Scotland's first minister, Humza Yousaf, and entrepreneur Elon Musk. Elon Musk called Humza Yousaf a "blatant racist" in response to an edited clip of a speech Yousaf gave in the Scottish Parliament after the murder of George Floyd. The clip had been circulated by right-wing social media accounts.
Yousaf's speech was part of a discussion on racial injustice and the lack of people of color in positions of power in Scotland. He highlighted the issue of structural racism in Scotland and pointed out the lack of diversity in various high-level positions.
A fact-check by Reuters in February concluded that the edited clip misrepresented Yousaf's comments by suggesting that he was arguing there were too many white people in Scotland. Reuters clarified that Yousaf's speech focused on the need to address racial inequality and was not about the proportion of white people in the population.
In response to Musk's comment, Yousaf posted on social media, saying, "Racists foaming at the mouth at my very existence." He also shared a gif from the BBC comedy Still Game.
Yousaf's spokesperson criticized Musk for not addressing racism and hatred on the social media platform he owns, referring to it as "X" (formerly known as Twitter). They also mentioned that Yousaf had been a target of racist hate, abuse, and death threats throughout his life and urged Musk to use his position to combat unchecked racism and hatred on the platform.