A Drexel University professor is currently being investigated after tweeting out a Christmas joke about white genocide. College officials were less than enthused.
George Ciccariello-Maher, an associate professor of politics at the Philadelphia university, sent the following tweet to 11,00 people on Christmas Eve: “All I Want for Christmas is White Genocide.”
Despite claiming that the statement was meant to be ironic, Drexel officials weren’t buying it.
“While the University recognizes the right of its faculty to freely express their thoughts and opinions in public debate, Professor Ciccariello-Maher’s comments are utterly reprehensible, deeply disturbing, and do not in any way reflect the values of the University,” the school said in a statement, adding that they are “taking this situation very seriously.”
Ciccariello-Maher called the statement “chilling” and claims that Drexel doesn’t seem to understand that he was mocking white genocide, which he calls an “imaginary concept” made up by white supremacists.
“It is a figment of the racist imagination,” he said. “It should be mocked, and I’m glad to have mocked it.”
Ciccariello-Maher has since made his Twitter private, but according to Metro, he followed up his tweet with another statement that praised the “massacre” of white people in Haiti during the country’s slave uprising and revolution.
After posting the tweet, Ciccariello-Maher, who lists “race and racism” as one of his academic specialities, received numerous death threats from strangers online. Others have had more moderate reactions.
What do you think about the situation? Should he should be fired? Sound off in the comments below.
