Anti-racist Scotland claim ‘built on a myth’
Nation is not more tolerant and open than England, experts to warn MSPS
THE idea that the Brexit vote showed Scotland was more open and tolerant than England is a “misleading fantasy” that masks the country’s racism problem, MSPS are being warned.
The authors of a new academic book looking at “Scottish exceptionalism” will present their findings to Holyrood’s Cross-party Group on Tackling Islamophobia tomorrow.
“No Problem Here: Understanding Racism in Scotland” says the Remain majority north of the Border on Brexit had given the exceptionalism myth a “new lease of life”.
The vote is routinely cited as evidence Scotland is inherently more welcoming to migrants.
However, the book warns against such self-flattery and says a better Scotland “will only be built by confronting the evil of racism rather than pretending it does not exist”.
Editor and author Neil Davidson, a sociology lecturer at Glasgow University specialising in Scottish nationalism, said there were three reasons for the idea of less racism in Scotland.
Anti-irish prejudice was classed as sectarianism rather than racism, while a small ethnic minority population in Scotland (4 per cent) mean the problem of racism is less conspicuous than elsewhere in the UK.
“Finally, the movements for devolution and independence have involved the idea that Scotland is ‘culturally’ different from England, and that part of this difference involves the Scots being more ‘welcoming’, ‘tolerant’ and so on,” he said.
“These are misleading fantasies, which ignore the historical experience of Irish Catholics and the contemporary experience of Muslims, Roma and other BAME (Black, Asian and minority ethnic) groups.”
Fellow author Carol Young, senior policy officer for the Coalition for Racial Equality and Rights, added: “There’s a perception that Scotland has less of a problem with racism than other areas of the UK, perhaps best summed up by the phrase ‘we’re all Jock Tamson’s bairns’. But regardless of popular opinion, the statistics suggest otherwise.”
Scottish Government figures show racial crime is the most commonly reported hate crime. In 2016-17 there were 3,349 charges, the lowest total since 2003-04, but still 64 a week.
Labour MSP Anas Sarwar, chairman of the cross-party group, said: “We should never allow our national pride to blind us to the fact that good and bad people live everywhere.
“In recent years we have seen the rise of Scottish exceptionalism – the idea that somehow just because we are Scottish and live in Scotland, that we’re less intolerant than our neighbours. It is not talking Scotland down to expose this myth.”
SNP MSP Ivan Mckee, deputy convener of the group, said: “We have never shied away from the fact that Scotland is no more immune from Islamophobia and racism than anywhere else and that this serious problem must be tackled head-on. ”
A Scottish Government spokesman said: “We are resolved to do everything that it takes to ensure that Scotland is a place where there is zero tolerance of racism in any form.”
IT is a comforting narrative that many Scots like propagate both at home and abroad. Indeed, the belief that Scotland is a more open, tolerant, less racist country than England has become perceived wisdom in many circles, not least among those keen to build on the concept of “Scottish exceptionalism” for political purposes.
But according to a new book edited by academics at the University of Glasgow , any such narrative is a simply complacent, misleading fantasy.
The authors of the tome, called No Problem Here, drew their conclusions after studying evidence from across different realms of Scots society, including analysis of the rate of murders with a racial element, employment statistics among black and ethnic minority applicants and reports of discrimination towards these groups when using public services. They also warn that racism towards Irish people is not taken seriously as it is often conflated with sectarianism.
Among the other interesting conclusions the authors draw is that Brexit continues to feed such “myths”.
Later this week, they will go to Holyrood to argue that Scotland will only be able to tackle racism when it is willing to admit and confront its presence in our lives, that it exists in workplaces, school playgrounds, university campuses and public institutions.
With this in mind, MSP Anas Sarwar, Labour chair of the Scottish Parliament’s cross party group on tackling Islamophobia, is right to call out complacency around racism, sexism and all types of discrimination, as well as any automatic assumption that Scots are somehow less intolerant than our neighbours. “It’s not talking down Scotland to expose this myth,” he adds.
At the same time, however, it is also important to point to instances where Scotland has indeed approached issues differently from its southern neighbour, striking a noticeably different – some may say more tolerant and egalitarian - chord.
Take, for example, the Scottish Government’s decision to welcome refugees from Syria. While the UK Government often appeared less than keen to oblige, Scotland stepped up and met a target to house 2,000 souls fleeing their war-torn homeland three years early.
It is also notable that while the Home office was actively creating a “hostile environment” and setting targets for deportation, resulting in the horrendous treatment of people who have every right to live in Britain, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has argued for immigration to be devolved to Holyrood in order that a more human and pragmatic approach could flourish here.
No country is free of racism, bigotry, hatred or discrimination, and Scots must beware self-satisfaction. But we should recognise positive as well as negative steps.