The statement below was handed in to fellow students and participants of a seminar taking place on winter semester 2015/2016 at the theological faculty of the Humboldt University. On Tuesday 12 of January, some students of the course made an intervention in this seminar to raise attention to various problems that were happening in the course: racism, unjustified exclusion of a person of color (PoC)/ refugee and further misuse of power through methods like "ID-checks" and "security control" at the door of the course. After the intervention the theological faculty continued to use escalation and repression against critical voices...
Fellow classmates,
we are asking a simple question: Do you know what happened in class, in our place of study, this semester? Here we gathered facts, some of which you probably know, some of which you might not know yet:
- Racist tensions since the beginning of the course This is no surprise in a class of 98% white students. There was little engagement from students in the first sessions. As Farah Zeb later stated: "Despite my various attempts, it has been difficult to encourage students to participate in class". - In contrast, Amina* was thanked by Farah Zeb more than once for her presence and contributions in class.
- Tuesday, November 10: Incidence of racism in class Tone-policing, an act of a racist oppression, occurred in class. Also a claim of reverse racism came up. This specific incidence of racism was followed on moodle by colour blindness and more tone-policing. A lot of white solidarity manifested itself through white silence. Considering Amina’s perspective, though she used strong words, she did so calling out racism and still offering explanations. She signaled openness for criticism. She shared her knowledge and helped us understand our own structural racism.
- Sunday, November 15: Amina decides to not come to class anymore, then changed her decision She (Amina) communicated her decision to Farah. Farah Zeb responded by calling in the class for November 17, in order to discuss the racist tensions and recent events. Amina told Farah that she preferred to leave quietly. Amina thought that the obvious racism in class would decrease with her absence. However, Farah asked Amina to participate in the discussion about racism in class. As a course, we had a very productive session. Amina admitted that she had expected too much too fast from the students when it comes to understanding the structural racism at play. Farah backed this by explaining what racism does to PoC and that there was indeed racism happening in class. Subsequently, Farah emailed Amina and confirmed that Amina's presence in class is important and how her contributions are insightful, valued and appreciated. In the following week, a heavy racist accusation was made on the moodle forum. Amina was insulted in the most terrible way, however, she specifically asked not take this discussion outside of class. She wanted to deal with it on her own terms rather than on the university’s terms.
- Monday, November 30: Farah wrote to Amina that she is “glad“ that Amina decided to leave as a result of her “own decision“ and on her “own terms“ She (Farah) also closed the moodle forum. At this point, due to the racist attack on moodle, Amina had already decided that the situation required her to come to class at least one more time. Amina expressed her wish to Farah to attend once again to keep her dignity after the attack. Farah responded via email, with no explanation, but one line only: "Amina, I want to be clear don't come to any of my classes anymore“. Suddenly, Farah’s position seems to have changed towards Amina’s presence in class. Amina asked for any explanation on why she was being excluded and lied to. For weeks she waited for an explanation.
- Tuesday, December 8: Faculty personnel was stationed outside the classroom and communication with Farah was refused According to the prodekan, they (the security personnel) had the task to "control every person who don’t look like they belong to the faculty coming into class after the door had been closed“, in order to prevent the disruption of teaching by “political groups“. In another statement by the prodekan however, the control targeted one person only - to be identified by racial description and name - hence the control of IDs of students. When a queer PoC-student representative and a white student approached Farah in her office, she admitted that 70% of the course were quite racist and insisted that the racial profiling was the faculty’s decision. Following this statement, any attempt to communicate with Farah Zeb directly was rejected or ignored.
- Before Christmas: We contacted the white male authority (prodekan) ourselves
- A Queer Black PoC student group tried to get in touch with the prodekan: When these representatives approached the prodekan, he defended Amina’s exclusion. Yet he seemingly did not know anything about the racism that had occurred in class. He kept claiming that Farah asked for his help for her intent to conduct seminars without complications - Amina appears to be this “complication”. But why? Amina was an interested student and participated actively in the taught subject. The Prodekan promised continuous communication, but the Queer Black PoC group is still waiting for an invitation to the promised conversations.
- At the same time, a group of 5 white students from this class contacted the prodekan: They received an immediate invitation to discuss the matter. The group explained the same points as the Queer Black PoC students. The prodekan claimed that the relationship between Farah and Amina had become “too intense“ - but how can one side of a "relationship“ become intense without the other? And how could this be a reason for a student to be excluded from class?
- An attempt at transparency and questions to ask We have tried to communicate and talk with all the involved parties. The prodekan promised via email and in person that more talks would follow. Apparently, this was not true.
Why has nobody explained to the students of the seminar what has been going on? Why is there no communication with Amina? And why is a white male cis authority person (prodekan) sitting in our class now? Nothing was ever at risk except our white comfort zone.
You might be thinking that at least now there aren’t any ID checks outside of class anymore, but this is because the prodekan sits in class as surveillance authority. He keeps the criminalization of Amina in place and also invades our privacy by making sure “the orchestra plays in tune“. Historically speaking, this is a fascist metaphor as “this person” (note there is no mentioning of Amina's name) is presented as a broken instrument, hence needs to be removed for not fitting in.
Farah presents herself as a peaceful, caring and engaged teacher, but the manner in which she handled this situation was wrong and a clear abuse of her power. By using racist institutional structures to exclude one person without giving her any explanation stands out in contrast to what she is teaching us. Especially when the exclusion and racist treatment seems to be the result of personal dislike. Liking or disliking a person should never be a reason for excluding this person from education. Moreover, allowing student ID checks meant breaching privacy, discriminating students, and retraumatising PoC and refugees. These are unnecessary, disproportionate and questionable methods. If we allow them once, they can be used to get rid of any critical voice in the future just as easily.
We believe what happened here was a big injustice and problematic precedence for further institutional action against critical voices. Approximately 10 students have decided not to attend class anymore and to not be part of this system of exclusion and criminalization of critical voices.
We ask you to think about what really happened here. Who had to face which consequences and why?
What is your part in these events as a member of the seminar?
Best wishes
Some of the students who felt the need to leave the course
*Name geändert
