In response to the Thursday story that of a group Georgia Southern University students had burned Latina author Jennine Capó Crucet’s Make Your Home Among Strangers novel after she gave a talk at the university, Capó Crucet issued the following statement on Friday:
“Much love and gratitude to all those who’ve shown support here and elsewhere. Abrazos to you all,” Capó Crucet tweeted with the statement.
To read up on what was reported at the talk, you can read a very detailed local account of the story here by GSU’s student paper. A video of the book burning is still available on Twitter.
so after our FYE book’s author came to my school to talk about it… these people decide to burn her book because “it’s bad and that race is bad to talk about”. white people need to realize that they are the problem and that their privilege is toxic. author is a woman of color. pic.twitter.com/HiX4lGT7Ci
— elaina⭐️ (@elainaaan) October 10, 2019
It was reported that John Lester, Vice President for Strategic Communications and Marketing for GSU, issued a statement via email: “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.”
Capó Crucet is also contributing opinion writer for The New York Times. She is an award-winning author and n associate professor in the Department of English and the Institute for Ethnic Studies at the University of Nebraska. Her latest book is My Time Among the Whites: Notes from an Unfinished Education.
