Scotland harbours a “dark undercurrent of everyday racism and misogyny”, a leading black presenter has said in the wake of James McAvoy’s claims that his theatre co-stars suffered racist abuse “on a daily basis” during the Glasgow stint of their tour.
Afua Hagan, who has worked with ITV’s This Morning and Jeremy Vine on Channel 5, said that Scotland should “sit up and take notice” of its discrimination problem, which is “anti-black and anti-Catholic as well”.
In an interview with GQ published yesterday, McAvoy revealed his embarrassment that female cast members of colour faced “sexually explicit and violent” taunts during a two-week run of Cyrano de Bergerac in March.
The actor said that the experience made him regret bringing the production to his home city.
Hagan, who grew up in Elderslie, Renfrewshire, told BBC Radio Scotland this morning that McAvoy’s intervention was “really significant”.
“Because he’s a boy-done-good from Drumchapel who’s now making waves across the US and all across the film industry and all the world,” she said. “For him to call it out is really, really significant.
“I think Scotland has long held itself up as this place that’s massively welcoming, which it can be. But let’s not get it twisted, there is a really dark undercurrent of everyday racism and misogyny that happens all the time in Scotland.
“It’s happening to people as they are walking down the street, as they are in the supermarket. James has described sexually violent and racist remarks being made that is disgusting but also not surprising.”
Hagan added: “I’m not saying the whole of Scotland is racist, that’s not it. I’m not saying the whole of the United Kingdom is racist, that’s not it. But Scotland does have a very dark and very significant racist element, anti-black and anti-Catholic as well.”
Hagan said that she had often experienced staring and snide remarks from strangers.
She said: “I’ve had instances, this is years ago, with a white boyfriend when someone came up to me and said ‘This is disgusting, you two shouldn’t be together, how dare a white person be with a black person’.
“I’ve had all that kind of stuff, and so have friends of mine. It’s not just when things are rowdy. It can be your everyday experience standing at a bus stop.”
Danny Boyle, senior parliamentary and policy officer at BEMIS, a national body for the ethnic minorities voluntary sector in Scotland, agreed that it was not just a “Glasgow Saturday night thing”, when put to him by Kaye Adams on the programme.
He said: “A lot of what James McAvoy and the experiences of his colleagues and cast members have outlined are reflected in what we are hearing from communities across Scotland.
“These incidents are taking place on public transport, in workplaces, in schools, and other public places, so he’s been helpful in trying to highlight an issue that has been going on for a significant period of time and has exacerbated at the moment.”
*“anti-black, anti-English and anti-Catholic as well”.*
Clearly she doesnt understand the culture, Scottish people hate everyone. They even hate people from the next town over.
Scotland does have a strong ‘Holier than thou’ vibe when it comes to these sorts of things. The attitude seems to be ‘it’s only the English that do x y z’. It’s like the way some people are almost writing Scotland out of any participation in the empire.
But wait how can this be? I’ve read the Scottish sub here; the people of Scotland are the brightest, most compassionate, most virtuous you will find.
It’s the English who are all thick, ignorant bastards
Sadly I think everywhere does.
Is anyone surprised given that Scottish society tolerates annual Protestant-supremacist marches through city centres.
British people intend to accommodate for everyone… fucking hell, only a few months ago people of the UK were having refugees staying in their spare bedrooms! OK people were being paid but still, its the thought that counts!
I’ve never really got nationalism. Probably because my founding philosophy is that 80% of everything is shit, including my own country and everybody else’s. It’d be nice to strive for a world where only 70% of everything was shit.
Be one of the most tolerant, progressive societies in the world
Get called racist anyway.
I mean as a Scot I can’t deny the casual use of racial epithets/language I hear often. Short terms for Chinese restaurants and corner shops is used very commonly, much more so outside the more multicultural city centres. As Scot’s we seem to distance ourselves from colonialism despite the lowland population being heavily involved and over represented within Empire.
So pretty much like every other country on earth then?
If you from bellow Hadrian’s wall just don’t like you
It’s insane how people still point the finger and call parts of the UK racist. Absolutely nonsense.
If you want to see actual racism, take a look at China and other Eastern Countries.
Only the other week I was trying to convince another Scot that using a slang word for a Chinese takeaway was racist. I wasn’t able to convince him to stop using the word but he did understand when I explained how ‘Gyppo’ was offensive. As a result, the conversation ended with him cheerfully saying that Scots are the “best cunts in the world” while still refusing to stop being racist towards the Chinese.
It was a little bit depressing.
>with a white boyfriend when someone came up to me and said ‘This is disgusting, you two shouldn’t be together, how dare a white person be with a black person’
Why can they never invent believable dialogue for these made up stories?
Jeremy Vine on Channel 5, said that Scotland should “sit up and take notice” of its discrimination problem, which is “anti-black and anti-Catholic as well”.
​
​
Fuck off with this rage bait.
I mean apparently everywhere does nowadays so its not really a surprise they’re saying this.
Scots like to think of themselves as being above bigotry, yet they’re still in the middle ages regarding sectarianism.
A dark undercurrent that is undoubtedly more tolerant than wherever her forefathers came from. Britain should really just ignore these people, they become extremely successful and prominent in the public eye and then state that the country which gave them everything is racist. It really is tiresome
We aren’t racist we just hate everybody in equal measure
It sort of says everything that there are plenty of people in this thread insisting that she’s somehow lying about her experiences. I honestly believe this trend of people thinking that there is some conspiracy by POC to smear white people comes from people being uncomfortable with hard truths. I don’t even like when we have to add the ‘not saying the whole of UK is racist’ caveat, to be honest I think a lot more people in the UK could do to take a long hard look at their own behaviour and maybe be made to feel a bit embaressed at their own attitudes.
Undercurrent? lol
​
Its a fucking river miles wide.
I’m Scottish but I left in 2004. Honestly in those days it was far more racist than England imo. Base that on the fact there was no racism when I went to uni in England but it was constant in Scotland, even when I returned from 2001 to 2004 it was just as bad
My experience of living in Scotland for the first 24 years of my life was not great.
I’m sure it’s not as bad as it used to be. But even the reason I just upped and moved was cos we were out in leith, Edinburgh one night partying and it was me and these polish guys I was working with and some bunch of thugs came over asked us the time and then set about us. My mate ended up blinded in one eye cos his glasses smashed in his eye and he had to go to microsurgery in Edinburgh Royal infirmary. He went back to Poland as soon as he got out.
I’ve got mates in Fife who laughed their heads off cos I had a black girlfriend (and she wasn’t even that dark and that was only about 8 years ago). These are like uni graduate people, so it’s just bizarre.
I’ve literally been hospitalised and had surgery from assaults from growing up there. Like I’ve got a permanently disabled arm from having it broken badly in an assault from a random stranger.
It honestly wasn’t a very nice place when I was growing up. Full of violence, racism and drugs.
I had a mate from Glasgow who got stabbed, saw my other mate get a bottle smashed over his head etc
And I was not even hanging around those circles much. Just going out drinking in town!!
Yes. + sectarianism + anti English + etc.
Born and raised here and spent significant periods of time residing in different parts of Scotland. I’ve never recognised the utopian account of Scottish open-mindedness that’s promoted on various parts of the media and social media.
25 comments
Scotland harbours a “dark undercurrent of everyday racism and misogyny”, a leading black presenter has said in the wake of James McAvoy’s claims that his theatre co-stars suffered racist abuse “on a daily basis” during the Glasgow stint of their tour.
Afua Hagan, who has worked with ITV’s This Morning and Jeremy Vine on Channel 5, said that Scotland should “sit up and take notice” of its discrimination problem, which is “anti-black and anti-Catholic as well”.
In an interview with GQ published yesterday, McAvoy revealed his embarrassment that female cast members of colour faced “sexually explicit and violent” taunts during a two-week run of Cyrano de Bergerac in March.
The actor said that the experience made him regret bringing the production to his home city.
Hagan, who grew up in Elderslie, Renfrewshire, told BBC Radio Scotland this morning that McAvoy’s intervention was “really significant”.
“Because he’s a boy-done-good from Drumchapel who’s now making waves across the US and all across the film industry and all the world,” she said. “For him to call it out is really, really significant.
“I think Scotland has long held itself up as this place that’s massively welcoming, which it can be. But let’s not get it twisted, there is a really dark undercurrent of everyday racism and misogyny that happens all the time in Scotland.
“It’s happening to people as they are walking down the street, as they are in the supermarket. James has described sexually violent and racist remarks being made that is disgusting but also not surprising.”
Hagan added: “I’m not saying the whole of Scotland is racist, that’s not it. I’m not saying the whole of the United Kingdom is racist, that’s not it. But Scotland does have a very dark and very significant racist element, anti-black and anti-Catholic as well.”
Hagan said that she had often experienced staring and snide remarks from strangers.
She said: “I’ve had instances, this is years ago, with a white boyfriend when someone came up to me and said ‘This is disgusting, you two shouldn’t be together, how dare a white person be with a black person’.
“I’ve had all that kind of stuff, and so have friends of mine. It’s not just when things are rowdy. It can be your everyday experience standing at a bus stop.”
Danny Boyle, senior parliamentary and policy officer at BEMIS, a national body for the ethnic minorities voluntary sector in Scotland, agreed that it was not just a “Glasgow Saturday night thing”, when put to him by Kaye Adams on the programme.
He said: “A lot of what James McAvoy and the experiences of his colleagues and cast members have outlined are reflected in what we are hearing from communities across Scotland.
“These incidents are taking place on public transport, in workplaces, in schools, and other public places, so he’s been helpful in trying to highlight an issue that has been going on for a significant period of time and has exacerbated at the moment.”
*“anti-black, anti-English and anti-Catholic as well”.*
Clearly she doesnt understand the culture, Scottish people hate everyone. They even hate people from the next town over.
Scotland does have a strong ‘Holier than thou’ vibe when it comes to these sorts of things. The attitude seems to be ‘it’s only the English that do x y z’. It’s like the way some people are almost writing Scotland out of any participation in the empire.
But wait how can this be? I’ve read the Scottish sub here; the people of Scotland are the brightest, most compassionate, most virtuous you will find.
It’s the English who are all thick, ignorant bastards
Sadly I think everywhere does.
Is anyone surprised given that Scottish society tolerates annual Protestant-supremacist marches through city centres.
British people intend to accommodate for everyone… fucking hell, only a few months ago people of the UK were having refugees staying in their spare bedrooms! OK people were being paid but still, its the thought that counts!
I’ve never really got nationalism. Probably because my founding philosophy is that 80% of everything is shit, including my own country and everybody else’s. It’d be nice to strive for a world where only 70% of everything was shit.
Be one of the most tolerant, progressive societies in the world
Get called racist anyway.
I mean as a Scot I can’t deny the casual use of racial epithets/language I hear often. Short terms for Chinese restaurants and corner shops is used very commonly, much more so outside the more multicultural city centres. As Scot’s we seem to distance ourselves from colonialism despite the lowland population being heavily involved and over represented within Empire.
So pretty much like every other country on earth then?
If you from bellow Hadrian’s wall just don’t like you
It’s insane how people still point the finger and call parts of the UK racist. Absolutely nonsense.
If you want to see actual racism, take a look at China and other Eastern Countries.
Only the other week I was trying to convince another Scot that using a slang word for a Chinese takeaway was racist. I wasn’t able to convince him to stop using the word but he did understand when I explained how ‘Gyppo’ was offensive. As a result, the conversation ended with him cheerfully saying that Scots are the “best cunts in the world” while still refusing to stop being racist towards the Chinese.
It was a little bit depressing.
>with a white boyfriend when someone came up to me and said ‘This is disgusting, you two shouldn’t be together, how dare a white person be with a black person’
Why can they never invent believable dialogue for these made up stories?
Jeremy Vine on Channel 5, said that Scotland should “sit up and take notice” of its discrimination problem, which is “anti-black and anti-Catholic as well”.
​
​
Fuck off with this rage bait.
I mean apparently everywhere does nowadays so its not really a surprise they’re saying this.
Scots like to think of themselves as being above bigotry, yet they’re still in the middle ages regarding sectarianism.
A dark undercurrent that is undoubtedly more tolerant than wherever her forefathers came from. Britain should really just ignore these people, they become extremely successful and prominent in the public eye and then state that the country which gave them everything is racist. It really is tiresome
We aren’t racist we just hate everybody in equal measure
It sort of says everything that there are plenty of people in this thread insisting that she’s somehow lying about her experiences. I honestly believe this trend of people thinking that there is some conspiracy by POC to smear white people comes from people being uncomfortable with hard truths. I don’t even like when we have to add the ‘not saying the whole of UK is racist’ caveat, to be honest I think a lot more people in the UK could do to take a long hard look at their own behaviour and maybe be made to feel a bit embaressed at their own attitudes.
Undercurrent? lol
​
Its a fucking river miles wide.
I’m Scottish but I left in 2004. Honestly in those days it was far more racist than England imo. Base that on the fact there was no racism when I went to uni in England but it was constant in Scotland, even when I returned from 2001 to 2004 it was just as bad
My experience of living in Scotland for the first 24 years of my life was not great.
I’m sure it’s not as bad as it used to be. But even the reason I just upped and moved was cos we were out in leith, Edinburgh one night partying and it was me and these polish guys I was working with and some bunch of thugs came over asked us the time and then set about us. My mate ended up blinded in one eye cos his glasses smashed in his eye and he had to go to microsurgery in Edinburgh Royal infirmary. He went back to Poland as soon as he got out.
I’ve got mates in Fife who laughed their heads off cos I had a black girlfriend (and she wasn’t even that dark and that was only about 8 years ago). These are like uni graduate people, so it’s just bizarre.
I’ve literally been hospitalised and had surgery from assaults from growing up there. Like I’ve got a permanently disabled arm from having it broken badly in an assault from a random stranger.
It honestly wasn’t a very nice place when I was growing up. Full of violence, racism and drugs.
I had a mate from Glasgow who got stabbed, saw my other mate get a bottle smashed over his head etc
And I was not even hanging around those circles much. Just going out drinking in town!!
Yes. + sectarianism + anti English + etc.
Born and raised here and spent significant periods of time residing in different parts of Scotland. I’ve never recognised the utopian account of Scottish open-mindedness that’s promoted on various parts of the media and social media.