The Duke of Sussex has spoken candidly about the effects of "unconscious bias" on racism. Photo / Getty Images
The Duke of Sussex has spoken candidly about the effects of "unconscious bias" on racism, warning people must understand how their upbringing and environment causes them to be prejudiced without realising it.
The Duke, writing in the Duchess of Sussex's guest edited issue of Vogue magazine, put forward an impassioned explanation of how stigma is "handed down from generation to generation", saying too many people fail to acknowledge their own bias.
Speaking of "unconscious bias", which he described as "something which so many people don't understand, why they feel the way they do", the Duke said: "Despite the fact that if you go up to someone and say 'what you've just said, or the way you've behaved, is racist' - they'll turn around and say, 'I'm not a racist'.
"'I'm not saying you're a racist, I'm just saying that your unconscious bias is proving that because of the way that you've been brought up, the environment you've been brought up in, suggests that you have this point of view - unconscious point of view - where naturally you will look at someone in a different way.' And that is the point at which people start to have to understand."
In an interview with Jane Goodall, the conservationist, the Duke gave frank insights into his views on the destruction of the planet, his plans for future children, and how young people are "taught to hate" after being born without prejudice.
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The Duke and Dr Goodall, one of the world's most famous campaigners and primatologists, conducted a sit-down interview at the Duke's home, with questions and answers printed in the September issue of Vogue approved and edited by his wife, Meghan.
The Duchess is the first biracial woman to marry into the Royal Family, and was widely praised for embracing her dual heritage at her St George's Chapel wedding and speaking out about diversity.
Her critics have often been accused of both racism and misogyny.
While she has chosen not to speak out directly on the subject recently, tactfully avoiding a question on a live Q&A panel earlier this year, her husband has now offered his impassioned views on a society in which people's beliefs are "taught".
"What I love about your work is that you focus on the younger generation," the Duke told Dr Goodall. "When you start to peel away all the layers, all the taught behaviour, the learned behaviour, the experienced behaviour, you start to peel all that away and at the end of the day, we're all humans."
Dr Goodall replied: "Especially if you get little kids together, there's no difference! They don't notice, 'my skin's white, mine's black' until somebody tells them."
Harry said: "But again, stigma is handed down from generation to generation, your perspective on the world and on life and on people is something that is taught to you.
"It's learned from your family, learned from the older generation, or from advertising, from your environment.
"And, therefore, you have to be able to have a wider perspective.
"Going back to my questions, how has what you've learned from chimpanzees impacted how you feel about people?"
Dr Goodall told him: "That we have lots of instincts. From studying the chimps and seeing all the similarities it was obvious to me that we have inherited aggressive tendencies.
"When you look around the world, they're everywhere. They're not learned. They're just...there.
"You get angry. But with our brain we mostly control them."
The Duke also signalled his commitment to the environment in a light-hearted aside about his family planning, saying he would be having "two children, maximum" in the face of pressures on the planet.
"I view it differently now, without question. But I've always wanted to try and ensure that, even before having a child and hoping to have children…"
"Not too many!" Dr Goodall interjected.
"Two, maximum!" the Duke said. "But I've always thought: this place is borrowed. And, surely, as intelligent as we all are, or as evolved as we all are supposed to be, we should be able to leave something better behind for the next generation."
The interview, in which both the Duke and Dr Goodall spoke of their hopes for the next generation, also saw the Duke echo his father, the Prince of Wales, and sister-in-law the Duchess of Cambridge on the importance of "nature as medicine", warning that more people are now being brought up "disconnected" from the natural world.
"I always think to myself, whenever there's another natural disaster, a huge increase in volcano eruptions or earthquakes or flooding, how many clues does nature have to give us before we actually learn, or wake ourselves up to the damage and the destruction that we're causing?" the Duke asked.
Dr Goodall said: "I think some of these people at the top know. But for them, the immediate profit, the immediate gain... it's just greed. And then, there are the people who feel there's nothing you can do about it anyway, so 'eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die'.
"That's why it's so important to get this new fighting atmosphere. That's why my great hope is in the youth."
The Duchess of Sussex's issue of the magazine also includes a telling insight to her personal passions, from charity Smart Works to Commonwealth fashion designers and an article on "how to ride out the hurts of social media".
A "wellness" page about the power of breathing notes that "breathing too much or too little, in any situation, will limit performance and have negative effects on health", and advertises a NZ$8080 workshop to help.
The Duchess also includes a "personal favourite" poem by Matt Haig, written about body confidence from the perspective of a beach which advises: "Let it all wash over you. Allow yourself to be just as you are."
Likely to be interpreted in part as the Duchess' own views on heeding external criticism, it includes the line: "I am a beach. I literally don't give a f***".
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