HUMZA Yousaf has issued a brilliant response to people calling him a racist online.
After Twitter/X owner Elon Musk sparked a flurry of trolls accusing the FM of being a racist after sharing a viral video of one of his speeches in 2020, Yousaf has taken them all down with a hilarious response.
He said "racists foaming at the mouth at my very existence" on Twitter, before sharing a Gif of Navid from Still Game dancing to describe his attitude towards them.
Racists foaming at the mouth at my very existence. Me: pic.twitter.com/DsKRWRhnIy
— Humza Yousaf (@HumzaYousaf) October 27, 2023
Musk, whose ownership of Twitter/X has been mired in controversy over disinformation and platforming of hate speech, attacked Yousaf on social media on Thursday night accusing him of "openly despising white people" while sharing a video from an account called "End Wokeness".
“Why would Scotland’s Parliament and King select a guy who hates almost 100% of the country?” the post read, with a short 45-second clip of Yousaf addressing MSPs in 2020 attached.
The clip has been shared widely over the years as alt-right figures suggest it shows the SNP leader expressing anger over the number of white people in Scotland.
In the video, Yousaf says “most senior positions in Scotland are filled almost exclusively by people who are white” – listing examples like the Lord Justice Clerk, Solicitor General, and other senior figures in political and civic life.
The whole speech is actually 10 minutes long. It was made in June 2020 when Yousaf was Scotland's justice secretary.
Fact checkers have insisted he is being misrepresented given Yousaf referenced the lack of people of colour in positions of power in the Scottish Parliament and Government.
The speech did not assert that white people make up too large a proportion of Scotland’s overall population.
Prior to his words in the clip, Yousaf said he was angry about “once again (being) confronted with scenes of horrific racial injustice” and that “in 2020 we are still dealing with overt racism, subtle racism, institutional racism and structural racism”.
He also said: "Forget the racial jibes and the slurs that we still have to put up with; racism is literally killing minorities, as we have all seen… however, racism does not only exist in the United States.
“Scotland is not immune… (it) has a problem of structural racism… we can take the Parliament as an example. More than 300 MSPs have come to and gone from this Parliament—our nation’s Parliament.
"In 20 years, there has not been a single black member of the Scottish Parliament, to our shame; there has not been a single woman MSP of colour, to our shame; and the only four ethnic minority MSPs have all been Scots Asian males.”
