Scottishness and identity

[Lifestyle]

Plenty of Black Americans have links to Scotland.

[Polwarth]

Noone said they didn't.... but many afro-caribbeans have the same link. The Scots didn't have any problems re skin colour.... they were certainly not prejudiced, that's for sure.

[georgekidd]

My personal opinion on the question of Scottishness is that its one thing to be proud of your roots, its another to let those roots become something more that they are. After all, if someone from America wants to pass themselves off as Scottish because of a grandparent or greatgrandparent then where does it end? Is King Robert the Bruce a Norman and not Scottish? How many generations must pass before this identity issue resolves itself? We all see the Bruce as being a SCOTTISH king, but descended from a Norman family. So someone born in America to parents born in America is AMERICAN irrespective of where their parents are from. However if they want to dress up and pretend to be Scottish for a day let them, it still doesn't MAKE them Scottish!

[Polwarth]

OOOYAHHHH
Yer gonnae get it fur that succinct comment!
Welcome, byraway

[georgekidd]

Maybe I am "gonnae get it", but its my opinion and one based on a lot of dealings with people from all over the world with loads of different roots!

[seaweasel]

It's been a while since I've been on this forum but I'm a bit bored so I thought I'd check out some sites I've not visited in a bit. It's interesting to see how long my thread has dragged on for!

I won't respond to any individual comments but there seems to have been quite a lot of posting from a certain McHan so here's a general reply:

Let me start off with a few disclaimers. Firstly, while I won't go into any political views, I have no problem with the American people in general. Indeed, I have numerous American friends and some of my favourite music originates from across the pond. I'm even sipping on a nice cold, not especially exciting, but decidedly drinkable bottle of Bud. Next, at no point did I question anybody's right to research and be proud of their roots, in fact good on you and others for doing so. However, we seem to be stuck on the point of Scottish enthicity and nationality. Let me respond to this with a note about Scottish politics that might help.

Another disclaimer here by the way, I'm a card carrying SNP member. One of the most progressive things about the new SNP Government (and I'll reluctantly give the previous Exec some credit for this too) is that Scotland is a very inclusive nation. Yes, we have problems with racism like everywhere does, but on the whole, those emigrating to Scotland have integrated very well (although it's true that as a nation we are not nearly as ethnically diverse as say Birmingham, London or New York). Anyway, my point. The SNP Government's policies regarding independence are very inclusive when it comes to potential citizenship. This is civic, not ethic nationalism we're talking about and Sumal the asian chap who owns a convenience store down the street from me would be just as welcome to claim a Scottish passport as I would. While I'm using party policy as example, this is something that is applicable now to Scottish society however. Although I'm not pretending that it's a perfectly integrated utopia as I mentioned, my point is that while we don't have our own sovereign national identity yet, Scottishness is more about the people who share this small part of Europe getting on with each other and the wider world, celebrating its good points, and improving the bad, rather than who your great-great-grandparents were.

And as I said, while I respect your effort and pride regarding your heritage, your family ceased to be involved with us as a nation a long time ago, just as mine did when they left Ireland, Germany and Lithuania (and that was only about 80/90 years ago. You have every right to learn about and celebrate your Scottish heritage however we've moved on from the days when ethnicity was everything. It fades and dilutes with age, and even after all the problems it caused back in the 30s, the world is still facing problems because of it.

As you may know, we're a little further behind when it comes to sectarianism but let's leave that for another discussion

[georgekidd]

I always knew there were a lot of people out there claiming to have Scottish roots, but I didn't realise until recently (i.e. in the last week or so!) that so many of them claimed to BE SCOTTISH! And yet there they are, making out at times that they are even more Scottish than people born here to Scottish parents. Are their own nationalities that bad that they have to claim to be from somewhere else? Oh wait, according to that McHan geezer, Scotland isn't a nation is it? Apart from when it comes to rugby that is! Why did that numpty just pick out rugby though? Surely we have our own national football team as well as our own national football association, leagues, etc! Also we have our own education and law systems. As someone said, it looks like he was making up his own rules to back up his own arguement, just as so many other "Scots" across the many other forums where they make the same unbelieveable claims seem to do!