Professor Who Wished for “White Genocide” on Twitter is a Visiting Scholar at NYU

George Ciccariello-Maher will be a visiting scholar at Tisch.

After a controversial year that began with the tweet “All I want for Christmas is White Genocide,” former Drexel University Professor George Ciccariello-Maher found a new (unpaid, temporary) home at NYU.

According to Washington Square News, Ciccariello-Maher will be a visiting scholar at NYU Tisch School of the Arts’ Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics.

There was swift reaction to Ciccariello-Maher’s tweet. Many people did not understand that the tweet was in reference to origin of the term “white genocide,” which was created by white supremacists in order to stoke fear and terror among white people. Others, who did understand the origin of the term, were still angry. (Many of these other people had Pepe the Nazi frog as their Twitter profile picture… just saying.)

Ciccariello-Maher continued to gain notoriety. He wrote an essay for The Washington Post and appeared on CNN. He gained a strong group of student supporters amidst Drexel University’s attempts to censure him. In the end, the threats of violence overshadowed anything else.

Ciccariello-Maher resigned from Drexel at the end of 2017. He credited the nonstop harassment he faced online as a factor for his decision. His statement can be read in full in the tweet below.

Amongst the many death threats and disturbing messages he received, Ciccariello-Maher was added to the Professor Watchlist. As NYU Local reported in 2016, left-leaning professors were added to this database with their personal information cataloged, often times including their photos and addresses.

P.S. We would like to formally invite Professor Ciccariello-Maher to hit us up at any time. We love your Twitter account and would love to chat.