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LONDON — Scotland’s Humza Yousaf laughed off claims from X and Tesla tycoon Elon Musk on Friday that he is a “blatant racist.”
Musk — celebrating one year of his controversial stewardship of the platform formerly known as Twitter — attacked the Scottish first minister and SNP leader in response to a video of a Yousaf speech from 2020.
“What a blatant racist!” Musk posted on X, the social media platform he owns. He was replying to an account named “End Wokeness,” which had tweeted out a clip of the old Yousaf speech.
In the speech — which Yousaf, then justice secretary, made in the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder — he said Scotland has “a problem of structural racism.” He said that in 99 percent of the meetings he attends, he is the only non-white person in the room.
He then named several senior positions in the Scottish government and civil society, which he said were all filled by white people. This specific section was clipped up without context in the tweet Musk replied to, which said that Yousaf “openly despises white people.”
Yousaf has been targeted with racial abuse on several occasions. Two people pled guilty to racially abusing the politician earlier this year, while he has previously said he carries a “personal attack alarm” out of concern for his family.
He apparently shrugged off Musk’s claims Friday, posting a dancing video of the shopkeeper Navid from Scottish sitcom “Still Game” and making light of “racists foaming at the mouth at my very existence.”
