Annmarie Payne email #5

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Jonathan Farley <lattice.theory@gmail.com>
Date: 2007/2/7
Subject: Re: Vanderbilt Chancellor's defense of Klan founder
To: "Payne, Annmarie Janet" <annmarie.j.payne@vanderbilt.edu>

Hello,

I can speak to you over the phone in greater detail than over email if you like.

While it happened a long time ago from your perspective, in reality 4 years is not that long ago. It's also not too long ago for the white students at Vanderbilt, who wrote blogs about it even years after the fact. It is only the black students--the students whom I served faithfully for years and more than any other professor---who have remained almost entirely silent. Moreover, the current Chancellor was the Chancellor at the time. The issue is not to wait until he wants to speak about it---which will never be the case---but to demand that he speak about it, embarrassing him if necessary. (He too spoke about the incident recently, in a 2005 book, so he certainly is not reticent to speak on the issue.)

I can send you all the information you need (although, alas, many of the web links now seem to be broken), but the basic situation is pretty plain. I wrote an essay as a private citizen criticizing the founder of the KKK, and Vanderbilt---specifically, Vice Chancellor Schoenfeld and Chancellor Gee---publicly criticized me, calling my views "extreme". There were worse consequences.

I'd be happy to speak via speakerphone to the BSA at your next meeting.

The issue is very simple: I recommend that the BSA demand that Gee and Schoenfeld publicly retract their comments in support of the Confederacy and, to make sure they mean it, that they publicly state their criticism of the slavery and the Confederacy, specifically saying that the Confederates were fighting for an evil cause and the Klan founder committed a crime against humanity. If you can't get Gee to say that, then you and the BSA will know who they are dealing with.

Patience is a virtue, but this issue should never have been off the BSA's agenda. You are right: it has been 4 years, and I think now is the time for the BSA to deal with it. In fact, I am surprised that students do not spontaneously (without any instigation from me) bring the issue up. It does not require any further research. If you like, take it to the local NAACP and demand that they deal with it. Write an open letter to the Tennessean newspaper. Whatever you do, it need not take a lot of time.

The alternative is to let Vanderbilt get away with tricking America (e.g., GQ Magazine, or the Journal for Blacks in Higher Education) into thinking it is interested in African-Americans, but guaranteeing that whenever you (the BSA) do get a professor who is concerned about your interests, Vanderbilt has carte blanche to attack him like it was Rosewood.

Regards,

(Professor) Jonathan Farley, D.Phil.

The University of the West Indies

876 446 3184

On 2/7/07, Payne, Annmarie Janet <annmarie.j.payne@vanderbilt.edu> wrote:

Dear Mr. Farley,

I have made the BSA very aware of what you have brought to my attention.
We have started to make some actions but there of course is a lot of
"walls" that we are running into. There needs to be some patience on your
end being that this issue one, has happened a while ago so it is not a
concern of Chancellor Gee to answer to right now and two, this has just
hit the BSA's agenda for spring of 2007. I am greatful that you have
brought it to my attention and trust we are doing everything we can to
find out all the facts and exactly who was involved. Thank you for your
help.

Sincerely,
Annmarie Payne

P.S. Not to be crude but is there anything that you want in particular
from this situation being brought about again?