Are you Black, or are you Scottish? Instead of a lecture,Torgi Starboy Squire answered with his presence.

Born and raised in the north of Glasgow in the 1980s, Torgi grew up feeling unseen and unheard, navigating a Scotland where blackness often felt peripheral to the national story. He carried that feeling with him into adulthood, not as bitterness, but as purpose.

That purpose led him into classrooms.

For nineteen years, Torgi has shaped young minds as a secondary school teacher, becoming one of Scotland’s very few Black principal teachers. In a system where representation still matters deeply, he chose to stay, to lead, and to show Black children and their families that teaching is not only possible, it is aspirational.

Every day, he stands in rooms where young people are deciding who they can become.
And quietly, powerfully, he expands that answer.

Then came social media.

When Torgi started speaking online about identity, belonging, and what it truly means to be Black and Scottish, he wasn’t chasing virality. He was naming a truth many had lived but never heard reflected back to them.

The phrase caught fire. ‘Black and Scottish.’ These two truths, held together without apology.

What followed was conversation, affirmation, and also challenge. Visibility always invites resistance. Torgi met it with kindness, relatability, and humour, choosing dialogue over defensiveness and education over outrage.

His work now stretches beyond classrooms into schools and communities across the country, where he continues to advocate for belonging, dignity, and a Scotland that sees all of its children fully.

Legacy matters deeply to Torgi.

He often jokes about the pressure of the shoes he hopes to fill. His father received an MBE for founding the Ethnic Minorities Law Centre in Scotland, a reminder that justice, advocacy, and service run deep in the family. The humour carries truth and Torgi understands that impact is generational.

Torgi is building something for his own children, and for others.
He envisions a Scotland where young people do not have to choose between who they are and where they belong.

Torgi Starboy Squire is not just a teacher. He is not just a creator. And he is not just the face of a viral moment.

Torgi is a bridge between generations, identities, and between the Scotland that was, and the Scotland that is still becoming.

In naming what many felt but could not articulate, Torgi reminded a nation that belonging grows when someone is brave enough to say, we are already here.