Why The Female Protagonist of The Devil In A Blue Dress Reminds Me of Meghan Markle

Adebayo Adeniran
4 min readSep 20, 2022

The profound tragedy of crossing the colour line

Meghan Markle via Wikimedia Commons

It was the preeminent African-American scholar — William Burghardt Dubois — who wrote the most extraordinarily powerful words which have stood the test of time:

The problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color line

the question of how far differences of race . . . will hereafter be made the basis of denying to over half the world the right of sharing to their utmost ability the opportunities and privileges of modern civilization

It was true then and it rings powerfully true today.

Anyone who has seen the film adaptation of The Devil In The Blue Dress starring Denzel Washington, Don Cheadle, Tom Sizemore and Jennifer Beals may understand the basis of this post.

For some reason, Daphne Monet, played by Jennifer Beals was the character that I was struck by the most.

And I should try to explain why.

Unbeknownst to Easy Rawlings, Monet had incriminating photographs of a mayoral candidate — Matthew Terrell — who in turn knew a secret about the female protagonist that she was so desperate to conceal.

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Adebayo Adeniran

A lifelong bibliophile, who seeks to unleash his energy on as many subjects as possible