Week Eight

Welcome to this week's topic - Make Your Home Among Strangers

This week has been very good, but it has also been rather busy. I have had more work this week than

last week. On Tuesday, I volunteered at an event called Stir Up Some Fun, and I plan to go again this week. Friday, I brought my roommates to my hometown. We went to my old high school's football game Friday night, and then we went to the Kaolin Festival Saturday morning. I had a really great week, and I look forward to next week.

This week's FYE topic started out on a positive note. In class on Monday, all of the class got together in groups to discuss different themes from Make Your Home Among Strangers. I talked with Ebeni about the sheet that Dra. gave us. She and I had a nice discussion about our views on the novel. We discussed our current college experiences related to the narrator of the novel, Lizet. As a whole, our class read an article about Gaspar Leiva, a past Georgia Southern professor originally from Cuba. Dra. told us about Leiva and his wife because she knew them personally. I was very interested in hearing Leiva's story. We did not have class on Wednesday.

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On Wednesday, I went to the PAC to watch Jennine Capo Crucet, the author of Make Your Home Among Strangers. Before the presentation began, I was excited to hear Crucet. I imagined her speech to be something around the realm of encouraging first year college students to "follow their dreams even when times get tough." Crucet's actual presentation proved to be different. Her speech started out normal; she was giving an overview of how she became a professor. Crucet mentioned her Cuban-American heritage in relation to the narrator of her novel. Midway through the speech Crucet's attitude and purpose of her speech shifted drastically from what I had imagined I would hear. She began to discuss her views on the reality of "white privilege." As a "white" person, I will say that I felt personally attacked. Since I have been at Georgia Southern, I have been in awe at the kindness and the "community" that exists between everyone at school. I love my college, and I love all of the wonderful people that I have come to meet so far. I am aggravated at how forceful and how negative Crucet became during her speech; I even think that she exhibited a rather "sassy" attitude at certain points. I think that Crucet's speech created more tension than there has ever been between the student body. I believe in equality. I truly love the student body at Georgia Southern, and I am upset that Crucet created more division than unity.

I have one issue with Crucet's speech. Anyone has the capability and the right to believe anything they want. I will agree to disagree with some of the points that Crucet made. I am not going to shame or to attack her for her beliefs, but like I said, I have one issue. During her speech, the crowd began to get louder, and people started to whisper to each other. In response to the commotion, Crucet stopped reading her script and looked at the crowd. She said, "What's going on? Why are we whispering? I'm

Screenshot from the moment
after the commotion incident

just always worried that someone is going to walk into the room with a gun...someone should make a loud noise if that happens, so I can jump off the stage. Oh, that's not what's happening - okay then we can all be quiet." After she said these words, she waited for the crowd to quiet. People were shocked, and they started to get even louder. As she waited quietly, Crucet stroked her chin and smirked.

I was extremely appalled by her actions. I do not care who you are or what you believe, but you should never make a joke about a gunman coming into a room to shoot people. It is unprofessional and just wrong. Because of this, I lost a lot of respect for Crucet.

I have one more of her comments that I would like to point out. At the beginning of her speech, Crucet said that students who have a professor who looks like them are more likely to be successful in school. Later in her speech, Crucet says that she had one professor who looked like her. She goes on to state that that professor was not the person who made an impact on her life. This proves the point that people do not have to be the same gender or the same race to have a strong impact on your life. We are all humans.

Instead of focusing on history's past mistakes, we should acknowledge them, learn from them, and move on. We students at Georgia Southern should not allow this woman's views to represent our own. No matter what anyone says, we are a strong, smart student body that cares for each other deeply. I love my school, and I believe that I always will.


Resources:
(1) https://images.app.goo.gl/K8LTWT6Q2poKP7GdA