Goldsmiths University Diversity officer facing sack

[emanymton]

I think that's probably got a lot to do with it. There's been so many instances of twitter storms you'd think people would have learnt by now, but it seems not.

I can't work out it if I think young people who have pretty much grow up with this stuff should be more or less aware of it.

 

[cesare]

I can't work out it if I think young people who have pretty much grow up with this stuff should be more or less aware of it.

I think they forget that their twitter audience is wider than their personal bubble. For example, I can't imagine Bahar Mustafa mouthing off about "white trash" in Woolwich market just up the road but I can imagine her using "white trash" in Goldsmiths which is essentially quite a protected elitist environment relatively untroubled by impoverished people. She'll get more shit for the #killallwhitemen trope though, even though the actual offensive comment was white trash.

 

[rekil]

let's promote equality and just #kill

We've pushed for a first strike nuke policy dozens of times with varying degrees of fanaticism. I don't think we can be any more unequivocal. Where's our denunciation in the booji press?

 

[kabbes]

This entire thing is just an irrelevant fuss about fuck all. Like all twitter politics.

Indeed. Meanwhile people with actual power are making actual decisions that are ruining actual lives and it's being ignored because nobody is tweeting stupid hashtags about it.

 

[Athos]

Indeed. Meanwhile people with actual power are making actual decisions that are ruining actual lives and it's being ignored because nobody is tweeting stupid hashtags about it.

#killalltories

 

[Nice one]

This entire thing is just an irrelevant fuss about fuck all. Like all twitter politics.

I think there's a bit more to it than that. It's basically shining a light on a world most ordinary people have never been a part of or had access to - that of the radical left university body politic.

And as with anything you shine a light on it only illuminates half the picture and casts shadows that are often exaggerated and misformed.

That said it must be hellish to be around these people if you're not part of their clique and I genuinely feel for any decent working class student studying at goldsmiths if this is the best this environment has to offer in terms of left wing engagement.

 

[Wilf]

In some ways this is a perfect example of what happens when equality politics gets absorbed into personnel departments, local government, universities etc - pretty much the story of the last 30 years or more. I don't agree with her politics, I think they are highly divisive, but they are real actual politics. But when you squeeze them into a 'post', when you institutionalise them, politics are not supposed to be jagged or real. They are supposed to be smooth, glossy and unchallenging to the institution. She's made the assumption that it's okay to be an intersectionalist when in this post. She's wrong, you've got to be a smooth, reasonable, managerialist intersectionalist.

 

[Blagsta]

I think this is a point co-op has made a couple of times. None of us feel comfortable with our assigned gender roles, so in a sense there are no cis people. Like you say it is a continuum so some people feel it more depply than other.

Yes. Being a boy is rubbish if you don't particularly like football and fighting, if you cry easily and like learning stuff.

 

[Wilf]

That said it must be hellish to be around these people if you're not part of their clique and I genuinely feel for any decent working class student studying at goldsmiths if this is the best this environment has to offer in terms of left wing engagement.

Yeah, and following on from my bit below your post, it's the sense that this clique end up with a (kind of) official stamp, become one of the gatekeepers of equality.

 

[Nancy_Winks]

Indeed. Meanwhile people with actual power are making actual decisions that are ruining actual lives and it's being ignored because nobody is tweeting stupid hashtags about it.

Well quite. It's best ignored for what it is. Like that stupid woman Laurie Penny. No relevance to the vast majority.

 

[inva]

In some ways this is a perfect example of what happens when equality politics gets absorbed into personnel departments, local government, universities etc - pretty much the story of the last 30 years or more. I don't agree with her politics, I think they are highly divisive, but they are real actual politics. But when you squeeze them into a 'post', when you institutionalise them, politics are not supposed to be jagged or real. They are supposed to be smooth, glossy and unchallenging to the institution. She's made the assumption that it's okay to be an intersectionalist when in this post. She's wrong, you've got to be a smooth, reasonable, managerialist intersectionalist.

isn't it sort of the other way around as well though? In the sense that intersectionalism seems to me to be a kind of educationalist/institutional theory or way of doing things that people are trying to use in the real world, hence crude stuff like killallmen and all sorts of weird permutations.

 

[Wilf]

isn't it sort of the other way around as well though? In the sense that intersectionalism seems to me to be a kind of educationalist/institutional theory or way of doing things that people are trying to use in the real world, hence crude stuff like killallmen and all sorts of weird permutations.

Yeah, definitely, intersectionality has it roots in academia (Kimberly Crenshaw). Suppose my point is there's an interaction between academia and a version of feminism/'radical politics' that becomes essentially that - a conversation between those 2 parties. It isn't rooted in working class life or struggle. But it's also some of the same people over a generation or more who have been informing institutional practices around equality and multiculturalism. It links into that which becomes safe and anodyne and indeed the power structures of local government, universities etc.

 

[Blagsta]

Who is Harry Akram? Am I shallow for wanting to hit him several times?

He's a dick whoever he is

 

[cesare]

Yeah, and following on from my bit below your post, it's the sense that this clique end up with a (kind of) official stamp, become one of the gatekeepers of equality.

And it's also in this sense that I have a feeling of déjà vu from the 80s and depressing feeling of a return to that type of regressive identity politics.

 

[cesare]

Yeah, definitely, intersectionality has it roots in academia (Kimberly Crenshaw). Suppose my point is there's an interaction between academia and a version of feminism/'radical politics' that becomes essentially that - a conversation between those 2 parties. It isn't rooted in working class life or struggle. But it's also some of the same people over a generation or more who have been informing institutional practices around equality and multiculturalism. It links into that which becomes safe and anodyne and indeed the power structures of local government, universities etc.

It's the institutionalism of what should be personal freedoms.

 

[Blagsta]

I'm not sure that naivety covers it tbh. If the Indy reported her words correctly, the only regret that she expressed was that the tweets were "not professional", and the trope represented "in-jokes".

​

I was starting to have a little sympathy with her. If she's been reported correctly, then I'm starting to lose my sympathy again.

 

[Blagsta]

The tweeting of inflammatory shit isn't what brought her to their attention - it was the BME-only meeting she organised. The inflammatory shit is just some hostages she gave to fortune. Similar (if less extreme) hostages are given by posters here, and thousands of other left-wing inclined people every day, who may now - justifiably - feel less inclined to bring themselves to attention.

Although this is true too.

What a mess.

 

[xslavearcx]

What about the other spokes on the intersectionalist wheel? Don't we need some sort of Boolean operator?

#killALL(whiteANDmen)EXCEPT(jewsORgaysORdisabledORgypsy [etc., etc.])

Not quite so catchy, though.

lefties don't generally do analytic philosophy

 

[Blagsta]

It's still naive.

I've said it before, but I'm glad the Internet didn't exist when I was younger, I used to say all sorts of stupid stuff. Still do tbh.

 

[cesare]

I think there's a bit more to it than that. It's basically shining a light on a world most ordinary people have never been a part of or had access to - that of the radical left university body politic.

And as with anything you shine a light on it only illuminates half the picture and casts shadows that are often exaggerated and misformed.

That said it must be hellish to be around these people if you're not part of their clique and I genuinely feel for any decent working class student studying at goldsmiths if this is the best this environment has to offer in terms of left wing engagement.

I particularly like what you said there ^ (my emphasis)

 

[cesare]

I've said it before, but I'm glad the Internet didn't exist when I was younger, I used to say all sorts of stupid stuff. Still do tbh.

Yes, me too

 

[ViolentPanda]

26 is old for that stuff. I'd been looking after myself and had a kid by that age, as did a lot of other women on here. You tend to grow up pretty fast then.

My mother-in-law doesn't do baby-talk (thank fuck) but she still plays the poor helpless female role for all it's worth. it's really quite tiring.

 

[Nancy_Winks]

Yeah well as is men assuming control all the time tbf

 

[Red Cat]

Who is Harry Akram? Am I shallow for wanting to hit him several times?

Is he in One Direction?

 

[Nancy_Winks]

Is he in One Direction?

That's Harry Styles

 

[Nigel Irritable]

It doesn't have to be the same but in my experience it can produce real overlaps. The only time I have been at the beginning of a mixed sex Q & A, and a sea of women's arms shot up and the first 20 minutes was dominated by them which only ended when the chair managed to coax a man into asking something (which he mumbled out rather hesitantly) was at a presentation at a conference for trans people.

So your grounds for being trans exclusionary consist of the view that once upon a time you saw trans women being too confident?

 

[Red Cat]

That's Harry Styles

I know, it was a joke

 

[ViolentPanda]

And it's also in this sense that I have a feeling of déjà vu from the 80s and depressing feeling of a return to that type of regressive identity politics.

You and me both.

 

[ViolentPanda]

Yeah well as is men assuming control all the time tbf

M-i-L was taught that deferring to men flattered their ego and made them more well-disposed to you. It drives Greebo absolutely garrity, because her mum is actually a very competent woman - she just always falls back on the "poor helpless me" thing.

 

[Fozzie Bear]

I think they forget that their twitter audience is wider than their personal bubble. For example, I can't imagine Bahar Mustafa mouthing off about "white trash" in Woolwich market just up the road but I can imagine her using "white trash" in Goldsmiths which is essentially quite a protected elitist environment relatively untroubled by impoverished people. She'll get more shit for the #killallwhitemen trope though, even though the actual offensive comment was white trash.

It shows poor judgment. I don't think she should necessarily lose her job over it, but elected politicians have had to resign over saying stupid things in unguarded moments.

The scrutiny she is facing is very similar to the various loons in UKIP who have had to stand down.

That is what grown up politics in the UK is like.