I’m going to take you (white Americans) on a journey. It rambles, and has a lot of backstory to my main point, but I promise we’ll get there in the end.

Firstly, some disclaimers: I’m white, but ethnically I’m a Celt, or at least I have Celtic heritage. As such, this is very important to me, and to all Celts, and to non-Celts who want to know what’s up about our issues.

So please correct my lily white ass whenever the need arises.

Not that Celtic issues are big to begin with, as much of tumblr sj is American in orientation, but the marginalized peoples of Europe are often cited as being “white people who are oppressed”. Except, that 1) insinuates that they are considered white to being with in Europe’s racial hierarchy, and 2) insinuates that there are no non-white people in these cultures when considering the global racial hierarchy.

Basically, what I’m trying to say is Celts of color exist. Because even if we consider that white Celts aren’t technically ~white~ they still wouldn’t get to call themselves a people of color. And this is affirmed in the sub-hierarchy within Celtic nations; people of color are doubly oppressed for being Celtic and for being people of color, by the white Celts and by the outsiders, the Saxons, if you will.

“But aren’t those PoC just immigrants???” you say. Well no. Not all of them are immigrants, and even if they are, who says they can’t be Celts? Immigrants and Celts (being the native people of Britain fight me) face similar (though different) prejudices from the Saxon (and French in the case of Brittany) majority.

Many of these people of color proudly and eagerly adopt the label Celtic, in solidarity against the majority population. And the Celts are usually very eager to fully adopt such non-white immigrants. Of course, as mentioned above, this isn’t always the case, and that doesn’t magically erase the global racial hierarchy- a white Celt would still consider themselves superior to a non-white Celt.

Anyway, that was a sidetrack, though important. Where’s the proof? Simple google searches lead to a plethora of different sources- do your homework.

Nearly 6% of Ireland’s population is non-white. But, let’s take a closer look at one of those categories.

1.5% if the Irish population is African in origin. But what you don’t realize is that many of them have been there since the 16th century. Many of them were servants (Slavery was never very common in Ireland) in larger cities, but a great number of Afro-Irish people were freemen who made up a diverse workforce the same as the white Irish, often traveling wherever work would take them. These Afro-Irish largely assimilated into the population and contributed to large and powerful families. If you’re Irish, there’s a good chance your whole family lineage was contributed by or even borne of an Afro-Irish person. Pretty cool if you ask me.

Something else of note: A lot of people like to say ‘Black Irish’ refers to Irish people of Southern European origin, as proven by dark hair. Well, that would make me Black Irish, except this is a complete myth. Dark hair was always common among Celts.

Black Irish more accurately refers to the Afro-Irish inhabitants of Montserrat. The population is almost 90% Black Irish- descendants of former slaves. They came about from the mixing of African and Irish slaves, who have Irish surnames, and still partake in mixed African and Celtic song traditions. Oh, and I don’t mean indentured servants. As many as 60,000 Irish were enslaved by Oliver Cromwell and sent to the Caribbean because he’s an asshole.

But that’s not all!

4.5% of Wales can be described as non-white, and specifically, 2.5% of that is comprised of people from Asia. 0.5% of the population is of African descent, but, like Ireland, not all of them are recent immigrants.

In Wales, Tiger Bay is home to one of the oldest Afro communities in the United Kingdom. And incidentally, Shirley Bassey (yes that Shirley Bassey) is from the area. But it goes further than that. Welsh folklore has mentioned dark people for centuries (As does Irish- which mentions the Fomorians). At the very least, the Celts were in frequent communication with an African-based culture or its descendants, or maybe some Celtic tribes are partly of an African stock!



Regardless, Welsh people of color enjoy a rich history that should not be ignored.

Oh but there’s more!

4% of the Scottish population is non-white, and nearly a quarter of that is of African ancestry. Scotland had a large investment in the tobacco trade, and it’s estimated that a third of all slaves owned in Jamaica were owned by Scotsmen (whether they were Scots or Gaelic is unclear). Many of these slaves were brought back to Scotland where they were servants to families, and later obtained their freedom. Most of their descendants still live in Scotland today, and consider themselves to be proud Scots.

Of course, a number of Afro-Scottish people are proud immigrants, including the singer-songwriter Emeli Sandé.

Yet this is the crown jewel: Alba (Scotland) had not one, but two kings of color. Dub mac Maíl Coluim an Niger, who reigned from 962-967, was described as dark in color, and his epithet clearly betrays his African ancestry. His rule was short, and it ended poorly for him, but one of his sons, Cináed mac Duib an Donn (Kenneth III- the Brown) was probably mixed race, also as detailed by his epithet. Of course Donn also means chief, but a look at his portrait shows that he was intentionally shaded to look darker than the average Scotsman. He ruled from 997-1005. More importantly, MacDuff, a large and powerful family in Scotland, probably traces its origins back to Dub and his children. Again, people of color probably have imparted lasting contributions to many Celtic families.

“But there were/are no black European monarchies!” you scream after viewing The Princess and The Frog, whose prince and his family hail form the fictional European land of Maldonia, and are decidedly black.

Oops Scotland had two kings of color, that is complete historical fact. Cry about it.

But what does this all have to do with representation, aside from the above point? Well, consider this. The Pixar movie Brave has garnered a lot of criticism and stirred up a lot of controversy about its lack of PoC representation, and rightfully so.

Brave has been heralded by white supremacist circlejerkers as being “xtremely historically accurate you guys”. Any mention that the movie needed characters of color to be truly historically accurate is scoffed at. It often leads to the lovely paradox of, “It’s historically accurate! *given evidence to the contrary* "Who cares it’s just a movie?”

Brave, historically accurate?

Well, I laugh at that notion. Several of the clans in the movie briefly discuss battling both Romans and Vikings- two cultures that are almost 500 years apart. I reject the notion that the movie takes place in the 6th century or before; their culture is too advanced for that. However, on the opposite end of the spectrum, the Viking invasions of Scotland began in the 8th century, and reached their zenith- and had the most cultural impact in the mid-11th century, meaning that for a movie to treat Vikings as a legitimate threat, but not yet be the overwhelming force that they would become, would mean (as a purely educated guess) that the movie takes place in from the late 10th century to the early 11th century.

I could be completely wrong, but that makes sense to me. Anyway, that was exactly the time in which Dub and Kenneth III ruled.

Meaning that for the movie to have been truly ~historically accurate~ Merida and her family should have been PoC, assuming they’re the most powerful family and the rulers of Alba. But, yes, you heard correctly. Merida should have been a black princess.

Representation matters, and it’s annoying when a people with such a rich history have an absolutely significant portion of their own flesh and blood ignored and erased for the sake of comfy Western imperialism. Who cares about accurately representing the Celts? Who cares about accurately representing people of color? Scottish people = what we want them to equal for Americans to buy tickets. Say it’s just a movie all you want, this stuff is real, and has real life repercussions.

It’s a sad reality when the little respectful and compelling representation my people get blatantly tries to rewrite our history to exclude some of our most vulnerable members. I am completely not about that, and neither should you be.

Celts of color exist. And there’s nothing you can do about it. #butdiversityisunrealistic.