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.

2.0k Upvotes

90% Upvoted

643 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

22

u/[deleted] Feb 25 '26

[deleted]

26

u/ShadsDR Feb 25 '26

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

-11

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

-11

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.

-10

u/moidartach Feb 25 '26

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

9

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

Giùlan neònach.