'This is what independence is about': SNP minority members plea for empathy

Sarah Cheung first came to ­Scotland from Northern Ireland for university in 2008 and joined the SNP in 2017 after seeing the UK ­Government’s “flirtation with far-right ideals” and the threat of a Brexit-induced border in the Irish Sea.

Born in 1989, Cheung remembers when her local Woolworths was bombed by the IRA, seeing army barricades in the street and being told by her family that politics are ­“dangerous”. As someone from an ethnic-minority community who struggled with her sexuality growing up, she never imagined that there was space for her in the political arena.

Now, Cheung is the lesbian campaign co-ordinator for the SNP’s LGBT group, Out For Independence. Despite feeling “welcomed” by the independence movement, Cheung is among a number of activists concerned that this positive approach is being challenged by “something quite toxic”.

“I’m starting to see this fringe group who see people like ethnic ­minorities, the LGBTQ community, women who support trans people and disability groups as holding them back in some way. It pains me to see this division,” she says.

This comes after months of debate over the make-up of the SNP’s ­National Executive Committee, with some questioning whether it offers too much representation to the ­party’s affiliated equalities groups.

This, Cheung feels, is a political miscalculation. “Independence is getting support from people who were sitting on the fence, like ethnic minorities who are ostracised by the British state. If you say ‘we’ll deal with that later’, it’s going to say to people who turn to the SNP and the independence movement for hope: ‘Thank you for your support, but do you want to get to the back of the line?’.”

An intense selection campaign for the SNP’s Holyrood candidates, which has just drawn to a close, saw various pro-independence ­Twitter ­accounts urging SNP members “#DontVoteWoke”.

Seemingly designed to highlight candidates who support inclusion of trans people, critics argue that it was used against young women by default.

Fatima Joji, who stood for selection in Aberdeenshire West, is a caseworker for an SNP MP, chairs the Aberdeen Independence Movement (AIM) and represents the SNP as a director on the board of 50:50 Parliament’s #AskHerToStand campaign to encourage more women to get into politics.

But for some, the focus during her campaign was on whether or not she was “woke”. Joji found this “infuriating”, particularly because she feels the term has been misappropriated.

“The term ‘woke’ was coined by African Americans and used by activists to highlight awareness to racial injustice and inequalities and to do something positive to address the imbalance,” she explains. “For people to use it against me as a black woman is highly problematic.”

Joji believes this usage in Scotland has come about as part of “a war on trans women” driven by a “vocal ­minority”. “It’s been used against young women in particular, so it shows the mindset of the people doing this. It’s interesting that this is being used in a negative way because there is nothing negative about being supportive of marginalised groups,” she adds.

As a result of efforts within the SNP to improve black and minority ethnic (BAME) representation, this selection contest saw 22 BAME candidates participating – the highest number for the party to date. However, Joji says some members have taken the view that BAME people were “parachuted in just to tick boxes”.

“I’ve been accused of being an obstacle to getting our campaign started because I dared to run,” she says. In future, Joji suggests it would be useful to roll out “unconscious bias” training to branches prior to the selection process.

Erin Mwembo joined the SNP in 2015 when she was just 13, inspired by Nicola Sturgeon as a “role model”. Since, she has campaigned alongside “a huge number of people who are incredibly passionate about equalities”.

Mwembo is now the Women’s ­Officer for Young Scots for ­Independence, and she worries that other young people could be “put off” by “a fringe of people who have been making it feel less and less safe for certain people”.

This is a particular issue online, she suggests, with “women, black and minority ethnic people and trans people having to deal with a torrent of abuse”.

“A lot of young people and women I speak to cite online abuse as the reason they don’t want to go into ­politics, which is awful.”

Like the other activists featured, Mwembo sees this as “a reflection of society”, rather than being specific to the independence movement. To improve the situation, Mwembo believes that more “allies” – and not only those affected by inequalities – need to “call out this behaviour”.

She also thinks that “having a bit of empathy” is essential. “It’s listening to people with those experiences and not saying ‘oh that doesn’t matter, it’s not that important’ because you don’t understand.”

To facilitate this, she’d like to see these conversations taking place “off social media”, even if that currently means through Zoom. “It’s about not having that quick heated discussion on Twitter,” she adds.

For others, the impacts of these divisions have been felt beyond the digital gates. Mridul Wadhwa, who stood for selection in Stirling and ­Edinburgh Central, was challenged by some inside and outside the party on her right as a trans woman to be included in an all-women shortlist.

When she moved to Scotland from India nearly two decades ago, she never envisioned a political career for herself.

“I couldn’t even dream about being involved in a political context because in India it was very inaccessible and far away from the realities of my life,” she says.

The independence referendum sparked her political activism

because she saw a chance to ­develop a new approach to immigration which worked for “people in need”. She was also encouraged by the fact that Scottish politics and the Parliament itself felt “more welcoming and accessible” than Westminster, ­particularly for someone like her “who had just ­migrated and worked with minority ethnic women”.

Although she continues to see the independence movement as “inclusive”, Wadhwa says her experience has taught her that there are those within it who are “not necessarily welcoming of people who are different”.

Most “problematic”, she suggests, is that this “filters into the offline world”, with arguments about trans rights which began online now holding up progress in the Scottish Parliament.

During the selection race, she also noticed that a number of BAME ­candidates “received racist hate” and that “anyone who has stood up very clearly for the rights of minorities” was targeted.

Still, Wadhwa is “optimistic” about the future.

“The reality is that for every ­negative blog or person contacting me directly, a lot more people have contacted me offering me support, ­including the various branches.” Across political parties, Wadhwa says the key to inclusivity is to offer this kind of support and to demonstrate that they “will not tolerate” abuse of marginalised groups and their supporters.

Echoing a message expressed by Cheung, Joji and Mwembo, Wadhwa concludes: “If independence is about a more just and equal Scotland, we have to start living that now.”