Students burn books on US campus accusing author of 'bullying white people' in talk

American university students have lashed out at an author who addressed the issue of diversity by destroying her books and described her lecture about white privilege as racist.

New York Times contributor and associate professor at the University of Nebraska, Jennine Capó Crucet, spoke about her novel Make Your Home Among Strangers to students at Georgia Southern University (GSU).

The book is required reading for some of GSU's classes and focuses on the story of a Cuban-American girl who is accepted into a prestigious university and the struggles she faces in the predominantly white environment.

Professor Crucet was invited to give a talk addressing diversity, one the author said she has delivered at a number of other schools, but the reaction from a number of students to her lecture was "nothing close to... any of my previous campus visits," she said.

The university's newspaper, the George-Anne, reported that tensions mounted in the lecture when some students questioned her authority to address white privilege at the predominantly white public university.

“I noticed that you made a lot of generalisations about the majority of white people being privileged,” one student said.

“What makes you believe that it’s okay to come to a college campus, like this, when we are supposed to be promoting diversity on this campus, which is what we’re taught. I don’t understand what the purpose of this was,” the student said.

“I came here because I was invited and I talked about white privilege because it’s a real thing that you are actually benefiting from right now in even asking this question,” Professor Crucet said in response.

Some students on campus were later filmed burning her book.

‘I am beyond embarrassed by this’

According to Professor Crucet, students began shouting back and forth at one another, while some students raised more questions about race, other students apologised to the author for their peers.

Some students believed Crucet made unfair comments regarding white people and claimed the author "wouldn't stop talking about white privilege" when she was supposed to be "promoting diversity."

"I feel that she addressed white students and white people in general unfairly," Andre St. Pierre, who attended the lecture, told Yahoo Lifestyle.

“Instead of promoting diversity and equality, it’s more like she hated on white people as a whole," he added.

As the controversy spilled onto social media, at least one former student apologised to the author.

“I am alum and I am beyond embarrassed by this,” they wrote to her on Twitter, after the book burning video emerged.

In since-deleted tweets, captured in screenshots and published in the George-Anne, students who attended the lecture tweeted Professor Crucet photos of her book with torn-out pages and accused her of being “racist” towards white people.

The paper also shared one student’s tweet, which showed a video of other students burning the book.

In response to a video of a book burning, one student tweeted at Professor Crucet, "Maybe that wouldn't happen if you spoke about your book instead of dissing white people the entire time."

“You came to our university as an author of a book all freshmen were required to read, a book you barely talked about. instead, you wasted everyone’s time by attempting to create a racial divide by bullying white people for an hour. That IS racist. you should’ve expected this,” one student wrote.

Author had to be moved to a new hotel

Later that night, captured footage shared on Twitter shows students gathered to burn Crucet's book on campus, which was confirmed by a spokeswoman for GSU.

According to a statement shared by the university's Writing and Linguistics department, some students also gathered outside Professor Crucet's hotel.

Professor Crucet was moved to another hotel but was unaware it was because students had gathered outside her original hotel and did not learn of this until she read the statement from the Writing and Linguistics department.

St. Pierre told Yahoo Lifestyle he was not present during the book burning, and while he respects the student's First Amendment rights, he does not feel like it was an appropriate response. It is a sentiment that echos GSU's official statement.

"While it’s within the students’ First Amendment rights, book burning does not align with Georgia Southern’s values nor does it encourage the civil discourse and debate of ideas," Jennifer Wise, director of communications for GSU, said in a statement to Yahoo Lifestyle.

Students felt ‘attacked’ for being white

Despite plenty of input from students who may have felt “attacked” for being white, many students, faculty, alumni and community members have rallied behind Professor Crucet.

"The most bitterly ironic part of this whole fiasco is these students who feign outrage over their disagreement with an author, demonstrate the very existence of white privilege through their actions," John A. Weaver, professor of curriculum studies, wrote in a letter to the editor published in the George-Anne.

"They thought it was within their rights to burn books while so many others are denied access to books and educational opportunities. Some of them thought it was within their rights to follow the author to her hotel and harass her while people with less privilege would have been arrested for criminal trespass."

The day after the incident, the Georgia Southern Counseling Center shared on Facebook that they have a "diverse staff of clinicians who are prepared to support students' emotional needs" following the incident, which could have been "traumatising to Latinx/Hispanic students and other marginalised communities."

GSU's student body is comprised of 63 per cent white students, 24 per cent black, and six per cent Hispanic.

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