The murder of George Floyd in the US sparked a global civil rights movement which led many countries to look inward to their own struggles with racism.
Following George’s killing, Justice Secretary Humza Yousaf spoke in the Scottish Parliament in support of Black Lives Matter and in one week was bombarded with more than 6000 racist social media posts.
It reminded us that racism is a blight on Scottish society, just as it is on any other.
Yousaf was subjected to death threats and barbaric racist slurs simply because he is a Muslim and not white.
Labour leader Anas Sarwar, also a Muslim, has been targeted with similar bile.
These are two high-profile men but so many more ordinary people in our BAME communities suffer the same racism and do not have the platform to speak out.
Following the conviction of George’s killer, police officer Derek Chauvin, Yousaf reminded us we must always be on our guard against bigotry.
He said: “The murder of George Floyd forced us to hold a mirror to ourselves and confront the institutional and structural racism that exists in our own society.”
It is important that we heed Yousaf’s experience and his words and recognise Scotland is not immune to racism.
In reality, Scotland too often does not live up to the couthy notion that “we are all Jock Tamson’s bairns”.
We must face that truth if we are to tackle the ugliness of racism in our midst.
