CLAIM: Humza Yousaf is a “blatant racist” – Elon Musk, October 26 2023
DOORSTEP ANSWER: It’s a no. The world’s richest man reshared a video often used by alt-right figures that misrepresents a speech where the (now) First Minister was discussing racial injustice.
BACKGROUND
Musk accused Yousaf of being a “racist” on Thursday after watching a viral video of him discussing racial injustice at Holyrood.
The world’s richest man, and the owner of Twitter/X, was responding to a video posted by an account called “End Wokeness” alleging that Yousaf “openly despises white people”.
The clip in question has often been shared by alt-right figures suggesting it shows the SNP leader arguing that Scotland has too many white people.
The short snippet shows Yousaf delivering a speech to Holyrood on June 10 2020, when he was justice minister. At the time, protests were sweeping across the world after the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police office.
In the speech, Yousaf highlights how most senior positions in Scotland are filled by people who are white – giving examples from Lord President and Lord Justice Clerk to Solicitor General in the justice department and the chief medical officer.
He added: “Almost every trade union in this country (is) headed by people who are white. In the Scottish Government, every director general is white. Every chair of every public body is white.”
Social media users then misrepresented the speech, selectively clipping the speech to suggest Yousaf was saying white people make up too much of Scotland’s population – when, in fact, it was a monologue about the lack of people of colour in positions of power.
Yousaf also said during the speech: “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.”
He added: “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.”
FACT CHECK RATING: Elon Musk is misrepresenting what Humza Yousaf said, taking a clip often shared by alt-right figures which, even if taken alone without the context of the whole speech, still wouldn’t suggest the First Minister is either racist or claiming Scotland has too many white people.
