A welfare and diversity officer caught up in a racism row could potentially lose her job for tweeting the words “kill all white men” and calling people “white trash”.

Goldsmiths University's officer, Bahar Mustafa has been at the centre of a media storm after banning white men from an event on diversifying the curriculum and stating on camera ethnic minority women cannot be racist.

Students have now started a petition for a vote of no confidence in Ms Mustafa, which would remove her from office.

The petition reads: "The current Welfare and Diversity Officer has used hate speech based on race and gender.

"For example, the consistent use of hashtags such as #killallwhitemen and #misandry, and publicly calling someone 'white trash' under the official GSU Welfare and Diversity Officer Twitter account.”

The petition also accuses her of making students “feel intimidated, unsupported, and unrepresented.”

In Ms Mustafa's response, she explained the use of her language as a joke between friends.

She said: "These are in-jokes and ways that many people in the queer feminist community express ourselves - it's a way of reclaiming the power from the trauma many of us experience as queers, women, people of colour, who are on the receiving end of racism, misogyny and homophobia daily.

"These are not political stances.

"However, in regards to calling someone ‘white trash’ under my official GSU Welfare and Diversity twitter account, I can accept it was not professional and I apologise for this."

If three per cent of Goldsmiths Student Union members sign the petition, a vote of no confidence will be held in Ms Mustafa.

To pass the motion, two thirds of people voting would need to be in favour of the motion.

Ms Mustafa would lose her position immediately if the motion was passed.

The vote of no confidence petition closes on May 26.

A Goldsmiths Student Union spokesman said: "We have given a platform for both sides to put their case across in a balanced way and these are on our website.

"This is now a matter for the student body."

The Welfare and Diversity Officer twitter account has since been closed down.