By Corinne Murdock |

“Kyle Rittenhouse didn’t get a guilty verdict because he was f*****g white!” 

Thus spoke Mastaani Qureshi – one of the Arizona State University (ASU) students who violated the Code of Conduct for harassing two white male students out of “their” multicultural center – during a campus protest against Kyle Rittenhouse’s potential future enrollment. Four socialism and social justice advocacy student organizations held the protest: Students for Socialism, Movimiento Estudiantil Chicanx de Aztlán (MEChA), Students for Justice in Palestine, and the Multicultural Solidarity Coalition (MSC).

As punishment, Qureshi received a stern warning for the multicultural center incident. In an interview with ASU’s newspaper, State Press, Qureshi revealed that ASU also required her to write a reflection paper on how to “facilitate civil dialogue.” 

That mandated reflection apparently had no bearing on Qureshi’s remarks during Wednesday’s protest. Like the other protestors, Qureshi repeated that “killer Kyle” must be barred from campus. Rittenhouse was acquitted of all murder and reckless endangerment charges last month after days of jury deliberation. One of the investigative reporters who testified at the Rittenhouse trial, Drew Hernandez, documented the ASU Rittenhouse protest and Qureshi’s speech.

“We want to say that Kyle Rittenhouse is not just any random killer, he’s a white supremacist killer. He is a vigilante. He is the descendant of white Americans who killed black and brown people. White supremacists back in the day were also acquitted of all charges if we have read history. Kyle Rittenhouse didn’t get a guilty verdict because he was f*****g white!” yelled Mastaani. “ASU is not only a predominately white university, it is a white supremacist university!”

In response, a white male counterprotestor holding a sign for gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake yelled repeatedly, “Hey bigot! What’s wrong with you, bigot? What’s wrong with our skin, bigot?”

“And that is exactly what whiteness and masculinity looks like,” responded Qureshi. 

Not only did the four student organizations protest against Rittenhouse’s potential enrollment at ASU, they demanded that the university fund some of their other initiatives. 

Several of the initiatives were those that Qureshi was deeply involved in. One of them was a hub where victims of domestic and sexual abuse could receive help that Qureshi advocated for last year as the co-president of the campus’ Women’s Coalition, called a Campus Assault Advocacy, Resources & Education (CAARE) Center.

As AZ Free News reported earlier this week, the student organizations didn’t answer why they would demand funds for a rape crisis center when Joseph Rosenbaum was a convicted child molestor and Anthony Huber was a convicted domestic abuser. 

The student organizations also demanded that ASU fund the multicultural center also advocated for by Qureshi through the MSC, where she and two other female students harassed two white male peers for “racist” messaging like a “Police Lives Matter” sticker. Neither ASU or the student organizations clarified the current status of the center’s funding when AZ Free News asked. 

Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.