#supportbaharmustafa?

If you are not from Britain, you might have managed to escape the controversy surrounding Bahar Mustafa. In fact, if you are from Britain you might well have missed the furore initially ignited when Mustafa, who presides as the Welfare & Diversity Officer for Goldsmiths' Student Union in London, organised an event at which the university's diversity policies were to be discussed, and ensured white males were informed that they were unable to attend. A media circus soon followed, which criticised Mustafa for excluding a group by their race and gender - though the actual post simply asked invited white males, and females, to "respect this is a BME Women and non-binary event only". 

If, having read that statement, you feel personally offended I suggest you escape this blog as soon as humanly possible. Because if you are at all offended by that statement, you clearly do not understand the need for women-of-colour-only events. I can only assume that if that statement troubles you, you believe in the need for equality, but see it simply as personally being on level-pegging as everyone else. Further, you probably have not realistically experienced inequality, and therefore think that personal exclusion from an event equates to inequality. I suggest you escape this blog, because I am a BME woman and my opinions, those posted here, can only reflect that of my personal experience. And my personal experience, as a black/minority ethnic female, is that what you think is inequality is not inequality.

Inequality is, at the age of six, being told that the people you thought were your friends "don't play with brown people". Inequality is, at the age of eleven, watching your less-qualified male best friend receive an award that was recommended to you because you, a female, expressed personal pride in your exemplary success. Inequality is, aged sixteen, still being told to exercise 'modesty' in dressing by your mother, still afraid of the daily occurrences of misogynoir. Inequality is, in the present day, watching white feminists call your friends "oppressed" because of their choice to wear hijab to be closer to Allah. Inequality is not being excluding from an event. Inequality is living your entire life on unequal footing, and knowing it will continue unless black and minority ethnic females take a stand.

So, no, I do not fault Bahar Mustafa for creating a diversity event that excludes all males and white females, because it is important to recognise that the purpose of diversity officers is to protect minority groups and create a university experience that is safe and fair for those groups. That is not to say I completely agree with her actions; personally, I see no reason why black and minority ethnic males would not benefit from discussions of diversity. However, and I mean no offence at all when I put forward this reminder, white males tend to be the best-represented group on university campuses, owing in great part to the fact that for hundreds of years they were the only group permitted education in universities and have since dominated these establishments in both control and attendance. In fact, I find it perplexing that white males would actually feel the need, or desire, to attend an event that addresses the problems of minority ethnic and female communities in the university. What might they hope to gain? Do they hope to be awarded for their ally status? Are they in fear of the conversations that occur behind their backs? Or do they simply wish to criticise the ideas put forward?

I think that the biggest fear of organisers like Mustafa - but perhaps not necessarily Mustafa herself - is that those outside of the black/minority ethnic, female group have little understanding of the problems faced by those within the group. The purpose of events like these is to provide a space for those who are often ignored, discriminated against or misunderstood by higher levels of management in university power structures. Positions like Mustafa's were created to give such people a voice, a more approachable representation of themselves. When only 17 of the UK's 18,500 professors are black females, how can one expect black and minority ethnic women to feel adequately represented in their own universities' power structures? Speaking from my personal experience of the last year at my own London university, in which I have been taught by over thirty lecturers, I can only recall four non-white lecturers - two Middle Eastern natives (one male, one female) teaching Arabic and two South Asian males in the Geography department. But this is not a game of numbers. Equality and representation does not mean equal percentages, though it would be wonderful to see. My point is that white university attendees need not look to benefit from the promotion of diversity, and should not be threatened by the concept.

Looking through the Twitter tag #supportbaharmustafa, it seems quite obvious to me that people understand this issue only from their own personal perspective. I've noticed the word 'laughable' used quite frequently in relation to Mustafa's opinions; well, I find it laughable how predictably unilateral the thinking of these people is. Their cries of reverse racism are falling on deaf ears because, guess what? People of colour have to live with the real thing every day and it means violence and pain and death, not just exclusionary acts. These tweeters wish to discredit Mustafa as the stereotypical privileged millennial - "drink trendy latte, leech off your parents, oh! the oppression." - or they want to frame her opinions as 'racist' and politicise people they don't know or understand - "racists want to #KillAllWhiteMen that pay for them & their families Uni fees, NHS,HB &Benefits" - or make the whole ordeal into an anti-feminist argument - "Feminists be like: "division is the only way to end division"". But it's not about any of that. It's not about them. It's about people who are disadvantaged and need their voices to be heard. It's about women of colour talking about misogynoir, and being understood. It's about women of colour not being kept from what they are qualified to do. It's about women of colour making friends based on shared experiences, regardless of their race. When you are not a woman of colour, how can you know what it is like to go through these experiences? What do you personally have to give to the cause? Why should we listen to you?

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I am still unsure whether or not I #supportbaharmustafa. If she indeed has the desire to "kill all white men", as the media and an opinionated change.org petition has chosen to purport, I cannot say I agree with that. But there is no evidence of this tweet in any media articles. And intense sarcasm is the more likely source of such a statement. More importantly, where was this anger when the #killallmuslims hashtag was trending? This particular hashtag was far more likely to actually initiate real-life incidents, yet there was relative calm as it spread across the world. So why is it that Scotland Yard have decided to investigate Mustafa and not the scores of people who used this anti-Muslim hashtag? The double standards in our society are getting out of hand. And it is allowing people to mobilise aggressively regarding issues they do not fully understand. Bahar Mustafa deserves praise for being instrumental in the BME, female, queer community of Goldsmiths', for working so hard on issues that affect so many people and for standing strong in the face of death threats and other adversities. But until I know the full story, I refuse to take a stance in an argument I don't fully understand.

See how easy it is?