Drexel University: Professor Faces Investigation for Controversial Tweets

On Christmas Eve 2016, Drexel University Associate Professor George Ciccariello-Maher posted a message to his Twitter account reading, “All I Want For Christmas is White Genocide.” Ciccariello-Maher posted a follow-up tweet the next day reading, “To clarify: when the whites were massacred during the Haitian revolution, that was a good thing indeed.” The tweets prompted condemnation by the university and the promise of an investigation into Ciccariello-Maher’s actions. In April 2017, controversy sprung up once again when Ciccariello-Maher tweeted, “Some guy in first class gave up his seat for a uniformed soldier. People are thanking him. I’m trying not to vomit or yell about Mosul.” Drexel publicly stated that it would not punish Ciccariello-Maher for his tweets, but subjected him to a months-long long investigation and barred him from campus, prompting his resignation in December 2017.