this post was submitted on 12 Aug 2024
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I believe (and I'm not Scottish) that Scotland IS exceptional. I have not lived in every country in the world, Europe on even UK but the people are just genuinely nice and welcoming. Racism and bigotry has no footing here. Obviously there are exceptions to that rule, but the general public in places like Glasgow clearly showed what they think of this kind of behaviour. Respect.
It's been for many years that gen-pop of England have been conditioned by the BBC and politics to quickly jump the gun the go to racism for answers.
The main problem is that they (they I mean people that went to protest against immigrants) believe that they fighting the right cause, even though what triggered their response, was a big fucking lie.
I just don't think that's true at all. It may be rarer, or less publicly manifested, but there's still plenty of racism and bigotry in Scottish society, whether it's people still using terms like p*ki or ch*nkie to refer to people or their places of business, or swastikas/n-words graffitied on walls, or randoms giving abuse to Polish people on the bus, or to English people in the pub (all of which I've seen personally here in Edinburgh and elsewhere).
That it isn't such a hot-button issue here as down south may be partly due to a generally more welcoming/left-wing/progressive-mindset among some in Scotland, but I think it would be naive to ignore the fact that that kind of attitude is easier to maintain in a climate where immigration levels are lower anyway.
None of which is to blame the people arriving in the UK, trying to make a better life for themselves - they are and should be welcomed and treated with dignity and respect. But if Scotland was an easier arrival point by sea than it is, I suspect attitudes here would prove to be less universally welcoming than we might like to think.
I'm not saying there is no racism or bigotry in Scotland. Unfortunately it's everywhere. Just on a lot smaller scale in Scotland.