Humza Yousaf has spoken about constantly feeling conscious of being a person of colour after a right-wing heckler shouted “F*** you” at him at the Edinburgh Fringe.
The First Minister was interrupted by ultra Unionists as he appeared at broadcaster Iain Dale’s All Talk show at the Pleasance EICC.
Earlier this week, in another Fringe appearance, Mr Yousaf urged people dismissed because of their colour, gender or background to tell the bigots “F*** you”.
The words were cast back at him by Niall Fraser, who was part of a Force for Good protest outside the SNP’s recent independence convention in Dundee.
After Mr Yousaf said “middle-aged conservative white men” were largely to blame for writing off people of colour, and regarding them as not truly belonging in public life,
Mr Fraser shouted: “Excuse me, Humza,
“Your white, white, white speech was the most bigoted thing Scotland has ever ever heard.
“So on behalf of Scotland, F*** you. You are a pestilence on the land.
“You are despicable, you should be behind bars.”
Amid jeering from the audience, Mr Yousaf said: “It’s a democracy.”
As the man was led out of the room, Mr Yousaf quipped: “I don’t mind a good heckle, frankly, because it saves my dad from doing it.”
However, he told the audience: “I’ve had too many people who have been racist to me throughout my life.”
Mr Yousaf said: “As a person of colour, there is a real sense of frustration at the amount of times people of colour in any profession get told, essentially, ‘you don’t belong here’.
“They’re told that in different ways: ‘you’re not intelligent enough’, ‘you’re not good enough’ ‘you’re out of your depth’, this that and the other.”
He said he had spoken about this with London Mayor Sadiq Khan, as well as former SNP MP Tasmina Ahmed-Sheik, who is now a member of the rival pro-independence Alba Party.
“We all get told the same thing,” Mr Yousaf said.
He continued: “Every interaction I have I am conscious about my colour.
“I can be the First Minister of this country but I am afraid there are some people who will always look at me first as a person of colour, and they will form a judgment.
“So when you ask me if it’s something that is on my mind, I can’t not be conscious of my colour, because everybody else is conscious of my colour.”
While he insisted his race “does not dominate everything I do”, the First Minister went on to say it would be “a shame if I didn’t use my position to make sure that I do as much as I can for any marginalised group, not just people of colour”.
Mr Yousaf alo said he had been unsure whether to run for FM after Ms Sturgeon quit, but was encouraged to do it by his wife.
Later, he was interrupted by environmental protesters, who called on him to speak out against new oil and gas licences being granted by the UK Government in the North Sea.
Mr Yousaf told them: “I don’t think Scotland’s future is in oil and gas.”
Rishi Sunak, last month, travelled to Scotland to announce Government support for future oil and gas licensing rounds, with the Prime Minister saying then he wants to “max out” developments in the North Sea.
A third woman plugged her show at the Fringe at the end.
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