“I noticed that you made a lot of generalizations about the majority of white people being privileged,” the student asked during the Q&A, as reported by the school paper. “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.”

To which the author smoothly retorted: “[White privilege] is a real thing that you are actually benefiting from right now in even asking this question.” Zing! As in her statement below, the author later noted that while some students in the audience argued about privilege, others apologized on their behalf.

In a statement she released on Friday, the author confirmed that the university knew what she was coming to talk about ahead of time. This shouldn't surprise anyone, given the content of the book, but is important to point out that she didn’t go “off script” or do anything “wrong” by talking about privilege.

Here’s that statement:

x HereÃ¢ÂÂs my official statement about what happened at the @GeorgiaSouthern event Ã¢ÂÂ and please direct all questions or media requests to James (dot) Meader (at) picadorusa (dot) com.



Much love and gratitude to all those whoÃ¢ÂÂve shown support here and elsewhere. Abrazos to you all. pic.twitter.com/9uEuALUlvs Ã¢ÂÂ Jennine CapÃÂ³ Crucet (@crucet) October 11, 2019

Students even gathered outside of her hotel after the event. Between that and the book burning, that’s a downright terrifying situation. She had to change hotels out of fear for her safety.

In a statement, university spokesperson Jennifer Wise said that GSU does not plan on taking any actions against the students. Why? Book burning is within their First Amendment rights.

As reported by BuzzFeed News, more than 60% of students who attend the school are white. Nearly a quarter are black, and about 6% are Latinx. The counseling center issued a statement stressing that it’s prepared to support students who are, understandably, traumatized by what their peers have done.

There’s a lot that’s disturbing about this situation. That a woman of color is harassed and targeted for simply participating in an event as she was asked to. That young people want to literally destroy and erase content in books they don’t agree with. That the content they don’t agree with prompts them to question their own privilege. That, as reported by the school paper, some students chanted “Trump 2020” during a woman of color’s event.

Many of the book burning videos, originally posted to Twitter, have already been deleted, but here’s one which is still viral:

x so after our FYE bookÃ¢ÂÂs author came to my school to talk about it... these people decide to burn her book because Ã¢ÂÂitÃ¢ÂÂs bad and that race is bad to talk aboutÃ¢ÂÂ. 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 Ã¢ÂÂ elainaÃ¢Â­ÂÃ¯Â¸Â (@elainaaan) October 10, 2019

And here are some clips preserved in news coverage:

Crucet’s latest book, an essay collection called My Time Among the Whites, was released in September.