Who Goes to Glasgow?

As it has for awhile now, the Glasgow University website amazes us. Every time D. has to go onto the site to register for the new year, he’s presented with the following list of ethnicities, from which to choose:

• WHITE – BRITISH
• WHITE – IRISH
• WHITE – SCOTTISH
• IRISH TRAVELLER
• OTHER WHITE BACKGROUND
• BLACK-CARIBBEAN
• BLACK-AFRICAN
• OTHER BLACK BACKGROUND
• INDIAN
• PAKISTANI
• BANGLADESHI
• CHINESE
• OTHER ASIAN
• WHITE & BLACK CARRIBEAN
• WHITE & BLACK AFRICAN
• WHITE & ASIAN
• OTHER MIXED BACKGROUND
• OTHER
• NOT KNOWN
• INFORMATION REFUSED

We’re always amused and amazed that “other,” over here seems to comprise such a great many ethnicities, while dismissing an entire continent, at least! True, we’ve only ever met two people of Mexican ancestry here, and can’t actually think of having met a single other soul from Latin America (and, as this tortilla chips package reminds us, Mexican/Latin American culture here is more cliché than understood). But, the “other” also misses Aboriginal peoples and Native Americans as well, although once again, it’s not like there are droves of Innuit students here either. But, the list still makes us wonder. Maybe it just reflects the fact that these are the only ethnicities which attend universities in Scotland? Or maybe these are the only ethnicities which matter, for some tracking purpose?

In trying to find out why this list exists in this form, D. pulled up the census information for Scotland. It was… unsurprising in some ways, and absolutely gobsmacking in some others. In spite of the many ethnicities of people we see near the university, this country is largely white! No, don’t laugh, or say “duh;” theoretically, the United States, which comes from similar rootstock, could have been the same, but for a few nasty quirks in history, it’s… not.

On the census website, if you scroll down a ways in Scotland’s Census FAQ’s you’ll see that Scotland has a grand total of 2% non-white people. By way of comparison: California is 74% white, 26% non-white. Another point on the Scottish Census is that 7 of 8 people in Scotland were born in Scotland. For Californians, 27% were born outside of the U.S., 19% were born in a different state, and 1% were born in Puerto Rico or abroad, to American parents. Thus, 47% of Californians are transplants from elsewhere.

There are certain political groups within the city who often picket and/or hand out flyers and/or scrawl their sentiments around the city, that people should “go back” to where they’re from, and that “Pakis” are taking all of the jobs, etc. ad nauseum, ad racistitum. And yet…

Facts. So often confusing to those who prefer not to know them.

Through the looking glass, the world is a truly strange place.

– D & T

This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.