The Scottish Racism Project: Scottish Racism in the Arts

Poet & Musician Benjamin Zephaniah, Poet Rabbie Burns

‘I love playing in Scotland…since the tour’s been announced online I’ve had a lot of people asking when I’m coming to Scotland, and this is just a little sojourn north of the border.’ Jamaican poet and musician Benjamin Zephaniah’s enthusiasm shined through as he gushed about his impending visit to perform at 2019’s Knockengorroch World Music Festival [1], held annually in the Carsphairn hills in the Scottish southwest. He and his reggae/ska band Revolutionary Minds were the headlining act at the event, one of many he’s played up north amidst teaching poetry sessions at Glasgow’s Woodside Secondary, dubbed the ‘multicultural school’ in the mid-90s, spending long periods in Edinburgh and even living briefly in East Kilbride. Being a poet, himself often dubbed the ‘people’s laureate’, he has a soft spot for the Scottish national poet or ‘bard’ Rabbie Burns, equivocating his revered status to that of Bob Marley amongst Jamaicans. As a fellow Rastafarian, Benjamin promised to bring lots of bass and many socially conscious lyrics throughout his ‘world ceilidh’ performance, hopeful for festival-goers to ‘think and dance at the same time’. But beyond the multicultural line-up with music from across the African continent blending with local Gaelic beats, there’s more thinking to do regarding racism. Whilst he maintains racist attacks are not comparable in level to 70s and 80s Britain, he has been distressed at stats ‘showing the rise in racist attacks in the years following the Brexit vote’. Rather than progressing with the peace, love and harmony he’d thought there’d be as he approaches retirement age, so many steps have been taken backwards all over the world. Perhaps Benjamin Zephaniah too would be surprised to find that Scotland has also been very backwards when it comes to racism within the art sector.

Performing Arts

Music Band Young Fathers

Designed with an experience in mind (rather than optics/aesthetics), the performing arts include spoken word (comedy, poetry, monologue+), music, song, dance and drama (theatre/film/tv/radio). Many of these encompass Benjamin Zephaniah’s versatile artistic expression challenging bigotry, much in the way that Edinburgh band Young Fathers chose to channel their creativity for the National Galleries of Scotland in conjunction with the National Portrait Gallery in London. The Mercury award winning music artists consisting of Nigerian Kayus Bankole, Liberian Alloysious Massaquoi, and Scot Graham “G” Hastings were asked to make one of a series of films for the 2017 exhibition Looking Good: The Male Gaze from Van Dyck to Lucian Freud.[2] The theme was the ‘male image, identity and appearance from the 16th century to the present day.’ Within their 4-minute film, which was to accompany the nationwide tour of the Gallery’s Van Dyck self-portrait, the acclaimed group also explored ‘issues around privilege and inequality, and conventions of historic portraiture and its display’. Their final footage showed Kayus as the protagonist walking through the paintings depicting rich white men who most likely profited one way or the other from enslaving dark-skinned Africans like him. The voiceover commentary included the phrases “Dead, random white dude. What’s so special about you?”, “Your status. White. Powerful. Rich” and “A coat framed with gold surrounding white skin”. It later portrayed Kayus shadowboxing, perhaps metaphorically fighting the white male privilege spotlighted in such galleries and ‘affirming his own worth, as a living man against the dead aristocracy in the pictures he’s looking at.’[3]

National Galleries of Scotland

The soul and indie band were impressed the National Portrait Gallery would take a chance on such a film, challenging the overwhelmingly rich, privileged, past ruling class subjects adoring their walls, and upon release it drew praise by many including Scottish novelist Irvine Welsh. However, the mixed heritage band also drew the ire of the far right.[4] Social media was soon littered with comments like “This is racist as f***. Whoever approved this video should be fired. He might as well have spent the video screaming "F*** WHITE PEOPLE.” Another commentator wrote “Is it your goal to insult Scottish people and Scottish history with it because if so...NAILED IT!” The anti-Black sentiment became more direct with one post asking, "Why do you have a black man chimping out in a museum?" and another stating, “go back to your mudhut-culture”. Yet another said, “When a non-native person comes to your country and attacks your ancestors in such an insulting way, that sort of reaction is justified.” The negative backlash saw the band request the galleries take down their artwork from the website as it had been “hijacked by people with ulterior motives, to create hatred and division amongst us”. The National Galleries of Scotland obliged, but reposted within hours of its withdrawal, refusing for its message to be hijacked by xenophobes, insisting that the work was not ‘anti-white’ but clearly ‘anti-privilege’. Still, such devaluing sentiments in the Scottish psyche come as no surprise as it is openly expressed on the streets during Edinburgh’s International Fringe Festival when higher numbers of foreign visitors are in town to partake in the artistic showcases.[5] It must be disorientating for revellers arriving with the intention of enjoying Scottish artistic culture to be met with hostile attitudes towards their own culture…

Young participants in Sistema Scotland's Big Noise

The sparse diversity on the gallery walls reflect the sparse diversity across the Scottish performing arts sector. The Culture Counts collective [6] reported ‘4.2% of film, TV, and radio workers are from BAME groups’ and ‘4.8% of music, performing and visual arts workers’ are from that same demographic, all under-representative of the wider population which is approx. 7% BAME. The disparity stretches from the employment sector into education schemes such as Sistema Scotland’s Big Noise[7] initiative for the lives of children in ‘challenged communities’ to be transformed through music instruction. However, ethnic minority pupils are less likely to attend & more likely to stop attending Big Noise centres across the region. When community links have been made in more diverse schools like Annette Street Primary in Glasgow, for some it has been cause for celebration as it makes the programme more inclusive. But for others, it has taken on ‘white saviour’ undertones, teaching young children a sense of Victorian morals & ideals through music (assimilation) rather than incorporating more styles of music as diverse as the children participating in the programme (integration).

Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (RCS)

This in itself is an offshoot of music theory racism with classical music written in the colonial era, and the condescending eurocentric attitude towards music of colour [8] in its overgeneralisation and simplification. It is usually portrayed as not theoretically complex and thus not requiring much in-depth analysis, substantiated by Glasgow-based music lecturer and researcher Dr Diljeet Bhachu. Such attitudes in part surely led to the claims of systemic racism at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (RCS),[9] the region’s foremost institution of music study. Students of colour at the facility took issue amongst many things with the all-white staff team’s delivery of the Contemporary Performance Practice (CPP) course. This resulted in ‘an overwhelming majority of the students of colour who studied on the CPP programme having, at best, experienced alienation and lack of support…and at worst, disturbing cases of racial discrimination’. The discontent was such that they demanded compensation as the RCS had ‘breached its contract to provide [them] with an adequate standard of tuition.’

Yes, the performing arts in Scotland have had their fair share of racist challenges, how about the visual arts?

Visual Arts

Leigh Bowery’s offensive artwork

Designed with optics/aesthetics in mind (more than ‘an experience’), the visual arts include drawing, painting, photography, print making, sculpture, ceramics, fashion, architecture and digital design. And just as there is racism in how performing arts are taught stretching to university level, the same is also true in visual artistic mediums. This was apparent during a December 2019 ‘Design Domain’ guest lecture at Glasgow School of Art (GSA) given by writer and photographer Peter Paul Hartnett. Amongst his remarks, he referred to controversial white Australian performance artist Leigh Bowery’s work ‘P*** from Outer Space’[10], a photo exhibit involving blue faces, bindis and nose rings from supposed South Asian inspiration. Several students walked out after the ‘hurtful, outdated and offensive’ remarks [11] were made. However, a GSA spokesperson defended the event saying guest speakers ‘sometimes have controversial views and cultural reference points’ and wanted to enhance the student experience by exposing them to ‘new and challenging ideas’, apparently of normalising racism…which ain’t so new at all(!) The spokesperson then added ‘context is essential’, only to later decline to produce a copy of the lecture so the context could be openly scrutinised, perhaps a tacit indication of the inappropriateness they’d allowed on their premises in the name of higher ‘education’.

Ọba Erediauwa of Benin

With such casual bigotry normalised in universities a.k.a. white colonial institutions, it’s therefore not so surprising to find similar attitudes in other white colonial institutions i.e. museums (as the Young Fathers commissioned film for the National Galleries of Scotland in part acknowledged). This was the case across the way in the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh [12] alongside Glasgow’s Kelvingrove Museum refusing to repatriate looted artefacts like the Nigerian Benin Bronzes.[13] One of many British galleries harbouring the royal, religious and cultural objects plundered by colonial forces from the Yorùbá of southwestern Nigeria, Ọba (King) Erediauwa of Benin requested his people’s stolen goods be returned in 1997.[14] Then-chairman of the Africa Reparations Movement (UK)[15] Bernie Grant MP advocated on Ọba Erediauwa’s behalf imploring then-director of Glasgow museums Julian Spalding to consider that the bronze sculptures ‘belonged to a living culture and have a deep historic and social value which goes far beyond the aesthetic and monetary value which they hold in exile.’ In particular, the artworks in themselves are used as a library of consultation as, rather than recording information through writing, Benin Nigerians drew depictions and made sculptures to guide traditional ceremonies and dress, which means ‘many ceremonies are now not being performed satisfactorily because many of the bronzes are missing’.

One of the Benin Bronzes

Bernie drew a parallel to Scotland’s Stone of Scone/Destiny being finally returned to Edinburgh after 700 years in London Westminster Cathedral in the wake of growing public discontent. So it would be two-faced for the Scots to not also return the Benin relics to their rightful owners. The warped response of then head of curatorial services Mark O'Neill was that Kelvingrove had a ‘moral imperative to preserve the heritage of Glasgow’ by keeping the Nigerian artefacts and they were ‘not in the business of redressing historic wrongs’.[16] Such a deviant attitude has been evident through the ages regarding arts theft from other cultures around the world, with Greece’s Parthenon Marbles currently housed in the British Museum, and even being arrogantly named the ‘Elgin marbles’ after the Scottish 'nobleman' who stole them [17], no different from Nazi looting during WWII. There are various gradients at which these injustices lay: (1) flat out refusing to repatriate stolen artifacts as happened at Kelvingrove (2) only loaning the stolen goods to their owners, then expecting them to be returned to the thieves, which is basically a neo-colonial attitude [18] (3) charging the cultures of origin to get back their stolen goods, or (4) giving the stolen artifacts back for ‘free’, but not paying transportation costs. Either way, when it comes to cultures of colours trying to gain back their stolen heritage, some way or the other they always seem to lose out.

Orí-Olókun & Damien Hirst's plagiarised version

More art theft comes in the form of creatives like Damien Hirst whose “Artist Rooms” solo exhibit was displayed in the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art; and “Necromancer” at the Hunterian Art Gallery in Glasgow. For his 2017 exhibition, “Treasures from the Wreck of the Unbelievable” at the 57th Venice Biennale, he replicated the Orí-Olókun Benin Bronze sculpture without any labelling attributing its unique design of vertical lines running down its face to its Nigerian Ilé-Ifẹ̀ origins,[19] instead calling the artwork “Golden heads (female)”. Celebrated Nigerian visual artist Victor Ehighale Ehikhamenor recognised it as a clear case of cultural appropriation, which I personally prefer to call ‘cultural plagiarism’ as the culprit is stealing artistic ideas/concepts without attributing them to the culture that ‘authored’ it. And note, its fine to copy art (imitation is the highest form of flattery) as long as you acknowledge the source. If not, that is intellectual/creative theft which Nigerian artist Láolú Ṣẹ̀nbánjọ also took issue with. Hirst hit back against the accusation, saying Ilé-Ifẹ̀ was referenced in the exhibition guide, though that in itself contained the racist theory that such visually pleasing exquisite craftmanship could only be produced by Europeans like the ancient Greeks rather than Africans like the Yorùbá. As all items on view were for sale, for Victor Ehikhamenor it was a contemporary example of the centuries old dynamic of Westerners hurtfully profiting from the stolen labours of Africans, which Scottish art institutions themselves are plenty familiar with.

Yes, the visual arts in Scotland have had their fair share of racist challenges, how about the written arts?

Written Arts

Scottish Makar Jackie Kay

Designed to arouse the imagination, the written arts include poetry, prose fiction, prose non-fiction and script writing. With such a small ethnic minority population, it is unsurprising that Scotland has very few renowned writers of colour. The current Scottish Makar ('Poet Laureate' equivalent) Jackie Kay with her Nigerian-Scottish heritage therefore really breaks the mould. The multi-award-winning author of 18 books and counting is certainly a celebrated member of the poetry world, so it seems contradictory that the mixed-raced writer reportedly feels unable to use the Scottish Poetry Library (SPL) as a base.[20] This is one of several areas of concern brought up during an October 2019 exposé of ‘much unhappiness among staff’, a ‘toxic atmosphere’ and a ‘culture of menace’ at the SPL, allegedly stemming from the leadership of its current director Asif Khan. However, he refuted the criticism against him, insisting the complaints from the SPL Poets Advisory Group were ‘motivated by their unhappiness with [his] ethnic background’.[21] The uproar is quite the opposite of the peace and serenity you’d expect to find at a library, though a different form of discontent exists amongst the books in that only 2.7% of library (alongside museum and gallery) staff across the UK are from BAME communities.[22] The potential bias with regards to books the mainly white librarians would recommend to visitors is therefore clear.

Black characters written
by white authors

Beyond recommendations, it can be a struggle to bring diverse voices to the fore. White authors often take it upon themselves to write about Black lives, but through the prism of their limited knowledge and skewered understanding.[23] Add this to their unconscious (if not outright conscious) racial bias, we are often misrepresented in their narratives. Such distortions should be readily avoidable considering Black people are in fact prolific writers. Benjamin Zephaniah noted that, as our lives in the western hemisphere become political by default, we can’t help but just start writing about our experiences. He added how necessary and important it was to tell Black stories because, ‘if we don’t, some so-called expert will come and do it for us’.[24] Once written though, Black authors and stories are often side-lined, with very few drawing the interest of the UK publishing industry. If manuscripts are in fact looked at, there’s preference for despondent ‘Black struggle’ narratives rather than happy ‘Black life’[25], with a 2019 report finding only 7% of children’s books featuring a BAME character.

Dialogue Books Publisher, Sharmaine Lovegrove

When ‘flash in the pan’ trends come with manuscripts by writers of colour becoming popular, Dialogue Books Jamaican-British publisher Sharmaine Lovegrove has heard it described as the ‘marketplace of BAME authors’, which is triggering given the slave trade.[26] For her it signified that the mainly white, male middle-classed leaders in publishing ‘even with the best intentions, have little concept of how to talk about people from a range of backgrounds.’ Beyond Sharmaine herself, the industry has few BAME literary agents or publishers of colour with the 2015 Writing the Future report stating only approx. 8% of British publishing staff are BAME [27], significantly disproportionate to the UK population. When a BAME person gets in the publishing door, they tend to bring in writers of colour. But when they leave, the practice also leaves with them, institutionalised biases are reset, and yet again only white authors get a look in. And what happens to the few Black authors that make it through? Well, no matter what, they better be successful because, whilst white writers are given the leeway for underperforming book sales and will receive another £100k advance, writers of colour with underperforming book sales get blamed and punished along with their ENTIRE demographic.[28] In such scenarios, there is rarely any self-reflection on the publishers part to realise the struggle to market books by people of colour because their internal structures aren't diverse enough [29], they are simply put off pursuing diverse writers. Thus, the cycle begins again with Black authors being told there’s no market for their books as ‘no one’ wants to read them.

This leads to another issue of actual successful Black authors not being properly compensated, exposed or recognised. The June 2020 hashtag #PublishingPaidMe helped reveal the huge pay disparities between writers of colour and their white counterparts.[30] Barbadian-British and former UK Children’s Laureate Malorie Blackman exclaimed she had never in her career received anything like the cash advances shared by some white authors, indicating that despite the clear quality of the writing, ‘publishing literally does not value Black voices’. With regards to exposure, ethnic minority authors are rarely invited to book festivals with BAME panellists only making up 1% of the national average.[31] Even within this, a hierarchy has been reported at one book festival where white male panellists are paid to attend, white female panellists aren’t paid but have their expenses reimbursed, but panellists of colour have to pay a fee to participate(!)

World Book Night ‘so white’

Then with recognition, BAME writers are rarely nominated for literary prizes, or included for initiatives like World Book Night (WBN)[32] which inspires people from all backgrounds to read more. Each year, a select list of authors are chosen to have their books handed out to readers for free, and in 2013 Jackie Kay’s memoir Red Dust Road indeed made the cut. However, the event held on the UNESCO International Day of the Book had glaring snubs in its 2016 line up. Despite releases like Claudia Rankine’s Citizen; Chigozie Obioma’s The Fishermen and Marlon James’s A Brief History of Seven Killings, not one BAME writer made the WBN list with all 15 authors being white [33], including Scottish poet Carol Ann Duffy. Of the stark omissions, she said, ‘I’m a huge supporter of WBN and grateful to be included, but more than happy to give up my place to support diversity, which is the lifeblood of all culture.’ As such, after the previous year’s lack of translations and that year’s monocultured choices, World Book Night should not devolve into something ‘ungenerous and garish: White Book Night’[34], as Jackie Kay observed. But things as they stand have resulted in a Black brain drain of authors relocating to regions more open to inclusivity such as Europe and the USA.[35] These include the likes of Jamaican-English Zadie Smith, Nigerian-British Chris Abani, St Kitts-British Caryl Phillips, and Guyanese-British Fred D’Aguiar, frustrated with the racist UK status quo.

Poet and Performer Courtney Stoddart

For BAME writers who do decide to stay on British shores, they must do so navigating the discrimination they have previously and still currently experience. Mixed-race Caribbean-Scottish poet and performer Courtney Stoddart channels tales of racism into her rhythms and rhymes.[36] Her personal familiarity with the topic was also channelled during her appearance in ‘Call and Response: Lament for Sheku Bayoh’[37], a play inspired by the Fife-based Sierra Leonean father-of-two unlawfully killed by Scottish police. Performed during the 2019 Edinburgh International Festival, it was penned by fellow mixed-race Black-Scottish playwright Hannah Lavery, who has her own personal stories of racism to tell.[38] She shared these in The Drift, her autobiographical spoken-word show that toured the country recalling racist incidents from her childhood to the present day. Fellow writer Jackie Kay also participated in the festival and the Scottish Makar shared her experience celebrating the Scottish Bard at a 2017 Burns Supper. Whilst there, she was racially abused and instructed to “get out” of the event, despite being a guest speaker.[39] As for so many BAME writers in Scotland, she insisted the region’s attitudes to race was decades behind other parts of the UK and needed to ‘“grow up” and take more responsibility for the treatment of Black and ethnic minorities.’

Yes, the written arts in Scotland have had their fair share of racist challenges, but there are still more issues with other facets of the arts sector.

Artistic Sidelining

Black artists and projects excluded from opportunities and funding

Throughout the UK, not only are BAME creatives underrepresented across each art sector, half of those employed there say their ethnic background was ‘a barrier to career progression compared to just 5% of white creatives’[40] as well as receiving an overall lower median income (echoing the situation of writers of colour). The same is true up north as, when the Scottish government floated its draft ‘Cultural Strategy for Scotland’[41] with a vision to be ‘innovative, inclusive, and open to the wider world’, it negated to include a focus on its BAME communities.[42] The oversight denotes limited understanding or interest in their artworks’ cultural themes, leading to a lack of established networks. As white artists have more easily been given opportunities and funding, they can build up a larger body of work as well as become more familiar with the industry and continue to progress as such. Conversely, artists of colour careers stagnate due to lack of such opportunities. ‘Institutional racism (as well as straightforward racism) plays a key role in this discrimination.’[43] For this reason, ‘BAME artists have said they have to work almost five times as hard to get the commissioners on side.’[44]

Guest Speaker Jackie Kay racially abused at Burns Supper

The commissioners and others in arts governance are disproportionally white. If we look at the UK’s television industry, whilst 13% of its workers are BAME, they only account for 7% of senior management roles.[45] The figures are even more sparse within Creative Scotland’s [46] regularly funded bodies with no BAME chief executives, artistic directors, or chairs. Indeed, less than 2% of board members, permanent staff, freelance staff, and volunteers are ethnic minorities.[47] And even these sparse few seemed to have a tokenistic function with any suggestions or recommendations principally overlooked. This results in several issues in that when funding is given to BAME artists, it’s for projects which (1) ignores Scotland’s cultural and historical heritage involving BAME people with regards to slavery, colonialism, and empire (perhaps subsequently fuelling the hostility towards the Young Fathers regarding that National Galleries of Scotland film short) (2) disassociate with celebrations of Scottish heritage, thus othering BAME communities as non-Scottish (perhaps subsequently fuelling the hostility towards Jackie Kay during that Burns Supper) (3) fits an exoticised eurocentric view of their ethnic heritage. Even genuine multicultural projects that do push through won’t succeed if filtered through a white paradigm as some artists of colour who preferred to remain anonymous divulged. The poor promotion by museum managers to counter the whitewash image of such institution meant BAME visitors were not informed or interested and initially stayed away rather than come view diverse projects in which they could feel represented. All this highlights that arts racism leads to devaluing the work of creatives of colour, along with arts partnerships/projects which are stifled by inequality and inadequacy.

CRER report exposed racism in the Scottish Arts sector

The Coalition for Racial Equality and Rights (CRER) included these recommendations and more in its consultation for the Culture Strategy for Scotland, but they felt they ‘may as well not have’ as the race-specific issues raised were dismissed out of hand.[48] The subsequent consultation analysis excluded most of their constructive criticisms and proposals. ‘There was a cursory mention of ‘inclusion’ in the Key Themes Report[49] and acknowledgement in the Full Report of concerns regarding representation in a national partnership, the (complimentary) use of the word ‘diversity’, care needed to ensure BAME groups are involved, and the need to increase inclusive work opportunities in the sector. However, other, more systematic issues were dismissed. Unfortunately, this whitewashing occurs with nearly every consultation response CRER offers, despite our responses being evidence-based and often the only one addressing race equality’…and it seems the Scottish arts sector is no different.

Considering these uneasy truths about the creative industries and their governance in Scotland, would Benjamin Zephaniah still be so enthusiastic to headline the next Knockengorroch ‘world ceilidh’? When so much of the racial social consciousness that fills his lyrics fall on deaf ears on the Scottish establishment, there is surely little satisfaction in performing not for ‘revolutionary minds’ as his band name invites, but for closed off ones…

Course of Action

So now we know of the racism against BAME people across Scotland’s creative industries, what can be done about it? Let’s break it down step by step.

Scokendia Ensemble participants
Regarding racism in the performing arts, there are creatives that use their artistic talents to spread an anti-racism message. This includes the various Love Music Hate Racism (LMHR)[50] events across the UK using the ‘energy and vibrancy of the music scene to promote unity and celebrate diversity’, with Glasgow also hosting various related gigs throughout the year. In addition, comedians have brought their own unique spin on the issue to Scottish shores with shows like The Truth Hurts: Comedy Against Racism with Aamer Rahman.[51] There too are creatives that use their artistic talents to root out racism and discrimination within the performing arts themselves. One such initiative was the 2014 Scokendia Ensemble [52] bringing Scottish, Kenyan and Indian musicians together as part of a cross-cultural music project delivered by Kenyan-Scottish violinist Kate Miguda [53] through the Scottish Chamber Orchestra’s Masterworks Project. Along the same vein, there has been some progress made in music education with Woodside’s successor multicultural secondary school Hillhead in that students can now take Indian tabla drums as an instrument for their National Qualification (GCSE equivalent) music exam. What’s more, there are free tabla lessons being held at Kelvingrove Museum. However, there is a disconnect as only white kids attend these sessions, and kids of colour from Hillhead aren’t making the short walk over through Kelvingrove Park to participate, perhaps still feeling the strong sense that museums in general are very much white spaces. Further support to better facilitate museums' implementation of diversity programmes is available through training in ‘Anti-Racism and Allyship in the Arts’[54] run by Dance Base run by Claricia Parinussa and Saaqib Afzal.

Creative Producer Wezi Mhura:
BLM Scottish Mural Trail
Regarding racism in the visual arts, again there are creatives that use their artistic talents to spread an anti-racism message. They include photographer Karen Gordon and her December 2019 ‘Everyday Racism’ photo exhibit [55] at the Glasgow Gallery of Modern Art (GoMA) spotlighting the bigotry its subjects experience on a daily basis which the surrounding white population are oblivious to. ‘A lot of white people say they don’t see colour and that is only because they have never had to see it. It’s such a huge issue. I see the photographs as a way of starting a bigger conversation about this’, she said. Again, there are also creatives that use their artistic talents to root out racism and discrimination within the visual arts themselves. They include Glasgow School of Art Students’ Association President Alessandro Marini who said of Paul Hartnett's racially offensive lecture, ‘it was important to address others’ concerns with more than “a tokenistic acknowledgement that it might have hurt some people”’.[56] Similar incidents have happened at the GSA before, and despite the sluggish pace of bringing change to higher education institutions, he is pushing for more student involvement in guest speaker selection (perhaps next time inviting the likes of Glasgow-based Black creative producer Wezi Mhura re her seminal work on the Black Lives Matter Scottish Mural Trail along with many other projects[57]). Also, Alessandro is calling for trigger warning for GSA talks with sensitive themes, and an independent moderator to be present during delivery. Like universities, museums are also slow to adapt to change, particularly on the subject of racial justice regarding the return of looted artefacts. To this end, the Guardian newspaper launched a campaign to locate Benin Bronzes throughout the UK and justly return them to Nigeria.[58] With the extra scrutiny, perhaps the Scottish museums harbouring stolen goods will take note.

Writer Yéwándé Ọmọ́tọ́
Regarding racism in the written arts, in addition to the litany of creatives that use their artistic talents to spread an anti-racism message through their writing, there are many intent on rooting out racism and discrimination within the written arts itself. Several schemes promoting inclusivity [59] include (1) publisher Penguin Random House's WriteNow campaign connecting marginalised authors with agents, editors and established writers to give them exposure to these professions (2) charity Creative Access facilitating recruitment for paid internships at publishing houses (3) literary festivals like Cheltenham, Henley and Bradford increasing the panellists of colour they invite to participate, and (4) World Book Night recalibrating its submission process to include more ethnic minority authors. They join the ranks of independent publishers like Canongate, Oneworld, Bloomsbury and Unbound who have long been entwining inclusivity into their practices, likely recognising that 'equal and fair opportunities must be given to Black authors, they must be free to write about what they desire, regardless of whether it’s centred on race or not (publishing small amounts of works by black authors that get tokenistically pushed is not enough).’[60] Indeed, ‘convinced that tokenism and quotas would not offer a long-term fix’, the artistic director of the Edinburgh International Book Festival Nick Barley for his part is attempting in his own way to promote diversity.[61] This includes inviting South Africa based Nigerian-Barbadian writer Yéwándé Ọmọ́tọ́ṣọ̀ to Scotland to discuss her books, and coaxing celebrated Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie to visit the UK with emerging writers from across the continent.

Stirling Publishing is one Scottish publisher that uniquely took on a BAME project in the form of the 2018 anthology ‘The Colour of Madness’[62], compiled and edited by Dr Samara Linton and Rianna Walcott. **SEE ARTICLE UPDATE BELOW** Beyond this, ethnic minority workers in the UK publishing sector have been brought together by Sarah Shaffi and Wei-Ming Kam who co-founded the BAME in Publishing network.[63] In addition, writer and academic Sunny Singh established the Jhalak Prize for writers of colour [64] in order to promote more awareness of BAME authored books to a much wider readership, not just those from diverse backgrounds, but the dominant white mainstream population. In this way, it’s more than a literary award, ‘it's an argument, part of a debate, an intervention.’

Glasgow Life Senior Arts, Music & Diversity Manager Naomi Shoba
Regarding racism in artistic sidelining, more diverse staffing at Glasgow Life [65], the charity delivering cultural activities for Glasgow City Council, has also led to more diverse projects being greenlit (similar to the effect of Sharmaine Lovegrove’s appointment at Dialogue Books). With Naomi Shoba in the role of Senior Arts, Music & Diversity Manager involved in arts development funding and budget allocation, she started bringing already established creatives of colour to read the funding applications of BAME projects. They would then review each submission and give feedback on how they could be improved, rather than being dismissed by white reviewers as had historically been the case. By remedying the systemic dismissal of BAME projects from previously not assisting with structure and phrasing (vs content) at the initial stages, 50% of BAME project applications were successful in the first year of her initiative. This is one tangible positive outcome illustrating the CRER’s suggestions on the draft Cultural Strategy for Scotland [66] to improve BAME representation in the culture sector; promote equality and opportunity for Black artists; reconsider the role of BAME leadership beyond ‘tokenistic aesthetics’ and develop better understanding of the relationship (and differences) between ethnicity, heritage, and culture; examine continuing historical impact of Scottish white supremacy and privilege; and educate white sector leaders about institutional racism stemming from slavery, colonialism, and empire. Any strategy requires more than good intentions to effectively advance race equality and overturn the inequalities that Scottish BAME communities face.

Performance Storyteller Mara Menzies

This is slowly being heeded as, in the wake of the Diversity in the Arts and Equality Matters[67] reports, the 2018 Create: Inclusion Fund[68] was launched supporting ‘activities that enable personal progression, development of creative and professional practice, and opportunities to take professional and creative risks’. With a mandate to increase diversity in the arts, screen and creative industries, initiatives like the Bothy Project will ‘host a series of funded residencies for eight BAME artists at Sweeney’s Bothy on the Isle of Eigg, providing a developmental opportunity for BAME artists to have access to a rural Scotland whilst focusing on their own practice and/or pursue a line of research and development’. Other initiatives include the Zanana Project which ‘brings BAME creatives together to share learnings, facilitate conversations and provide training through panel talks and workshops’, thus helping BAME artists to ‘realise their ambitions, develop their skills, grow their networks and support leadership abilities as well as providing an online platform to promote their work and practices.’ Funding also went to Kenyan-Scottish performance storyteller Mara Menzies to create a new work combining traditional storytelling and digital technology about heavyweight boxing champion Anthony Joshua. Narrated from his mother Yétúndé Odusany’s point of view, she shares the ‘challenges of raising children with Nigerian values while navigating the powerful cultural influences of life in the UK’.

Empowering BAME Communities

Afrifest music events

Whilst these initiatives will help boost the aspirations of future BAME artists navigating the Scottish arts sector, what can be done to help those who have already been impacted by it? The knock-on effect of constantly being devalued has been that many creatives of colour undersell themselves. Currently, white artists tend to price themselves higher and still get the work, their talents perceived as worth the expense. How to embolden artists of colour to properly price their work/services to make their art careers more sustainable? Luckily, help is at hand from the likes of Nigerian Arts Curator and Advisor Bọláńlé Tajudeen who founded Black Blossoms School of Art & Culture [69]; a digital academy with short courses and masterclasses aiming to decolonise and disrupt eurocentric art and creative education. Upon completing their study, the graduates could then apply for Creative Debuts: The Black Artists Grant[70]. Bestowed monthly to a new recipient, this is a no-strings attached £500 award to assist the selected artist in whatever way they choose, be it making new work, buying equipment or materials, travelling, researching, visiting exhibitions or conferences, or even just covering some life expenses. Once their artwork has been realised, then it’s time to showcase it through various events celebrating their creativity including Afrifest [71], Africeilidh at The African Art Center [72], Pan African Arts Scotland [73] or indeed the Africa in Motion Film Festival [74], all intent on stirring the imagination with artistic expression hailing from the cradle of humanity.

Yes, Scotland has a long way to go before resolving its issues with racism in the arts, and only with a concerted effort will progress be made.

~ by Abiọ́dún Ọlátòkunbọ̀ Abdul

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**ARTICLE UPDATE**: Since this article was first published in August 2020, Tabitha Stirling, director of Stirling Publishing who printed 2018 anthology ‘The Colour of Madness’[1], has been exposed to be a white nationalist. Her motivation for taking on the anthology was not to empower diverse voices, but to exploit ‘BAME writers & trauma for personal profit.’ She should no longer be identified as someone championing diversity in publishing but someone covertly driving Scottish racism in the arts in and of herself. As a more viable course of action regarding racism in the written arts, I would instead like to spotlight the Kelpies imprint of publisher Floris Books [2] who ‘only accepts unsolicited manuscripts of writers from diverse and underrepresented communities.’

[1] Glasgow Anti-fascist Alliance: Tabitha Stirling (15 December 2020)

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?id=522203541562621&story_fbid=1152809385168697

We Can't Let Racist Publishers Drown Out Our Voices (17^th March 2021)

https://www.badformreview.com/read/6f0ewl

Julie Burchill fires new publisher identified as a white nationalist (17^th March 2021)

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/mar/17/julie-burchill-fires-new-publisher-identified-as-a-white-nationalist

Burchill cancels new contract after publisher linked to far right group

https://www.thebookseller.com/news/burchill-cancels-contract-after-publisher-linked-white-nationalists-1249109

Anthology editors cancel Stirling Publishing agreement (19 March 2021)

https://www.thebookseller.com/news/anthology-editors-cancel-stirling-publishing-agreement-after-far-right-link-1249159

Colour of Madness seeks new publisher, as contributors get their rights back (22^nd March 2021)

https://www.voice-online.co.uk/entertainment/books/2021/03/22/colour-of-madness-seeks-new-publisher-as-contributors-get-their-rights-back/