Fifteen Minutes: Muhammad Muses on Homosexuals, Harvard and Harry Lewis

K. Kyriell Muhammad, a doctoral student in religion and a tutor in Mather House, is packing his bags and heading for the coast--without his degree. After a semester of anti-gay harassment in the house that was for years the University's jock playground, the BGLTSA advisor decided to call it quits, even as house members rallied to show their support. For many on campus, his is a testament to the latent bigotry that persists even where political correctness is considered the law of the land. For others, Muhammad's example shows just how rare anti-gay acts have become. Kyriell Muhammad has his own ideas, and speaks with FM about doing time at Harvard.

"Sometime in October, at the very beginning of the year, I put up this photograph of myself, and I was in this fabulous purple, velvet gown, it was like a ball gown or something. It was on my door; I thought it was worth a laugh. Later, sometime in October, shortly after the students' return, it was torn off my door. I was furious. I was like, 'What the fuck?' I reported it to the Masters, who had no idea who had done it, why, what happened--total chaos. The next week: the other Bisexual Gay Lesbian Transgendered and Supporters Alliance advisor in the house and I, we run this film series on Wednesday night, on every Wednesday night we show a gay movie. So we put up flyers for that week's movie, and then later we found them torn down. Not just torn down, but torn down and stomped on. After that, we were like, 'Houston, we have a problem!'"

"The next thing I guess was graffiti on my door. I keep a little pad on my door, if people want to leave me notes. Someone had written something foul on it. I was like, 'Okay, that's upsetting.' So I kept them, reported it to the Masters of the house, who told the community at-large and enlisted the House Council to start some student initiatives to address issues of homophobia, tolerance, et cetera, et cetera. There was the Mather House Creed, which some people had problems with because it didn't address the issue directly. It was a 'Mather-feel-good' type of deal. Be nice to everybody, say hello to your neighbors, yeah whatever. A lot of students were upset about it...so another group of students not affiliated with House Council had this letter-writing campaign...It was more effective because it addressed the issues directly."

"The mood of the house was [that] the people were outraged. They were horrified, and were like, 'What year is this?' And that was heartening. I think many students were genuinely concerned about the atmosphere they were living in. In general, the atmosphere was very supportive, and clearly the upperclassmen were very angry. They were like, 'We are going to find whoever this is, and break all of their bones!' and I was like, 'Okay, wait, let's all take a deep breath!' I received, and still do, hundreds of e-mails from Mather students and the Harvard community at large, still expressing some anger that the 'bad guys' are winning."

"Two or three weeks had gone by, everything was fine, and I had gone on a mini-vacation. I was like, 'I'm getting out!' and was gone for a week, and then everything was fine, and then there was the last incident. 'My Favorite Poet,' as I call this person, whoever it is, revisited my door again with more foulness written on a flyer on the door. I just freaked out, and I was like, 'I have had enough.' I met with the Masters again, and they called the police. Police came, and Officer Kevin Bryant, who's sort of the unofficial liaison for the police with the gay-lesbian community. Nothing conclusive was ever found, but police presence was seen throughout the house, in the entryways, something that was totally scary. As far as shock tactics go, with six-foot-four people patrolling the hallways, it was very effective! But for me, by then, the damage had already been done."

"It was more a quality of life issue. There was an incident before the last one, I remember it very vividly. [Late one night] I was exhausted, but I ran to get pizza, came back and there was a fire alarm...There was hooting, screaming, everybody was freaking out, but the police came and turned off the alarm, so everybody went back inside. So I was like, 'Finally I can go to bed!' So I ate my little pizza, and got into bed. About an hour later, 2 or 2:30 in the morning, I hear this loud shout in the hallway outside my doorway, and then I hear somebody crash into it. Ever seen in the movies where they shoulder-slam against the door to open it? That's what it sounded like. I heard them then running, and I jump out of bed, bare naked, and I fling the door open, screaming 'What the fuck is going on?' and I heard the crash and them running down the end of the hallway. I was about to run after them, but I realized I couldn't exactly run after them--yeah, me running naked after some drunken idiots! It had escalated to a physical level at that point though...What if I had run after those boys? What would have happened then, what would have had happened if I had physically confronted them? Would it have been a brawl, a fight? I'm sorry, but that's unacceptable. I don't get paid to live here, I don't get paid to get harassed! I've been in Cambridge for a long time, and it hasn't been easy. I'd planned to leave in June anyway, but this was just an unacceptable living situation."

"It seemed like the House as an official sort of administrative unit, had done what it could up to that point. However much nominal authority the House Masters have, they really have very little say in students' behavior. They can talk until they're blue in the face, but who gives a shit at the end of the day. I mean, the rest of us are in the trenches; it's a different world. But really, the House had done what they could, the students had done what they could and the barrage continued."

"I actually went to meet with Dean [of the College] Harry Lewis, and I asked him what, if anything, the college could do about a situation like this. This was around the same time that incidents like this were happening in Adams House and also in Winthrop House, so it was on everybody's mind anyways. So I went to him and I said, 'What are you going to do for me?' I was like, 'I am a tutor, nominally in your employ.' As [he is the] Dean of the College, I work for him after a few layers. He's like, 'What do you want me to do?' So that didn't go very well. I did have a hard time with my temper--that was entirely my fault--I was frustrated and all."

"Enough time has elapsed so that any vindictive anger I had has diminished considerably...It was a purely personal decision [to leave]. It had reached a point where my life was revolving around this set of hateful issues. I was like, 'I have a life outside of this! I have a dissertation to write!'"

"Sometimes I wonder, if we'd handled it differently, what would have been the outcome? Some members of the tutorial staff, when we met in October, had suggestions to not put up with it any more and come down as hard as possible...After much discussion, that measure was voted down. But I wonder, when you get a letter from your House Master in your mailbox, do you even read it? I mean, with like 400 or some students in this house, they get mail from the Masters, glance at it, and in the recycling bin it goes. That's not exactly a real serious way of communication. I think the staff did the best they could and the students rallied in very important ways as well."

"[My relationship with Mather students] has always been congenial. Which is partly why my response was so extreme. I felt betrayed by people with whom I thought I had created some sort of social contract. That I was here for them, that I would treat them with respect and dignity and a certain amount of compassion and care. And in return, they would do much the same. Out of all the emotions that swept through me out of that period, I think the betrayal part was the worst."