Yassmin Abdel-Magied Is Part Of Everything We Need, More Than We Deserve

I haven’t been following the Yassmin story. Partly because she’s a "TV person" and I don’t own a TV. Partly because white privilege means white girls don’t have to keep close tabs on what happens to brown girls - not because white girls don’t care what happens to brown girls, but because white girls aren’t scared of the same thing happening to them. (First they came…)

I had an idea of course that Yassmin posted something about ANZAC Day on Facebook this year and it made some people angry, because there’s nothing so insulting to the memory of ANZACs dying for our freedom as remembering other people to whom we have not extended the same freedom. So when a friend had a spare ticket to hear Yassmin speak at UWA last night, I was like ‘cool, free tickets’, and I thought Yassmin would probably be interesting in an "outspoken", "controversial" sort of way.

Even if I had been paying attention to the Yassmin story - even if you had told me exactly what to expect - I could still never have been prepared for the sheer brilliance that is Yassmin Abdel-Magied.

Co-founder of Youth Without Borders at 16. 2015 Young Australian of the Year for Queensland. 1.8 million views on her TED talk What does my headscarf mean to you. Guest panellist on Q&A, The Drum, and The Project. Author. Mechanical engineer. Petrolhead.

"Did you know" said my friend, as we settled into our seats, "that she’s only twenty-six?"

What?

Yassmin is bright, intelligent, funny, bold, fearless, cynical, truthful, humble. She also has the best self-deprecating humour, a wicked broad Queenslander accent, and a fierce fashion sense to boot. On top of that, she didn't seem outspoken or controversial at all - just genuine and kind, caring and optimistic. Everything she said was backed by the weight of experience, the wisdom of an examined life, and common sense. I liked her straight away, and I usually don’t like people who are that good at everything.


Yassmin began with a story about how when her family first arrived in Australia as skilled migrants, one of the neighbours invited them to a party and told them to "bring a plate". How poor must these neighbours be? her parents wondered, so they brought plates, knives, forks, and a chair as well - just in case.

It’s unbelievable, shameful that people would send her death threats. How can you meet someone like Yassmin and think "yes, Australia will be better without her in it. I will send her details of what guns I want to kill her with"? (And her own received her not...)

She was asked how she deals with the personal attacks. To paraphrase, she said something like "Some days I remember it’s not personal - once you’re in the media, you’re an idea, not a person, and people are attacking the idea. Other days I don’t want to leave the house. But I know in my faith that I will not be given more than I can bare, so I look for what I can learn from it."

But that’s not what Yassmin came to talk about last night. Mostly she talked about unconscious bias - those unchecked assumptions and mental shortcuts that we use to justify our own limited perspective and that results in a lack of diversity.

We don’t need diversity just because it’s Nice or Fair or The Right Thing To Do. We need diversity because without it we only see things in one way and we make multi-billion dollar mistakes. Diversity - the combination of different perspectives - has economic value.  We need those different perspectives in Australia - which is why, by the way, Yassmin Abdul-Magied is only part of everything we need, because no one person can “be diversity”. That’s not what diversity means.

Similarly it isn’t one single person’s job to dismantle bias and promote diversity - it’s everyone’s job. We can all do it; and we all need to do it. We all need to speak up for each other because once you become an advocate for someone else - as Yassmin can attest from her own lived experience - you also become a lightning rod for vitriol and hate and no one should have to endure that by themselves.

Australia’s diversity is a gift - we should use it for our benefit. Where's the controversy in that?

Yassmin is moving to London, and if she’s doing it to take some time out from the hate and death threats she faces in Australia then who can blame her. But Yassmin also struck me as the kind of person who doesn’t back down; the kind of person who can smile at her enemies and find common ground over a shared love of Ducati motorbikes. She’s vulnerable and tough and warm - ‘indefatigable, blisteringly funny, and outrageously smart’, as Benjamin Law puts it- and she’s more than we deserve right now but Yassmin, I hope you come home soon. We need you.