Annmarie Payne email #7

---------- 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,

Thanks for the email. Although I would support your blasting the administration, I don't recall using the word "blast" in any of my emails, and I certainly was not blasting you.

The difficulties you are having with the administration are a direct result of your predecessors' having let the administration assault your (the black students') greatest defender on the faculty, with impunity. Obviously, once the administration realized they could do that, they realized they could ignore any and all demands that black students might make at that or any future time.

I am happy to call you, so that the call will be free for you.

This situation can be taken care of without anyone's being persecuted. It can be done with an anonymous letter. It can be done on behalf of the BSA as a whole. You can get the NAACP to take the lead. You can go to a black tenured professor or James Lawson and get him to take the lead. (Good luck.) You can go over to TSU and get the students at their Africana Studies Department to take the lead. You can get the Tennessee Tribune to write something. You can send a perfectly cordial, polite letter to Gee, asking him to explain why he has never criticized the Confederacy, and why he did not defend an award-winning Vanderbilt professor who was being assaulted with death threats which Gee himself took seriously. There are all kinds of risk-free things you can do that do not take very much time or energy on your part.

I really don't think Vanderbilt will issue an apology and "mean it"---I misspoke---but they do not want to appear racist in public. They will do what you demand, but first you have to demand it.

It is pointless for me to come to Nashville since Vanderbilt and the neo-Confederates were able to successfully neutralize me by making it seem as if I was a "lone crazy". The only way this will work is if other people make the demands.

Regards,

Jonathan Farley

876 446 3184

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

Dear Mr. Farley,

I was by no means trying to downgrade the seriousness of the situation. I
was simply trying to let you know that I was never made aware of the
situation. I have been recently briefed many times over by what has taken
place four years ago. I have spoken to Nia the old BSA president because I
have the same scholarship that she had to come to Vanderbilt University.
In my email I was trying to convey that this has recently just been
brought to the BSA general body and also we have other things on our
agenda that simply correlate with what your asking us to do. The fact of
the matter is we have been fighting for about three years now to get the
name Confederate off of one of the dorms at Vanderbilt U. where African
Americans live. This has been an ongoing problem for us because the
administrators at Vanderbilt are not interested. Now although, you say we
should "blast" Vanderbilt in the media and periodicals there is but so
much that can be done at once without severe persecution. No one is
looking to be stagnent in any way however we are looking to do things
within the system to change it. I am sorry if you were not appreciated for
your actions and/or removal from Vanderbilt University but there is no way
at this time that we can demand for Chancellor Gee to give you an apology
without getting all of our members on board. As I said before, please be
patient because nothing can be done within a matter of days. You sir, just
let me know of the situation about two weeks ago. Trust that I am
addressing and making sure that things are moving along. Furthermore, I
apologize for being so straight forward and somewhat rude, but I do not
want you to think that the African Americans on campus are doing nothing
to make sure that things are progressing. If the time table is not to your
standards please come to Vanderbilt University and make your stand point
known. The reaosn is, with you abroad me telling the story and standing up
for you to the administration, which by the way we do not have the best
relationship with, to give an apology and "mean it." Thank you once again
for your candor but you are not helping by blasting us and demanding
things be done right now.

Thank you,
Annmarie Payne

P.S. Speaking with you is difficult by phone being that you are
international. I will do what I can to get a phone card to make sure that
we can speak however, unlike what people think I am not rich and put
myself through school as well as take care of myself. A little background
on me is, I am an immigrant from Grenada. I do not have my father or my
mother to support me. I live in my own apartment in my state and have been
fighting for my own rights for as long as I can remember. So please be
patient with not only the BSA but also me because my life does not revolve
around the BSA as of right now. I am in college for the betterment of
myself. Thank you