Woman who linked racism with Scottish nationalism quits Twitter over safety fears

A black feminist researcher who was abused for criticising Scottish nationalism has deleted her Twitter account because she feared for her physical safety.

Claire Heuchan, a Scottish PhD student at Stirling university, said she believed her often abusive opponents were trying to discover where she lived by searching and sharing tweets from her account.

Heuchan was subjected to heavy criticism, and also received substantial support, after writing a Guardian opinion piece supporting claims at the weekend by Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, that there were parallels between Scottish nationalism and racist movements elsewhere in the world. The abuse included a racist comment left on her personal blog.

She was publicly supported by her university on Tuesday, but Heuchan said she had closed her account after becoming “pretty terrified” at the response. “When I saw people were trying to work out my location, [I] became physically terrified. I started shaking and crying. I don’t feel safe.”

In her Guardian article, Heuchan said: “Equating racism with Scottish nationalism is a massive false equivalence, yet both perspectives are reliant on a clear distinction being made between those who belong and those who are rejected on the basis of difference.”

She concluded: “Zeal for national identity invariably raises questions of who belongs and who is an outsider – even ‘civic-minded’ Scottish nationalism needs a ‘them’ to create a cohesive idea of ‘us’.”

She received considerable praise for the piece, while some pro-independence campaigners vigorously rejected her views but defended her right to express them. Many of her critics insist the Scottish independence movement is tolerant, inclusive and multi-racial, pointing to its leading Asian figures and east European activists.

But other prominent nationalists, including the blogger Stuart Campbell, posted abusive attacks. They found her past tweets where Heuchan has described herself as “British and proud”.

Heuchan said the attacks, including a comment on her blog calling her an African who had no right to discuss ethnic white Scottish affairs, were accompanied by calls on Twitter for the University of Stirling to sack her although she is not employed there. Others disputed that she was Scottish.

“I’m studying to be a critical race theorist,” she said. “I can’t help but think it’s very significant that the people most clearly against Khan’s comments, the majority were white. There seemed to be a contradiction between them claiming on the one hand to be in favour of progressive politics, but being unwilling to listen to what Sadiq Khan, an Asian man, said.”

Prof Karen Boyle, head of gender studies at Stirling and Heuchan’s PhD supervisor, said the university had “absolutely no hesitation in condemning any threats to Claire, in the strongest possible terms”.

Boyle said the university was proud of Heuchan’s work, and that the Guardian article was clearly identified as an opinion piece. She said: “Many people who disagree with Claire have done so thoughtfully and respectfully. But whilst it would be absolutely wrong to characterise all disagreement as racist and sexist, much of it has been and exposes the difficulties black women – and many others representing marginalised or minority groups - face when they speak out in public life. This kind of abuse is unacceptable and we condemn it in the strongest terms.”