Total population | |
---|---|
Scotland 36,178 (2011) [1] African – 29,000 Black Caribbean – 3,000 Black/Other Black – 3,000 [2] | |
Regions with significant populations | |
Aberdeen, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Paisley | |
Languages | |
Religion | |
Predominantly Christianity; minorities follow Islam, Irreligion, Atheism, Baháʼí Faith, Rastafari, Traditional African religions, other religions |
Black Scottish people are a Scottish people of African, Afro-Caribbean or other Black background. Used in association with black Scottish identity, the term commonly refers to Scottish of Black African and African-Caribbean descent. The group (also referred to as African-Scottish, Afro-Scottish, or Black Scottish) represents approximately 0.7 percent of the total population of Scotland. [2]
According to the 2011 UK Census, Black Scottish people (self-described as African, Caribbean, Black or any other Black background) were numbered at about 36,000. This figure indicates an increase in population of 28,000 Black Scottish since the previous UK census in 2001. [3] The group represents around 0.7% of Scotland's population, compared to 3.0% of the overall UK population. [4] [5]
The identity of Black Scottish people has evolved since the arrival of Black people in Scotland as early as the fifteenth century, with significant numbers arriving in the twentieth century after World War II. [6] The development of a cohesive Black Scottish identity has progressed, with Black African and Afro-Caribbean descent the most commonly claimed ancestry involved in the sense of identity. [7] Among other factors, [8] studies into the experiences of Scottish Somalis, who tend to be historically newer immigrant groups to the nation, have shown that ethnoreligious factors can complicate the expression of any monocultural or racial identity of Black Scottish. [9]
The diary of World War I veteran Arthur Roberts has been noted as an important historical document, for its preservation of the historical record of one of the earliest known Black Scottish soldiers. [10]
The British Guiana-born Andrew Watson is widely considered to be the world's first association footballer of Black heritage (his father was White and mother Black) to play at international level. [11] [12] [13] He was capped three times for Scotland between 1881 and 1882. Watson also played for Queen's Park, the leading Scottish club at the time, and later became their secretary. He led the team to several Scottish Cup wins, thus becoming the first player of Black heritage to win a major competition. [13]
With some brief exceptions, such as Jamaican born Gil Heron at Celtic, Walter Tull signing for Rangers, and John Walker at Hearts, Black players largely disappeared from Scottish football for the next 100 years until the arrival of Mark Walters at Rangers in 1988. Walters arrival at the club resulted in incidents of racial abuse. [14] [15]
The Scotland national team did not call up a second player of Black heritage until Nigel Quashie (Black Ghanaian father and White English mother), made his debut against Estonia in May 2004. He qualified to play for Scotland, due to having a grandfather from Scotland. [16] Subsequently Coatbridge-born Chris Iwelumo (Black father from Nigeria), has also played for Scotland. Other notable players with black heritage who were born in Scotland, or have represented Scotland, include:
The group have faced prejudice and racism in Scottish society. In a Strathclyde University survey, almost 45 percent of black Scottish reported experiencing discrimination between 2010 and 2015. [18]
Black is a racialized classification of people, usually a political and skin color-based category for specific populations with a mid- to dark brown complexion. Not all people considered "black" have dark skin; in certain countries, often in socially based systems of racial classification in the Western world, the term "black" is used to describe persons who are perceived as dark-skinned compared to other populations. It is most commonly used for people of sub-Saharan African ancestry, Indigenous Australians and Melanesians, though it has been applied in many contexts to other groups, and is no indicator of any close ancestral relationship whatsoever. Indigenous African societies do not use the term black as a racial identity outside of influences brought by Western cultures.
Joel Daniel Coen and Ethan Jesse Coen, together known as the Coen brothers, are an American filmmaking duo. Their films span many genres and styles, which they frequently subvert or parody. Their most acclaimed works include Blood Simple (1984), Raising Arizona (1987), Miller's Crossing (1990), Barton Fink (1991), Fargo (1996), The Big Lebowski (1998), O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000), No Country for Old Men (2007), A Serious Man (2009), True Grit (2010) and Inside Llewyn Davis (2013). Many of their films are distinctly American, often examining the culture of the American South and American West in both modern and historical contexts.
Denzel Hayes Washington Jr. is an American actor, producer, and director. In a career spanning over four decades, Washington has received numerous accolades, including a Tony Award, two Academy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards and two Silver Bears. He was honored with the Cecil B. DeMille Lifetime Achievement Award in 2016, the AFI Life Achievement Award in 2019, and in 2020 The New York Times named him the greatest actor of the 21st century. In 2022, Washington received the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Frances Louise McDormand is an American actress and producer. In a career spanning over four decades, she has gained acclaim for her roles in small-budget independent films. McDormand has received numerous accolades, including four Academy Awards, two Emmy Awards, and one Tony Award, making her one of the few performers to achieve the "Triple Crown of Acting". Additionally, she has received three BAFTAs and two Golden Globe Awards. McDormand's worldwide box office gross exceeds $2.2 billion.
British Chinese, also known as Chinese British or Chinese Britons, are people of Chinese – particularly Han Chinese – ancestry who reside in the United Kingdom, constituting the second-largest group of Overseas Chinese in Western Europe after France.
Lady Macbeth is a leading character in William Shakespeare's tragedy Macbeth. As the wife of the play's tragic hero, Macbeth, Lady Macbeth goads her husband into committing regicide, after which she becomes queen of Scotland. Some regard her as becoming more powerful than Macbeth when she does this, because she is able to manipulate him into doing what she wants. After Macbeth becomes a murderous tyrant, she is driven to madness by guilt over their crimes and kills herself offstage.
Dougla people are Caribbean people who are of mixed African and Indian descent. The word Dougla is used throughout the Dutch and English-speaking Caribbean.
Black British people are a multi-ethnic group of British people of either African or Afro-Caribbean descent. The term Black British developed in the 1950s, referring to the Black British West Indian people from the former Caribbean British colonies in the West Indies sometimes referred to as the Windrush Generation and Black British people descending from Africa.
The 1st Florida Film Critics Circle Awards honoured the best in film for 1996.
Miles Anderson is a British stage and screen actor, born in the colony of Southern Rhodesia, who has appeared in television serials both in the United Kingdom, and North America. He appeared as Alistair the photographer in the film La La Land. In 2021 he played 'Lennox' in Joel Coen's The Tragedy of Macbeth with Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand. He is commonly remembered in the UK for his role as Lieutenant Colonel Dan Fortune in ITV television show Soldier Soldier that aired in 1991-92
British Afro-Caribbean people are a British ethnic group. They are British people whose recent ancestors originate from the Caribbean, and further trace their ancestry back to Africa or they are nationals of the Caribbean who reside in the UK. There are some self-identified Afro-Caribbean people who are multi-racial. The most common and traditional use of the term African-Caribbean community is in reference to groups of residents continuing aspects of Caribbean culture, customs and traditions in the UK.
Somalis in the United Kingdom include British citizens and residents born in or with ancestors from Somalia. The United Kingdom (UK) is home to the largest Somali community in Europe, with an estimated 108,000 Somali-born immigrants residing in the UK in 2018 according to the Office for National Statistics. The majority of these live in England, with the largest number found in London. Smaller Somali communities exist in Birmingham, Bristol, Manchester, Liverpool, Leicester, Milton Keynes, Sheffield and Cardiff.
African immigration to the United States refers to immigrants to the United States who are or were nationals of modern African countries. The term African in the scope of this article refers to geographical or national origins rather than racial affiliation. From the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 to 2017, Sub-Saharan African-born population in the United States grew to 2.1 million people.
A number of different systems of classification of ethnicity in the United Kingdom exist. These schemata have been the subject of debate, including about the nature of ethnicity, how or whether it can be categorised, and the relationship between ethnicity, race, and nationality.
The demography of Liverpool is officially analysed by the Office for National Statistics. The Liverpool City Region is made up of Liverpool alongside the Metropolitan Boroughs of Halton, Knowsley, Sefton, St Helens, and the Wirral. With a population of around 496,784, Liverpool is the largest settlement in the region and the sixth largest in the United Kingdom.
Frances McDormand is an American actress and producer who made her film debut in the Coen brothers' neo-noir Blood Simple (1984) and also made her Broadway debut in the revival Awake and Sing! in the same year. In 1985, she starred in the crime drama series Hunter and played a police officer on the procedural drama Hill Street Blues. For her performance as a sheriff's wife in Mississippi Burning (1988), she received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. In the same year, she was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for playing Stella Kowalski in the revival A Streetcar Named Desire.
The Tragedy of Macbeth is a 2021 American historical thriller film written, directed and produced by Joel Coen, based on the play Macbeth by William Shakespeare. It is the first film directed by one of the Coen brothers without the other's involvement. The film stars Denzel Washington, Frances McDormand, Bertie Carvel, Alex Hassell, Corey Hawkins, Harry Melling, Kathryn Hunter, and Brendan Gleeson.
Black Scottish identity is the objective or subjective state of perceiving oneself as a black Scottish person and as relating to being black Scottish. The identity has been researched academically, particularly within the arts, as well as social sciences, and has been reported on and discussed in the media of Scotland.
The 59th New York Film Festival took place from September 24 to October 10, 2021. Unlike the 2020 New York Film Festival, which was staged online due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2021 festival returned to physical screenings at the Lincoln Center.
At the group interviews, a video on Black Scottish Identity was selected as a focal point for discussions, as it questioned the nature of African Caribbean subjectivities in the UK.
To some, it's obvious that the two are not mutually exclusive. To others, Black Scottish identity is a contradiction in terms: either you're of this place, Scottish and therefore Scots, or Other, Black.
In the meantime, a whiteness-led categorisation of a Somali person as 'Black' would compound their racialised exclusion from Islam and disregard their self-defined racial identity. Under the White gaze in Glasgow City, Somali people were thus subject to 'hailings' that saw them as doubly Other or as partial subjects, and extended the same categorisations to their occupations of public space.
Arthur Roberts was a Black Scottish soldier who served in the First World War and died in a care home in Glasgow.
Nearly 45% of respondents with a black African Caribbean heritage respondents, agreed with the statement that they had 'experienced discrimination in Scotland in the last five years'.