Opinion: Yes, Harry and Meghan aired grievances. But there’s another takeaway from their docuseries

Editor’s Note: Sophia A. Nelson is a journalist and author of the new book “Be the One You Need: 21 Life Lessons I Learned Taking Care of Everyone but Me.” The views expressed in this commentary are her own. View more opinion on CNN.

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Let’s just stipulate that racism probably played a role in the scurrilous press coverage and barely-disguised slights – including from some within the royal family – that Meghan Markle has been subjected to in Britain.

Even one of the organizations governing media in the United Kingdom conceded last year that “there is a lot of work to be done” when covering issues related to race. That statement was issued amid an outcry from journalists of color over the unflattering coverage that Prince Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, received in the aftermath of their famous sit down with Oprah Winfrey. The current firestorm over their new Netflix docuseries suggests to me that the media’s work in confronting this bias remains unfinished.

But the decidedly chilly reception that the Duchess of Sussex received as a “mixed-race” American divorcee – one of the major through lines of the six-part series in which she and Harry bare their souls – wasn’t really the main point of the project.

Ultimately, this series is about freeing oneself from family dysfunction, healing and moving forward.

Harry and Meghan’s Netflix documentary series debuted last week with three initial installments. The last three episodes, which debuted this week, offered a powerful reminder that sometimes the best thing we can do is walk away from our family members in hopelessly toxic situations, even though we still love them. Sometimes you have to choose yourself over those relatives, even if they are part of a powerful and exalted institution.

It’s a vivid lesson in how to look after oneself when the people around you not only don’t seem to care if you survive, but also seem to be secretly, actively making sure you don’t thrive. And it provides an in-depth window into surviving familial conflict, navigating outsize personalities and cavernous gulfs dividing close relatives. That can be especially hard when you’re struggling to maintain your sense of autonomy and…