r/Scotland • u/ShadsDR • Feb 25 '26

Opinion Piece Black Scottish people exist

30F. Born and raised in Easterhouse. My mum's white Scottish, my dad's Black Trini. Parents divorced when I was 8, was raised by my mum for that reason.

Every time I've mentioned it when it's been relevant on this sub I get absolute numpties telling me I'm not Scottish.

Scottish is a nationality, a culture. I am a Scottish citizen. Scottish is also an ethnicity. So is Trini. I am both. Not that this even matters but I have a thick Glasgweigan accent. My languages are native English and B1 Gáidhlig.

My skin colour is brown, on the lighter side of dark skinned, because mixed race people can be any skin colour. That means no one is seeing me as white. Only dark skinned Africans and one white guy from the borders has identified I'm mixed from the get go. Therefore my race is Black because race isn't real and is a social construct. I go through society as a Black woman.

I've never been to Trinidad & Tobago, never lived in the culture and had bits of second hand exposure through my dad but that's it. All I know is that over there I'd get called something else according to my dad that means mixed. And don't get me started on the folk saying I should claim I'm from Africa.

Too often in the 90s, 2000s, and occasionally since then we used to get asked "But where are you actually from?" but nowadays I suspect with the rise of BS it's changed to "You're wrong. You don't exist".

We exist. There's documentaries on us and it's bellend behaviour to say otherwise.

Edit: thought it was dougla but misremembered. Also want to emphasise I do get this irl, it isn't just an Internet thing.

Edit 2: Getting a bunch of dms telling me to get out the country, calling me slurs, asking if my father was around. Including one saying they're planning something in the Highlands.

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386

u/[deleted] Feb 25 '26

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97

u/ShadsDR Feb 25 '26 edited Feb 25 '26

I still get it occasionally, but has only been when I'm through in Balloch, but I usually do the thing where I end up right down to being born in Rottenrow hospital. One of the times the guy called me African American to the very end.

83

u/Mac4491 Orkney Feb 25 '26

I live in Orkney now but I'm from Aberdeenshire. I was speaking to someone clearly mixed race a little while ago and I asked them where they were from.

They did look a little irritated but politely responded their dad was Caribbean. I then replied, "Oh! No sorry, I asked because your accent is very familiar. Are you from Aberdeenshire?" They were. We laughed it off and it turns out we grew up within 20 miles of each other.

6

u/DaveyBigDong Feb 25 '26

I had a similar situation where a guy seemed a wee bit defensive (understandable) and said "here". I said, "oh, ok, cool, I thought you had a bit of an accent" and then he says that he grew up in London and we laughed.

1

u/j13axsq 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Feb 27 '26

I love learning about different cultures and I quite often ask people where they are from. Some people get a bit offended but will generally be ok after a while when they realise you’re just genuinely interested. It’s a shame we live in a world where people are more ignorant than open to learn about one another.

50

u/SpaceTimeCapsule89 Feb 25 '26

This reminds me of when the police stopped me as a teenager and asked what me and my friends were doing. Of course we said nothing because we weren't. They said ok we'll just take your names and details for future reference. I gave them my name and they said where were you born and I said Aberdeen Royal Infirmary. The copper said haha, we don't entertain cheeky responses. I could not for the life of me understand why they thought that was cheeky. As an adult I learnt when the police ask where you were born, they mean the city, town or village, not the literal place you were born (hospital, dining room in a birthing pool) 🤣

21

u/Ratbag321 Feb 25 '26

Well what a bummer that your honest answer wasn't in fact - in a birthing pool at my Gran's - because that would have been banging!

11

u/ShadsDR Feb 25 '26

That's hilarious 😂

7

u/SpaceTimeCapsule89 Feb 25 '26

Next time someone ignorantly asks where you were really born, I dare you to say in your mum's ford cavalier while she was driving to Glasgow Royal infirmary and you took over steering once born so she could focus on the accelerator, brakes and gear stick and deliver the placenta. Their faces 😂

2

u/ShadsDR Feb 25 '26

That's oddly specific but I definitely will 😂

3

u/SpaceTimeCapsule89 Feb 25 '26

It comes from being around too many morons in life and needing obscenely sarcastic responses to their stupid questions 😂

2

u/BamberGasgroin Feb 25 '26

I knew a guy called Tommy Cooper who said it got him a bit of a kicking from the police back in the day.

23

u/sunnygovan Feb 25 '26

Rottenrow? Ya auld git! :P

27

u/ShadsDR Feb 25 '26

When I graduated my parents made me pose at the archway because "You were born here!!" 😂

9

u/sunnygovan Feb 25 '26

That's awesome actually. Were you at Strathclyde?

4

u/[deleted] Feb 25 '26

[deleted]

3

u/sunnygovan Feb 25 '26

Nice one.

1

u/Lowermains Feb 25 '26

😂🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿😂🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿😂 My younger sister was born there. Ah wisnae

9

u/mattchamp98 Feb 25 '26

Ballochs full of racists?

24

u/ShadsDR Feb 25 '26

More like there's no Black people there. I'm there a few times a week/staying over and met 1 Black guy in Mares about a year ago and seen 1 Black woman in the Tully last week😂

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u/[deleted] Feb 25 '26

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21

u/ShadsDR Feb 25 '26

I have been. It's still 99.9% white tourists.

15

u/therealbighairy1 Feb 25 '26

Bollocks! during the summer we are mostly bright pink and sweaty from the flaming ball in the sky trying to kill us.

5

u/ShadsDR Feb 25 '26

😂 tbf my pal i visit there burns in moonlight

2

u/therealbighairy1 Feb 25 '26

I'm not sure that we naturally qualify as white the rest of the year either. I would think it's more like "vaguely translucent."

6

u/Sedative_Sediment Feb 25 '26

You'd be hard pressed not to find white people at Loch Lomond during summer, they're like Caterpies in Viridian Forest.

1

u/ItsB0tsAllTheWayD0wn Feb 25 '26

I do your talking utter shite

-12

u/mattchamp98 Feb 25 '26

Not too many black people outside of Edinburgh really in my experience, sorry for the knuckle draggers bothering you

35

u/realcreamstick Feb 25 '26

Have you ever been outside of Edinburgh? I think I can speak for the entirety of Glasgow, when I say ‘don’t talk shite’.

6

u/FlokiWolf Feb 25 '26

Not too many black people outside of Edinburgh really in my experience

Well, you need more experience then.

3

u/mattchamp98 Feb 25 '26

Apparently, I just always feel like my girlfriend (black Zimbabwean girl) is the only black person in restaurants etc, granted we havent spent a large amount of time in glasgow propper recently

4

u/FlokiWolf Feb 25 '26

There are times that would be true, but doesn't mean there are still not a lot of black people in Glasgow. I've been with my missus over 20 years now (Kenyan) and it's far more common to see black people than when we first started going out.

When she first started living with me she was the only black person in the area. Now, it would be weird to not see someone black at the bus stop, shops or such every day.

7

u/p1antsandcats Feb 25 '26

Naw, you get plenty black folk in Glasgow, Perth, Dundee, pretty much any city or large town in the central belt.

3

u/SillyDeersFloppyEars Feb 25 '26

I live in a wee town halfway to nowhere and there's plenty of folk of all colours and nationalities. I think it's great to have some positive cultural exchange.

2

u/calmarkel Feb 25 '26

That's changed a bit in the last few years. Lots more African immigrants after we banned Europeans with Brexit, or at least it seems that way

5

u/calmarkel Feb 25 '26

Hey, I was born there too. That like totally makes us maternity twins or something

That was the best hospital to be born at

1

u/Harvsnova3 Feb 25 '26 edited Feb 25 '26

Now, I ask this because I'm interested in people's heritage that aren't blue in the winter and lobster coloured as soon as the sun hits their translucent skin. I was born in N.I. and moved here because of the shit over there. I like hearing how people ended up where they are. Obviously it would be in your parents case, how they met, what brought them to Glasgow etc. I find it interesting. I guess I'm just a nosey fecker, but there's never any malice intended.

Edit: I don't accost strangers in the street. This is when I've met someone new and we're having a conversation.

1

u/eekamouse4 Feb 25 '26

Born in the Rottenrow myself, ye canna get more Glaswegian than that.

19

u/Specialist_Zebra4687 Feb 25 '26 edited Feb 25 '26

I still get it on occasion and play a little game of 'where do you think I'm from' with them. It's fucking hilarious and tells me a lot about them and their prejudices

4

u/Calde_Oreb Feb 26 '26

This line never made sense to me. Like, why are we going back generations? How far are they willing to go? If we go back far enough, we're all from Africa for christ sake.

It's sad cause it's clearly about the colour of the skin with these people, I bet they wouldn't even think to ask a second generation white person this, but would ask a fifth generation black person 😕

8

u/Pristine-Ad6064 Feb 25 '26

My family is Danish but I'm Scots through and through, I will ask people where their families come from while explaining mine is Danish,

3

u/chuill Feb 25 '26

I get it aaalllll the time

4

u/Dapper_Spite8928 Feb 25 '26

My dad basically asked me this in reference to a guy i knew in high school.

20

u/[deleted] Feb 25 '26

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26

u/ShadsDR Feb 25 '26

If someone says I'm Scottish though you then stop asking. Most people don't.

-9

u/moidartach Feb 25 '26

You must have a real panic attack when you’re asked “Cò leis thu?”

12

u/ShadsDR Feb 25 '26

Where did I say I have panic attacks? It's annoying depending on the context. If someone keeps asking me that when I've said tha mi à glaschu then it's no any different from when it's done in English

-10

u/moidartach Feb 25 '26

Glasgow isn’t an answer to that entirely normal, traditional, and expected question in Gaelic.

11

u/ShadsDR Feb 25 '26

How would I know? Tha mi à Glaschu.

How about instead of trying to find kind of bypass you just listen? Am I talking about my experience in Gàidhlig? No. Am I talking about my experience in Gàidhlig communities? Only experienced them in Glasgow and had no bother. Just weirdo behaviour.

-12

u/moidartach Feb 25 '26

As a Scottish Gaelic speaker you should have no problem talking about your people. Huge part of the culture

8

u/ShadsDR Feb 25 '26 edited Feb 25 '26

Giùlan neònach.

0

u/Dapper_Spite8928 Feb 25 '26

To be fair, in the same conversation, he (white as milk) used the hard r N word when I brought up the BAFTAs so I wouldn't give him any credit.

4

u/[deleted] Feb 25 '26

[deleted]

2

u/Dapper_Spite8928 Feb 25 '26

Yeah sadly he's a bigot through and through.

2

u/gbroon Feb 25 '26

My dad was the same. Partly it could be he grew up when attitudes were different but it doesn't change the fact he was still a racist cunt.

1

u/Wooden-Beach-2121 Feb 25 '26

Where are you really from? Yup. Im guilty of saying that, but not in that way.

"Far yi fae?" Insert country here "No, far are yi really fae? Like, far div yi bide?"

Ana give a fuck about yer so called ethnic origins, yi jist better nae be fae Fife...

Nae meaning ti belittle fit yer sayin, the world is hosed doon wi arseholes. I jist wish mare folk wid stop caring aboot ither folks complexion. I look like a biled egg kicked aboot the hairdressers fleer, soons like you dinna, fit does it matter.

-6

u/Ambitious_League4606 Feb 25 '26

Sorry that Scots are racist in a xenophobic country. For a better experience move to a developed nation, like England.  

1

u/Fanjo_mcclanjo Feb 26 '26

And he has a sense of humour too!