Two black female students at Arizona State University filmed themselves verbally berating two white, male students who were studying in the school’s multicultural center and had a “Police Lives Matter” sticker on their computer. The two female students were investigated for their harassment and found responsible for “interfering with or disrupting university or university-sponsored activities.”
They were lightly punished; told to write a three-page paper “on how, next time, when [they] talk with white people about race and society [they] will be civil,” the Daily Caller reported.
This enraged the students, who immediately claimed they were “being persecuted” because they were “defending our multicultural center from racism and sexism.” The two students, undergraduate Mastaani Qureshi and graduate student Sarra Tekola, posted a video on Instagram claiming the investigation into them was “racially biased” and that they were “forced to confront these men,” who were quietly studying, because ASU faculty refused to tell the men to leave.
“Dear White People, A.K.A. ASU — You openly discriminated against us on Nov. 16 when you handed down your decision from your racially biased investigation,” Qureshi said, according to the Caller. “We’re being persecuted for defending our multicultural center from racism and sexism … ASU is a violent place.”
Tekola claimed that asking “students of color” to be more civil in what she called “white supremacy and neo-Nazism” is “actually violent.” The students also claimed they were subjected to “emotional and psychological violence” because, they say, they received “rape, death and lynching threats” on social media. They said ASU is “ignoring marginalized students.”
As The Daily Wire previously reported, the ASU students berated two fellow students over a sticker and a shirt while claiming to feel unsafe on campus.
In a viral video, two white male students can be seen sitting at a table — one wearing a “Did Not Vote For Biden” shirt and another with a “Police Lives Matter” sticker on his laptop. A female student approaches the young men and begins to accuse them of racism.
“You’re offensive. Police lives matter? This is our space. You’re making this space uncomfortable,” one female student asks in the video, which has more than 1 million views on social media.
The two black activist students tell the white students to leave, explaining: “You’re white. Do you understand what a multicultural space means? It means you’re not being centered.”
One of the white students then asks, “White’s not a culture?”
“White is NOT a culture! You think whiteness is a culture? This is the violence that ASU does and this is the type of people that they protect!” one of the activists yells. “This white man thinks he can take up our space … they think they can get away with this s**t!”
“This is the only place on campus that does not center you, and you are still trying to center yourself which is peak white cis male bulls**t.,” one of the activists yells.
“You are racist. Your sticker’s racist because police, that’s a job, you can choose to be a police. I didn’t choose to be black,” the student said at one point. “You can choose to be a cop. You can choose to kill people with a badge and you’re protecting that s–t, which means that you’re racist.”
“I’m not racist, I’m just studying,” one of the white students responded. “I pay the same f**king tuition as you. I’m working 60 hours a week while going to school because my parents don’t just give me money!”
The activists then take aim at the students’ “Police Lives Matter” sticker, claiming it is “affiliated with white nationalist.”
“These people kill people like me and like us, so you’re promoting our murderers,” the other activist claimed.
An Asian student comes to the defense of the white students, but the activists were undeterred. Eventually, the white students left the area, saying they would complain to a dean.
Campus Reform reported that faculty members at ASU are trying to get the school to overturn the sanctions against the two black students and are urging other faculty members to sign a letter joining them, which gives the impression that those who do not sign will be ostracized.
One anonymous ASU employee told the outlet that “I vehemently object to the [School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies] email list being used as a platform from which to advocate an agenda.” The employee added, “I am very concerned about the potential for SHPRS faculty and staff intimidation and/or retaliation against members who do not sign this ‘letter of defense.’”