In more than 20 years, Scotland has produced no Black MSPs, as we prepare for the most important election since devolution, Agnes Holmes reflects on her own experience as she explores obstacles facing Black candidates.
racism
Truth springs from poetry…and dangerous women
For Nadine Aisha Jassat, poetry is activism. She used to used to whisper, “‘I’m a poet’, now I shout it from the rooftops and help others on their journey to shouting who they are, too.”
What are we stumbling into?
The Far Right made some big gains in the euro elections as angry voters backed anti-EU/nativist parties. Back to the 1930s? Amsterdam holds lessons
Confronting gender-based violence: Hopscotch by Nadine Aisha Jassat
This week’s Sceptical Scot poetry post is Hopscotch, by Nadine Aisha Jassat, a powerful, gut-churning challenge to gender-based violence.
Mother country, get it right
“British racism has evolved. We no longer see gangs of racist folks roaming the streets. They now wear suits and ties
Some form political parties…” Benjamin Zephaniah’s poetic analysis of institutionalised racism has particular resonance in the aftermath of the Windrush scandal.
The terrifying rise of Alt-Right fight clubs
‘They see physical fitness in a kind of racialized lens, as a way to cleanse the body and maintain this Aryan purity, but more practically: to actually be prepared for the race war, or skirmishes that come up prior to the major battle.’ Bryan Schatz of Mother Jones traces the rise of fighting fascists from Russia to California.
Social cohesion and racism in Scotland
“Yet, reading the humbling stories of voluntary groups working hard to assist integration, I am shocked to see one Polish support group refer to the high suicide rate among Polish people in Scotland.” In the week of the Casey Report condemning UK governments’ failure to support intercultural social cohesion, Fay Young finds there is no room for complacency in Scotland.