Bahar Mustafa race row incident

In 2015 a race row developed in the United Kingdom surrounding the activities of Bahar Mustafa, a representative for Goldsmiths Students' Union. In early 2015 Mustafa organised several events in which white students, and in another case both white and male students, were banned. This attracted national attention, with many commentators criticising this as racial segregation and accusing Mustafa of racism and sexism. She denied the allegations but generated further controversy through her use of the Twitter hashtag "KillAllWhiteMen" and for referring to a fellow student as "white trash".

Incident

Initial incident and response

The incident surrounded the student union at Goldsmiths (pictured)

A 28-year-old from northeast London,^[1] Mustafa was the Welfare and Diversity officer of Goldsmiths Students' Union.^[2] She self-described as a "working class, Turkish Cypriot, queer, disabled woman and activist" whose political views were "intersectional, queer, feminist, [and] anti-racist".^[3] In February 2015 she was criticised by The Spectator after organising a Goldsmiths Students' Union social event and subsequent screening of the film Dear White People which was for black and minority ethnic (BME) students only, with white people being banned from attending.^[4] The Spectator stated that this event represented "racial segregation at a British university" and highlighted the perceived double-standards of holding an event from which white people were banned when any white-only event would certainly be prohibited.^[4]

In April 2015, Mustafa again attracted attention while planning an event devoted to challenging the "white-centric culture" of student occupations and diversifying the student curriculum because – on the event's Facebook page – she asked that white people and men not attend the event.^[2][3] In her original post she stated:

"Hey, I made as many of you hosts so please invite loads of BME [black and minority ethnic] Women and non-binary people!! Also, if you've been invited and you're a man and/or white PLEASE DON'T COME just cos I invited a bunch of people and hope you will be responsible enough to respect this is a BME Women and non-binary event only. Don't worry lads we will give you and allies things to do."^[5]

Her comments attracted national media attention,^[6] and generated anger from both student publications and the wider press.^[3] Many accused her of sexism,^[2] as well as racism.^[2][7] Speaking anonymously, the President of one student union criticised Mustafa, stating that she was contributing to a campus environment in which white, cisgender males were given the impression that "they can't say anything for fear of retribution", resulting in life becoming "very difficult" for them.^[2] The anonymous President added that it was "laughable" and ironic that Mustafa thought that her events are "diversifying the student community in the name of feminism and multiculturalism".^[2] The Spectator similarly deemed Mustafa's comments to be ironic, stating that "it is astonishing" that a racially exclusionary event "is deemed acceptable. It wouldn't be tolerated anywhere else in Britain – so why on earth is it being tolerated at a British university?"^[8] The Tab expressed the view that there was "a huge difference" between holding events that catered primarily to women and BME students and events which banned anyone who wasn't a woman or BME from attending.^[9]

Response and further controversy

Mustafa's original Facebook post would subsequently be deleted,^[10] and she responded to her critics in a video uploaded to Eastlondonlines.co.uk, in which she dismissed criticisms as "an outrageous distortion of fact".^[5] Here, she stated that:

"There have been charges made against me that I am racist and sexist to white men. I want to explain why this is false. I, an ethnic minority woman, cannot be racist or sexist towards white men, because racism and sexism describes structures of privilege based on race and gender. And therefore women of colour and minority genders cannot be racist or sexist because we do not stand to benefit from such a system. In order for our actions to be deemed racist or sexist, the current system would have to be one that enables only people of colour and women to benefit economically and socially on such a large scale and to the systematic exclusion of white people and men, who for the past 400 years would have to have been subjected to block colonisation. We do not live in such a system, we do not know of such a history, reverse racism and reverse sexism are not real."^[5]

Mustafa caused more public controversy through her justification of the ban.^[5][10] The BBC found commentators who supported Mustafa's definition of racism as a form of structural prejudice, whereas others disagreed with her, believing that anyone could be racist to those of another race and that this was a case of double-standards.^[10] She also attracted controversy through her use of the Twitter hash tag #KillAllWhiteMen,^[11][1] which was accused of being racist in nature.^[1] In another tweet, made from her official Twitter account as a student union representative, she accused student activist Tom Harris of being "white trash".^[12] She subsequently acknowledged that doing so on her professional Twitter account was "not professional" and apologised.^[12] She also claimed to have received death threats since the public criticisms of her actions had begun.^[1]

A petition was established on Change.org that called for Mustafa to be removed from her position at the union in response to what was perceived as her "hate speech"; as of 23 May it had gained 18,000 signatures.^[11][12] Within Goldsmiths itself, a group of students petitioned for a vote of no confidence in Mustafa, but by May their petition had gained only 165 signatures, representing 1.8% of the union's membership; according to the union's regulations, 3% of members' signatures were required in order to trigger a referendum regarding Mustafa's continued employment and thus she remained in her position.^{[13][14][15][16]} Writing in The Independent, Max Benwell defended Mustafa over her use of the "KillAllWhiteMen" hashtag, stating that despite being a white man himself, he recognised that it was "obviously tongue-in-cheek" before adding that "no-one actually thinks that she was actually calling for a male genocide, do they?".^[11]

References