Yes voters must prove that Scotland can be a better place

Those supporting independence now have to convince BAME people that we actually have a plan in our future nation state for removing institutionalised racism

From the dramatic exposure of the UK Government’s racist hostile environment for International Protection Applicants (IPAs, aka asylum seekers) at hotels across Glasgow and increased awareness of casual everyday racism through to the lack of decolonisation of the curriculum in schools and the need for Scotland to fess up to its slavery and colonial past.

I have written previously on how anti-racism was one of the key ingredients of the broadly radical and left-wing Yes movement in 2014. Anti-racism will be crucial in the battle ahead for independence. After the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement in Scotland, however, those supporting independence now have to convince BAME people that we actually have a plan in our future nation state for removing institutionalised racism, and for making Holyrood a true reflection of the gender, differently abled and ethnic diversity of Scotland.

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Black Lives Matter Scotland was formed on July 4, 2020, as a network of the local BLM group organisers, who set up the protest events which took place between May 31 and June 7. Perhaps as many as 30,000 took to the streets of Scotland’s cities and towns on June 7, most making strenuous efforts to socially distance. This was a key moment of black political arrival which has been 15 to 20 years in the making.

As a BAME and African-Caribbean community activist I’ve observed Scottish-born and raised second and third generation African and Caribbean Scots developing an identity of their own. I have seen a growing sense of pan-African solidarity and interaction between younger folks of differing African and Caribbean roots – alongside a growing acceptance of the African influence in our wider Scottish popular culture.

The need for a radical BAME politics of black liberation in Scotland that unites all those who face racialised oppression is fairly evident

We’ve moved on considerably from the days of young black Scots being excluded from nightclubs due to the illegal colour bar. Now many of those clubs will have some of their best nights playing Afro-Flava beats.

That cultural acceptance, however, has not yet given way to better employment or career progression in the jobs market or access to funds to start their own businesses. Despite high numbers of degree-level education, young BAME people find themselves disproportionately unemployed or underemployed. And that was before the coronavirus hit.

I have also carefully observed the efforts of committed young people in the South Asian, Muslim, Sikh, Kurdish, Middle Eastern, Chinese and Afghan communities as their communities of resistance establish themselves socially and politically. The need for a radical BAME politics of black liberation in Scotland that unites all those who face racialised oppression is fairly evident and has been particularly created on Scotland’s streets largely led by African Scots.

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THE ORIGINS OF BLM Black Lives Matter in the US began with discussions around theories of racism and feminism and intersectionality – a phrase coined by US civil rights lawyer Dr Kimberle Crenshaw. The year 2015 was the moment BLM went US-nationwide as a concept, a social movement and, yes, a hashtag. But the George Floyd moment was when it went global –challenging racialised policing everywhere from Australia to Mexico. After the death of George Floyd at the hands of US police, BLM encapsulated that anger, fear and frustration that black people worldwide feel at police racism and systemic racialised discrimination.

Returning to Scotland, of course, most working-class people are not actively racist, but their national identities are tied up in a falsified history of themselves as subordinate white subjects in an empire that once dominated the world. It is not a surprise that racism has ways of recreating itself institutionally and politically that seem to escape the attention of some well-meaning anti-racists.

What many such anti-racists have in common is that they presume to speak or act on behalf of the victims of racism without ever actually consulting them or making themselves equal partners in any alliance that’s not under their direct leadership. That’s because they do not respect the self-organisation of the victims of this form of oppression in the way they would, quite rightly, respect women’s organisations fighting women’s oppression.

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Only an anti-racism that supports self-organisation and is actively cognisant of the fact of the impact of white supremacy, even upon progressive well meaning people, will produce a successful movement of anti-racist allies.

A discussion that has dared not show its face until recently is that the victims of racial oppression do not experience racism equally and that there is racialised discrimination within the BAME community. That’s something we are facing up to but it’s another article for another day.

Just posting anti-racist memes on social media frankly deserves no medals since being a decent person ought to be a given

Another big elephant in the room is this: what exactly is the role of white people within an anti-racism movement that is led by the oppressed themselves? How can you, as a white person, be a good ally?

We answer that question all the time in Glasgow in our daily work with IPAs, where radical grassroots activists from Glasgow No Evictions Network (against Mears and Serco), The Unity Centre and tenants’ union Living Rent all work daily with self-organised refugee rights groups like Migrants Organising for Rights and Empowerment (MORE), Ubuntu Women’s Shelter and LGBT Unity.

They do so by respecting the self- organisation of the IPAs themselves to lead the fight, but organise themselves in supporting roles. Using whatever levels of white privilege they have – from being less likely to be arrested to the capacity of writing in English – sharing those skills with IPAs, equalising the power imbalances and skilling up people to remove barriers to equality.

These are key organising principles for a more respectful, more equal relationship in circumstances where IPAs are uniquely vulnerable whilst so racistly disempowered and infantilised by the Home Office and Mears. IPA activism with such allies offers dignity and self-determination in a struggle that most directly affects them but which is not dependent on “white saviours”.

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Just posting anti-racist memes on social media frankly deserves no medals since being a decent person ought to be a given.

Being an active anti-racist means being prepared to admit that being white, you may in fact benefit from the racist system. It means actively disavowing those privileges and advantages it gives you in Scottish society. It means linking locally with existing BAME communities (we are not that hard to find).

And it means standing up to racism when you see it, whether that’s at work, in your family or on social media. White people need to speak to and challenge the racist thoughts and deeds of other white people using educational materials and strategies developed by and with black activists.

CONCLUSIONS

"Building Back Better” policies for a future independent Scotland need to tackle race inequality as a fundamental issue. An independent Scotland will need to implement Green New Deal policies of Just Transition to protect employment, whilst reducing carbon emissions in ways that take account of environmental racism, for example, BAME communities’ disproportionate proximity to pollution zones near to factories, landfill and airports and the resultant negative health effects.

There is no shortage of “Black Manifesto for Scotland” type ideas, but they are unachievable without a heavy concentration upon all aspects of the interlocking systems of oppression.

The extraordinary ongoing momentum that’s been created in recent months tells me that maybe that’s exactly what Scotland is ready to do.