Students at Georgia Southern University burned a novel written by a Latina professor who told them in a lecture to consider their white privilege.

Jennine Capó Crucet visited the campus on Wednesday to speak about her novel, "Make Your Home Among Strangers," about a young Hispanic woman trying to fit in at a mostly white college.

Some students took offense to her remarks and asked why she believed some students had white privilege.

Later, videos circulated on social media showing students burning Crucet's novel.

A spokesperson for the university told Insider that the activity was within students' First Amendment rights, but did not align with Georgia Southern University's values.

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A number of students at Georgia Southern University burned a novel written by a Latina professor after she discussed white privilege during a lecture on Wednesday.

Jennine Capó Crucet, an associate professor at the University of Nebraska and New York Times opinion contributor, visited the campus to speak about her novel, "Make Your Home Among Strangers," and answer students' questions.

The novel had been assigned as required reading for some first-year students, The George-Anne student newspaper reported. It details a Latina woman's struggle to fit in among her white, upper middle class peers at a private college.

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But Crucet's talk quickly went awry when she opened up the floor to a Q&A session.

"I noticed that you made a lot of generalizations about the majority of white people being privileged," one person told Crucet, according to The George-Anne. "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."

Crucet responded that she came because she had been invited, and she spoke about white privilege "because it's a real thing that you are actually benefiting from right now in even asking this question."

She continued: "What's so heartbreaking for me and what is so difficult in this moment right now is to literally have read a talk about this exact moment happening and it's happening again. That is why a different experience, the white experience, is centered in this talk."

Some students burned her book

After her talk, Crucet tweeted that other students had come to her defense during the lecture and disrupted those making "ignorant comments."

—Jennine Capó Crucet (@crucet) October 10, 2019

Later, videos circulated on social media showing students burning Crucet's novel or ripping out pages. Some of the posts have since been deleted and accounts set private, but The George-Anne posted screenshots of the destruction and angry messages towards Crucet.

"Are you usually that racist or were you putting on a front to promote your pointless and shitty book at my college? just a question," one person tweeted. "Work on your ignorance and racism towards white people =)"

The university said book-burning is within the students' First Amendment rights, but doesn't align with the school's values

A spokesperson for Georgia Southern University told Insider it was unclear how many people were involved in the burning.

"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," the spokesperson said in a statement.

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The university's Department of Writing and Linguistics released an anguished statement saying "destructive and threatening acts" should not represent the university.

"Our department values stories and how they reflect parts of the human experience. We also value discussion and debate of important issues from all sides and perspectives," the department chair, Russell Willerton, told The George-Anne. "We regret that Crucet's experience in Statesboro ended as it did. We call on students to remain civil in disagreement, even on difficult issues, and to make Georgia Southern University a place that we all can feel proud to represent."