Presented by Mehreen Baig, the documentary series aims to investigate the struggles that face British-Asian men.
Presented by Mehreen Baig, the documentary series aims to investigate the struggles that face British-Asian men.
BBC Two’s ‘Lost Boys? What’s Going Wrong For Asian Men’ is getting backlash online.
Presented by Mehreen Baig, the documentary series aims to investigate the struggles that face British-Asian men.
Suhaiymah Manzoor-Khan, AKA The Brown Hijabi, who went viral last year for her incredible spoken word piece This is Not a Humanising Poem, took to Twitter to voice her frustration in what she called a reproduction of racist, culturally essentialising trope.
First off, how the hell are you going to make a documentary about Asian men in Britain and "what's going wrong" for them without ever ONCE mentioning race, racism or class? It's absolutely dismaying that the analysis completely removes Asian boys & men from their context!
— Suhaiymah Manzoor-Khan (@thebrownhijabi) August 13, 2018
Suhaiymah’s concerns were directly aimed at Mehreen Baig and her dishonesty in context and her own so-called insider status.
Mehreen's whole positioning relies on the contradiction of distancing herself as much as poss from "other Pakistanis" by placing herself in proximity to whiteness & thuss reproducing an "outsider's" perspective whilst at the same time REAPING the trust of her "insider" status.
— Suhaiymah Manzoor-Khan (@thebrownhijabi) August 13, 2018
Suhaiymah didn’t hold back, continuing to express her anger in an incredible thread.
I'm just SO ANGRY that she uses her "insider" positionality to do this classist ethnography where she just uses her opinion as FACT and ignores swathes of research to the contrary – that prove Mirpuri men in Britain face structural disadvantage of every kind
— Suhaiymah Manzoor-Khan (@thebrownhijabi) August 13, 2018
Suhaiymah goes on to say that Baig’s approach is trying to claim “closeness to whiteness”:
And all for what? To play yourself by ignoring racism and structural disadvantage and use your gender to play off tropes of "sexist asians" – PARTICULARLY WORKING-CLASS MIRPURIS (which SHE IS NOT!!!!) – just so unjust and morally reprehensible
— Suhaiymah Manzoor-Khan (@thebrownhijabi) August 13, 2018
The Brown Hijabi also tackled the sexism portrayed by Baig’s purposefully degrading questions to the British-Asian boys in the personal film:
If it helps in anyway I STILL LIVE AT HOME AND GET HOME-MADE FOOD BECAUSE OF THE ECONOMIC CLIMATE OF BRITAIN WHERE YOU CANNOT BE A HOME OWNER IF YOU ARE NORMAL AND YOUNG!!!! How does she make this specific to Pakistani men?
— Suhaiymah Manzoor-Khan (@thebrownhijabi) August 13, 2018
She ended her thread with some harsh words for Mehreen:
final final – at all of us — NEVER TRUST A PERSON WHO DECONTEXTUALISES UR LIFE & won't name the structures…
And to all my northern working-class mirpuri men – you may be a mess but by GOD YOU ARE NOT A MESS WE WILL LET BE THROWN UNDER THE BUS <3— Suhaiymah Manzoor-Khan (@thebrownhijabi) August 13, 2018
Suhaiymah was not the only one to have these views about Baig and the BBC documentary.
Fantastic thread by @thebrownhijabi with insights that go beyond the documentary she's addressing; indeed it relates to questions of reflexivity pertinent to all Muslim researchers "studying" Muslims as "insiders" while dismissing our positions within larger structures https://t.co/0bNuLkHnfF
— Tarek Younis (@Tarek_Younis_) August 14, 2018
A brilliant thread @thebrownhijabi . About time someone else called this out too. Don't forget the accusations about the Bradford participants being misled and the fact that @thequeenmehreen is yet to respond despite being asked to comment about this. https://t.co/76yF3Z4Vxq
— Mohammad Shawab Iqbal – محمد شعیب اقبال (@ShawabIqbal) August 13, 2018
So very thoroughly disappointing, yet not surprising in the least. Mehreen Baig ought to be held to account for this atrocious hatchet job. https://t.co/0q3f0pKle4
— Thamina 🌍 (@Thamina_F) August 13, 2018
After her Twitter thread voicing her disappointment with both Mehreen and the show, one would think it would open the door to dialogue and feedback. But instead of addressing the issues, Baig seems to have taken it upon herself to block it all out…
lol I guess we will never know the answers now 😅 pic.twitter.com/JyoF84GfJH
— Suhaiymah Manzoor-Khan (@thebrownhijabi) August 14, 2018
