Racism – Scotland Hidden Shame
Since the Scottish Parliament reopened you hear a lot of people talk about Scotland being a progressive, forward thinking and inclusive country. This is true to a certain extent, however for each and every person that reads this they will have experienced or witnessed some form of racial abuse. In 2022/23, there were 3,145 race hate crime charges reported to the public prosecution service in Scotland, and 3,216 in 2021/22.
Since Humza Yousaf became Scotland’s First Minister, there appears to be a lot of people showing their true colours. You just have to read a lot of comments in social media apps to get an idea how embarrassing and disgusting it has become.
The Police recorded hate crime - characteristics: updated study shows that almost two-thirds (or 64%) of race aggravated hate crimes had a victim from a visible minority ethnic (non-white) group. This compares to 4% of Scotland’s population at the time of the last census in 2011.
An estimated 18% of race aggravated hate crimes had a victim of African, Caribbean or Black ethnicity. This was followed by Polish or Other White and Pakistani, Pakistani British or Pakistani Scottish (with both groups accounting for 17%). At 12%, victims who were White Scottish made up the next largest group.
In 36% of race aggravated hate crimes, the words used or actions taken by the perpetrator suggested an anti-Black prejudice and in over a quarter of cases prejudice was shown towards the Pakistani community. In almost one in five crimes the perpetrator made general xenophobic remarks not directed at any one group. This clearly shows that there are still large groups in our society that have out dated and uneducated views regarding race.
Recently a small clip of a speech about diversity by the First Minister is being misrepresented online by Unionists suggesting it shows Humza Yousaf arguing that Scotland contains too many white people. Most people have seen this clip however here is a link to the full speech (from 1:56:10 to 2:05:22) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_FubSPZNSs
Unionists have deliberately misrepresented the speech. Humza Yousaf delivered the monologue on June 10th, 2020, when he was then Scotland’s Justice Minister, and when protests had swept across world after the murder of George Floyd, an African American man, at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer.
Humza Yousaf speech was given as part of a wider discussion about racial injustice and the lack of people of colour in positions of power in the Scottish Parliament and Government at that time. The speech clearly did not assert that white people make up too large a proportion of Scotland’s overall population.
“Forget the racial jibes and the slurs that we still have to put up with; racism is literally killing minorities, as we have all seen… however, racism does not only exist in the United States, Scotland is not immune… (it) has a problem of structural racism… we can take the Parliament as an example. More than 300 MSPs have come to and gone from this Parliament — our nation’s Parliament. In 20 years, there has not been a single black member of the Scottish Parliament, to our shame; there has not been a single woman MSP of colour, to our shame; and the only four ethnic minority MSPs have all been Scots Asian males.” (Humza Yousaf, June 10th 2020).
There was nothing racial about this speech. Humza Yousaf expressed anger at racial injustice and highlighted the lack of diversity in Scotland’s Parliament and Government at that time. A lot of unionist’s conveniently miss out the speech from Anas Sarwar, The Scottish Labour Leader, which was very similar (from 57:50 to 1:02:50).
If you have experienced a hate incident or hate crime you must report it to the police. You can also report it if you have seen a hate crime happen to someone else. You can contact the police directly or to make things easier you can use an online form on the Police Scotland website https://www.scotland.police.uk/secureforms/c3/
The general election approaches and we will see a lot of dirty tricks, smear, SNP bad, Scotland talked down, self-hating country Scots being even more vocal etc. The yes movement must stand together and unite. Independence will come in the future but we are all still on a journey trying to shape Scotland into the country she can be and for our children to live, grow and learn. At the election please make the right choice.
References
Number of race hate crime charges reported in Scotland from 2012/13 to 2022/23
Police recorded hate crime - characteristics: updated study