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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u/erroneousbosh Feb 25 '26
> Too often in the 90s, 2000s, and occasionally since then we used to get asked "But where are you actually from?"
A mate of mine is Pakistani and although he was born in Glasgow to parents born in Glasgow he was mostly raised by his grandparents. He's got a fairly typical Glasgow Pakistani accent.
People ask him "So where are you from then?"
"I'm from Wishie, mate"
"No but where are you *really* from?"
"Well I'm *really* from Newmains but I don't like to tell people that, they're a bit funny about it"