This week has been pretty huge for the royal family.
On Monday, the Duchess of Sussex, Meghan Markle, gave birth to a baby boy, her first child with husband Prince Harry, and the world pretty much exploded with happiness.
Getty Images | WPA Pool
CNN Slammed For Asking ‘How Black Will The Royal Baby Be?’
We love royals and we love babies, so a royal baby is almost too much for us to handle.
Pretty much all anyone's been talking about for weeks has been this baby. When will they be born? Will they be a boy or a girl? What will their name be? Finally we can start getting some answers.
We had to wait a few days, but Meghan and Harry have finally given the people what they want.
Today the happy parents showed off the newest addition to the royal family and we got our first look at their baby boy.
Quite unsurprisingly, the world has exploded for the second time this week.
Instagram | @sussexroyal
We're not sure how much more baby joy we can take. They announced the name of their baby boy shortly after, and the world fell in love.
Meghan, Harry, and their baby have been the topic on everyone's lips this week.
Unsplash | Luma Pimentel
But, one news outlet in particular has recently come under fire for its analysis of the royal baby's mixed-race heritage.
CNN published an article in which the subhead asked, 'How black will the royal baby be?'
Twitter | @ambermruffin
According to The Washington Times, the article was meant to ponder mix-raced 'myths' but quickly outraged people who read the piece and felt writer John Blake had seriously missed the mark.
"Let's not turn this child into another 'Great Mixed-Race Hope,'" Blake pleaded in the article.
Unsplash | Jernej Graj
He wrote about how the news has previously taken mix-raced people and elevated them "to a position of prominence" as "proof of racial progress."
People have been speculating about how influential the baby's racial status might be.
Instagram | @sussexroyal
The royal biographer Claudia Joseph told Reuters, “I think this baby is going to be hugely important historically because it’s going to break new ground. Whether it’s a girl or a boy, it will be the first Afro-American baby to be born into the royal family.”
Some people have been poking fun at the ridiculousness of the question.
The prevalence of Prince Harry's ginger genes is a more pressing question to some people on Twitter, and they do raise a good point.
Blake goes on to speculate how close the royal baby will be to his mix-raced roots.
He cites Meghan's past comments about her black mother and how she was raised to embrace her "blackness." He also touches on the various ways in which Meghan incorporated her pride into her royal wedding.
The response to Blake's article have been overwhelmingly negative.
"How BLACK?" Pastor Hart Ramsey tweeted in response to the article. "How white is the leadership @CNN?"
This Twitter user offered a powerful response to the question posed in the article.
Other Twitter users also lamented the article for judging a child "that's not even 3 days old and can't speak and defend themselves."
Former CNN anchor and current 'Late Night with Seth Meyers' writer Soledad O'Brien has also tweeted in response.
She slammed CNN for its headline. "CNN needs more people of color working in the executive, decision-making ranks. Obviously," O'Brien wrote and included an image of the article.
Blake has since taken to Twitter to defend his article against the criticism it has received.
Responding to a tweet about the headline, he wrote that anyone who read the entire piece would understand that the analysis was addressing "why classifying a child as X% black is a trap."
Unfortunately, the damage is already done.
Getty Images | WPA Pool
Despite clarification, people still aren't happy with Blake's choice of words with one Twitter user directly responding to the CNN writer and saying, "Why does a mixed race person have to be labeled one thing or another? If they want to be just another person like everyone else, let them!"
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