:BRIGHTSTUFF:..Personal & Political Musings & Rants by a Liberal Leftist Black & Asian Teacher

One thing that I noticed about being in Scotland was that people did not seem to have the same hang ups about race that we have here.

Let me begin this by giving you a little background about me:

I am half Korean and half Black, and my Old Man is half Scottish and half Turkish. As a non-white woman who is intimately involved with, in love with, and living my with a white man, life as an American can be a real eye-opener.

People see you as a "sell-out", or maybe an "oreo".

Even here in the Big Apple in my beloved America, people stare at us as if I had tentacles growing from my scalp. You know- the "What the fuck???" look.

In Scotland (and in London), we didn't get a second look.

Not once.

I started to think about this.

An important fact to remember is that this country, the good old US of A, has a history of racialism that stretches back for centuries, and while Britain was an imperial power that actively indulged in the slave trade and conquering of many non-white cultures, in Scotland, I never once felt the weight of this...this scarred history.

From the moment I arrived there, I was treated warmly by everyone around me, and I was greeted with a smile by almost everyone I met. People were ready to talk to me without hesitation, it seemed.

My Old Man's mother's family were absolutely brilliant and didn't bat an eye upon meeting me (of course, they DID all know about me from his parents, who were equally wonderful in their acceptance of our relationship).

Now, I'm certainly not saying or implying that racism doesn't exist in that country. On the contrary--- I've read of some violence against some Asian (Indian/Pakistani?) families there.

As Americans, we know that our history has been steeped in the blood of Middle Passage, the whip, and lynchings.
It is deeply embedded in our culture. It poisons our school systems, our government and our lives on a daily basis.

Scotland was much more multiracial than I thought it would be. Believe me, I thought I was going to be the only person of color for miles. On our very first day, we went to a liquor store owned by Asian (Indian/Pakistani?) Glaswegians. Hell, one of the best meals I had there was at an Indian restaurant on Ashton Lane in Glasgow.

Anyway...what was my point???

Oh, yes.

America's history of race relations is so different from that of its Scottish counterparts in that it is not INGRAINED in every aspect of its (Scottish) society.

Simply put, I LOVED that the Scottish don't have this history that we, as Americans, own.