Book Burnings

[mamselle]

Georgia's Southern students burned Cubano-American author Jennine Capo' Cruchet's book, " Make Your Home Among Strangers" on a grill after her invited talk devolved into a shouting match. ( There's a CNN article I can't link to, FYI, on this.)

During the Q/A she was accused by some as being racist against whites, and defended by others as having authority to speak based on her experiences of growing up in the U.S.

School authorities condemned the students' destruction of the books, but did not punish them, considering them to be within their First Amendment rights.

Was denkst du?
(--what do you think?)

M.

[polly_mer]

https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/11/us/georgia-southern-university-book-burning/index.html

[mamselle]

Thanks, yes, that's the one.

M.

[nebo113]

I wanted to throw up.

[polly_mer]

I wanted to throw up.

Please expand.  What makes this particular instance of refusing to deal with reality on all sides worthy of vomiting?

[Anselm]

https://www.chronicle.com/article/This-Is-Where-We-Are/247337?cid=wcontentlist_hp_latest

Well, at least they did not shout her down and get the speech cancelled.

[writingprof]

I'm opposed to book-burning, but I have no doubt that Jennine Capó Crucet is racist against white people.  Her job is Professional Person "Of Color."  Being racist against white people is the point.  It's certainly what the (mostly white) audience is paying to hear.  Or read.

[Bede the Vulnerable]

mamselle--

Das einzige, was man verbrennen sollte, sind Ketzer.  Das denke ich.

My other thought, which may not be worth much:  Public universities should be VERY reluctant to clamp down on free speech of any kind.  But book burning seems like an act of intimidation, meant more to shut down speech than to exercise it.

Crucet?  I don't know anything about her other than what I've read in the above article.  She seems to be selling a product that is not hard to acquire at universities these days.  Nothing strikingly original, but also nothing worthy of a book grilling.  She might be saying nothing that these kiddos couldn't hear from their own faculty.  (Telling your critics that they can only challenge you because of their privilege doesn't seem to me like a way to encourage discussion either.  But I still believe in free speech of the old, 1960s flavor.)

[nebo113]

I wanted to throw up.

Please expand.  What makes this particular instance of refusing to deal with reality on all sides worthy of vomiting?

White southern males burning books.....on a college campus. 

[polly_mer]

I wanted to throw up.

Please expand.  What makes this particular instance of refusing to deal with reality on all sides worthy of vomiting?

White southern males burning books.....on a college campus.

Why is that vomit worthy when so many things happening on college campuses that make the news are not at all desirable and are in direct contradiction of what most of us would want to happen in an ideal world?

Why choose those particular words instead of a simple "anyone burning books" or "burning books on a college campus"?

Tell us more.

[nebo113]

I wanted to throw up.

Please expand.  What makes this particular instance of refusing to deal with reality on all sides worthy of vomiting?

White southern males burning books.....on a college campus.

Why is that vomit worthy when so many things happening on college campuses that make the news are not at all desirable and are in direct contradiction of what most of us would want to happen in an ideal world?

Why choose those particular words instead of a simple "anyone burning books" or "burning books on a college campus"?

Tell us more.

I apologize for my lack of insight.

[mamselle]

Das einzige, was man verbrennen sollte, sind Ketzer.  Das denke ich.

Ye-ouch. I wouldn't even burn them.

I do think, given some of the reported slurs and catcalls, that there was something mysogynistic as well as racist in the motivation(s) for the book-burning.

It's usually the performance of a radicalized virtue-claiming crowd (think, Savonarola).

In that case, the (inherent, implied) virtues involved would indeed be "being white" and "being male" since those points were made.

The implied intent of violence-by-association to the author was palpable to her, from her statements, also.

Or else it's just "a bunch of smart-alecky kids acting up...." which I don't think is a good thing to let go by.

M.

[marshwiggle]

Das einzige, was man verbrennen sollte, sind Ketzer.  Das denke ich.

Ye-ouch. I wouldn't even burn them.

I do think, given some of the reported slurs and catcalls, that there was something mysogynistic as well as racist in the motivation(s) for the book-burning.

It's usually the performance of a radicalized virtue-claiming crowd (think, Savonarola).

In that case, the (inherent, implied) virtues involved would indeed be "being white" and "being male" since those points were made.

How does that compare to the Berkely riot in terms of morality?

Or else it's just "a bunch of smart-alecky kids acting up...." which I don't think is a good thing to let go by.

M.

Does the political viewpoint of the "smart-alecky kids" matter, or is it not "smart-alecky" if it's for the "correct" cause?

[Hibush]

Book burning (and its electronic equivalent) is terrible when governments burn books belonging to the people and to libraries to prevent the citizenry from having access to certain ideas.

It is a different matter when individual people chose to burn their own copy of a book. the act is meant to be symbolic of the former, but the political statement gets confused. They don't limit access to the author's ideas, and may even call more attention to them. The own-book-burners would do more  harm to the author's message by leaving a negative review at Goodreads.

[polly_mer]

Like many of the commenters on the Inside Higher Ed article, I have to wonder who thought this particular speaker was a good idea for this particular audience.

The students' negative response to this speaker and being required to acquire and read the book was entirely foreseeable for those of us who have lived in specific communities and actually interacted with real, live people who have problems of their own and know how things work in their worlds.

I pushed on nebo113 particularly because the problem was indeed some very privileged person by all measures except a couple checkboxes came to tell a bunch of underprivileged people that being white and male is such an advantage that they must feel her pain and ignore any of their own pain that is just as real and just as caused by the system. 

If anything, this type of preaching continues to reinforce how out-of-touch, elite academics are with the world as many of us experience it.  I find it interesting that all these students did was burn their own copies of books instead of taking more drastic action.