Markle and the ex-wife of American retired television lighting director and director of photography Thomas Markle Sr.. Ragland holds a degree in social work and is a former makeup artist and yoga instructor.
Thomas Wayne Markle is an American retired television lighting director and director of photography. He received a Chicago/Midwest Emmy Award for work on the television program Made in Chicago in 1975 and was a co-recipient of two Daytime Emmy Awards for work on the television soap opera General Hospital in 1982 and 2011. His youngest child is Meghan, Duchess of Sussex.
Members of the Markle and Ragland families have been related by marriage to the British royal family since the wedding of Meghan Markle and Prince Harry in May 2018, when she became the Duchess of Sussex. The couple have two children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet of Sussex. The Markle family is of German descent and originates in Alsace on the modern French–German border, and Meghan's paternal ancestors moved to the United States in the 17th century; among her father's other ancestors are American settlers of English, Dutch, and Irish descent. The Ragland family is of African American descent.
Harry & Meghan: A Royal Romance is a 2018 historical fiction television film about the meeting and courtship of Harry and Meghan Markle. The movie originally aired on the Lifetime Network on May 13, 2018, as a lead up to the royal wedding. The movie stars Murray Fraser and Parisa Fitz-Henley as the titular Prince Harry and Meghan Markle with Burgess Abernethy and Laura Mitchell co-starring as Prince William, Duke of Cambridge and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge.
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Finding Freedom: Harry and Meghan and the Making of A Modern Royal Family is a biography by Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand, revolving around the married lives of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. The book was written with the Duchess's contribution through a third-party source. It was published on 11 August 2020 by HarperCollins.
Princess Lilibet of Sussex is an American-born member of the British royal family. She is the daughter of Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex. She is a granddaughter of King Charles III and is seventh in the line of succession to the British throne. She was born during the reign of her great-grandmother Queen Elizabeth II, whose childhood nickname was Lilibet.
Oprah with Meghan and Harry is a 2021 television special hosted by American media personality Oprah Winfrey, that featured an interview between Winfrey, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, and Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex. The special premiered March 7, 2021, on CBS in the United States, and in the United Kingdom the next day on ITV.
The Society of Editors is an industry body for around 400 UK national and regional media editors, representatives and organisations.
Archetypes is a podcast produced by Archewell Audio Productions and hosted by Meghan, Duchess of Sussex. The podcast debuted on Spotify on August 23, 2022, and featured Meghan talking with artists, athletes, and experts about the history of stereotypes that get leveled against women. In June 2023, Spotify and Archewell Audio released a statement that confirmed they mutually agreed to part ways. In February 2024 it was announced that Lemonada Media would redistribute the first season of Archetypes on all audio platforms.
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The Crenshaw Mafia Gangster Bloods are a "set" of the Bloods gang alliance. The gang is depicted in several movies, including Boyz n the Hood and Straight Outta Compton.
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