A few weeks back, Bahar Mustafa - the welfare diversity officer of Goldsmith University's student union - got into hot water for some postings on social networks. Her primary offences were calling someone "white trash" and tweeting with the hashtag #KillAllWhiteMen.
Seems a clear-cut case to me. Diversity officers shouldn't say that kind of thing. She deserves to lose her position.
Her defence is that slogans such as "kill all white men" are not meant to be taken seriously; rather, they are "in-jokes and ways that many people in the queer feminist community express ourselves". This is, apparently, "a way of reclaiming the power from the trauma many of us experience as queers, women, people of colour, who are on the receiving end of racism, misogyny and homophobia daily."
What Mustafa describes as "reclaiming the power from the trauma" is what I would call "sinking to the same level as the bigots".
Incidentally, for those unaware, #KillAllWhiteMen is a variation of #KillAllMen, an earlier and similarly disastrous attempt amongst Twitter feminists at ironic humour. Liberal Democrat activist Sarah Noble was criticised earlier this year for saying "kill all men" on Twitter; regrettably, though, it appears that the only people to object were dodgy right-wingers. It really is time more people on the left took a stand against this bollocks.
Here's more from Mustafa:
I, an ethnic minority woman, cannot be racist or sexist towards white men because racism and sexism describe structures of privilege based on race and gender and therefore women of colour and minority genders cannot be racist or sexist, since we do not stand to benefit from such a system.
Oh, come off it. If we are to have legislation against hate speech, then how can it possibly take into account something as subjective as "structures of privilege"? If "kill all black men" is banned, then "kill all white men" should follow. Simple as that. No two ways around it.
I will defend Mustafa on one point, however. One of the criticisms levelled at her involves her attempts to create a club for minorities, which bars non-minorities. Some call this segregation, but I disagree: if a debate club is to deal entirely with issues affecting a particular minority group, then it seems entirely reasonable for it to only allow members of that group.
Alas, even on this legitimate point, Mustafa has managed to screw things up. Just look at this photo of her:
Let's be honest here, she's just wallowing in hatred. Being an ethnic minority does not make that excusable.
Bahar Mustafa needs to be given the boot.
