Cultural Diversity In Your Town/Village/Whatever

[Hedgecutter]

This morning I've probably seen more people of African descent than I did in my first ten years living in Aberdeen (2002 onwards), whilst getting a haircut from an Eastern European 'wid'. For avoidance of doubt, this is a good thing (as opposed to my gran's "they're everywhere now" type rant), although I'm too lazy to provide the numerous reasons just now (or blame freezing fingers).

 

This has me wondering just how diverse the various towns / villages of Scotland are, and this would be a pretty good place for the P&B masses. What's the diversity of your place of residence and how has it changed over the years, or is it still the near-exclusively white village with the only exception being the owner of the local takeaway?

[nsr]

The depressing town where I grew up had one Pakistani family when I was young. As per the stereotype, they ran a corner shop.

[Flybhoy]

I grew up in a village with a token Catholic family.

It was us.

[Cardinal Richelieu]

Did someone not post a link recently that told you the ethnic breakdown of any area by postcode?

[NJ2]

Growing up in Fife, I can remember a girl from South Korea, a couple of families from Pakistan and a family from Azerbaijan. High school was a bit, but really not much more diverse. Certainly my experiences in Fife tie in with stereotypes.
I can remember one of my first impressions of Aberdeen being how diverse it is. I don’t see this as particularly good or bad, just different from what I was used to growing up.

[Cardinal Richelieu]

Never mind. Found it... http://www.scotlandscensus.gov.uk/ods-web/area.html

Here's my area:

All people	142 (postcode)	5295403 (Scotland)
% White - Scottish	79.6	84.0
% White - Other British	10.6	7.9
% White - Irish	2.8	1.0
% White - Polish	0.7	1.2
% White - Other	2.8	2.0
% Asian, Asian Scottish or Asian British	0.7	2.7
% Other ethnic groups	2.8	1.3

[smpar]

I was in a very diverse area of Aberdeen when I lived there. There is a mixture in Dunfermline but not so much in my area.

[ICTChris]

 

My postcode didn't work for whatever reason so did my Scottish Parliament constituency.

[DanMc99]

Dumbarton
Interesting facts
Percentage of households where not all persons are in same ethnic group category	11.1
Ethnicity
All people	71957
% White - Scottish	85.5
% White - Other British	10.8
% White - Irish	1
% White - Polish	0.2
% White - Other	1.1
% Asian, Asian Scottish or Asian British	0.9
% Other ethnic groups	0.5

[johnnydun]

There is nothing but white in my postcode according to the census.

In aboot comers are not up to settling in the Banff coast, I can understand why though. I cant wait to move back to Aberdeen.

[chomp my root]

1 minute ago, Melanius Mullarkey said:

Elgin was such a free spirited place to grow up in the 1970s. 

The only black person in the area I lived in was called Sambo.

 

We had a Vietnamese 'boat' family move into the area when I was a kid, the youngest kid was called Vihm (maybe not spelt that way though) and ended up being 'Chinky Vihm'. Even at the time it struck me as odd as he was Vietnamese. Ah, simpler times......

[chomp my root]

Just now, Melanius Mullarkey said:

I do love these conversations reminiscing about the more racist times.

Really, I feel a bit embarrassed, even though I didn't interact with the kid myself. Whatever floats your boat though mate.

[johnnydun]

3 minutes ago, Melanius Mullarkey said:

Sorry, I thought you were a massive racist like myself.

I'll find solace elsewhere.

@Shandon Par hows things?

I know what @chomp my root is saying though. Most of Aberdeen from the 70's to the 90's had heard of "Poofy Jojo". This is not meant to offend anyone this is just what he was known by, a big ginger butch guy with a beard from Woodside who dressed like a woman.

[Sergeant Wilson]

We meet change head on in Airdrie. People from my scheme are still referred to as the "New People" by the residents of the older, adjoining scheme 45 years later. Black people were only on the telly.

Several Vietnamese families were put in Cranhill in the early 80s . They turned the back courts in to vegetable gardens, but the locals destroyed them and they went back to Vietnam. Couldn't blame them.

[hk blues]

31 minutes ago, chomp my root said:

We had a Vietnamese 'boat' family move into the area when I was a kid, the youngest kid was called Vihm (maybe not spelt that way though) and ended up being 'Chinky Vihm'. Even at the time it struck me as odd as he was Vietnamese. Ah, simpler times......

I'm sure If I'd lived in England as a kid, I'd have been known as Jock

[chomp my root]

3 minutes ago, Sergeant Wilson said:

We meet change head on in Airdrie. People from my scheme are still referred to as the "New People" by the residents of the older, adjoining scheme 45 years later. Black people were only on the telly.

Several Vietnamese families were put in Cranhill in the early 80s . They turned the back courts in to vegetable gardens, but the locals destroyed them and they went back to Vietnam. Couldn't blame them.

From what I gather, the family by us moved off to be nearer family in the UK, I seem to mind talk of a 'ghetto' and how terrible that was. I think the poor buggers just wanted to stop being picked on and be with folk on the same wavelength/spoke the same etc. 

[Hedgecutter]

Elgin was such a free spirited place to grow up in the 1970s. 
The only black person in the area I lived in was called Sambo.

Although I was just a toddler at the time, I remember a Chinese guy who lived around the corner from us in Brechin, called Jimmy Chan. I've never actually found out if that was his real name or a casually-racist joke of my father's. Probably the latter.

This was at a time when Brechin supposedly had an American contingent courtesy of the Edzell airbase. Don't remember anything of that, just 'Jimmy Chan'. The city has now changed in becoming a hotbed for Eastern Europeans working in agriculture, seasonally at least. Brexit may change it all again of course, who knows.

The village we moved to in Fife had one non-UK family from a population of 2000+, who stereotypically owned a series of tandooris around the area.

[Flybhoy]

14 minutes ago, Sergeant Wilson said:

 

Several Vietnamese families were put in Cranhill in the early 80s . They turned the back courts in to vegetable gardens, but the locals destroyed them and they went back to Vietnam. Couldn't blame them.

To be fair, torture, persecution and ethnic cleansing under the Khmer Rouge would be more appealing than settling down long term in Airdrie. 

[Shandon Par]

9 minutes ago, Melanius Mullarkey said:

Sorry, I thought you were a massive racist like myself.

I'll find solace elsewhere.

@Shandon Par hows things?

My sob story is that I was on the receiving end of racist abuse for two episodes as a kid. Living in a Lincolnshire with a very Scottish name and Scottish parents made me fair game. Never had a problem then moved school in about p3 and got a load of abuse from all the boys in the class. Pretty miserable but one morning I decided to put a stop to it a breaktime. Then, moving to Fife with a wee bit of an English accent made me fair game again. Swiftly resolved but it did leave a chip on my shoulder about bullies and racist abuse. Dislike of "darkies" was sadly prevalent even though I probably encountered only 3 black kids all the way through primary and high school. 

My mum taught at some tough schools around Dunfermline and one of her primary pupils said he wanted to join the South African police when he grew up so he could "shoot the blacks".  

[Cardinal Richelieu]

When I moved from Scotland to Belfast as a kid, I acquired the nickname "Haggis" at school. So I can empathise with all the other ethnic minorities...