me: so you can't confirm for me that you wrote the armies e-mail? me: there's nothing wrong with it Jonathan: Actually, to be perfectly honest, I'd need to check. me: but I'd find it awkward not to be able to confirm it, and since that's apparently the most "venomous" thing they can come up with me: it shows how well you handled it Jonathan: The Tennessean newspaper published the email and said I signed it Jonathan: "Asst. Prof. of Math" Jonathan: which I never did. me: in comparison to the e-mails you got Jonathan: So I'm pretty sure the email was altered. me: okay, I'll say you don't remember writing it but agree with the sentiment Jonathan: Also, someone told me the exact statute of copyright law that the Tennessean was violating, even if it was my email. me: also, did you see this? Jonathan: Off the record, me: http://www.stormfront.org/forum/sitemap/index.php/t-36829.html Jonathan: the point was that I had no allies. me: also, real quick me: I found this me: By COLIN FLY, Associated Press January 11, 2003
NASHVILLE - Vanderbilt University says administrators involved in a decision to drop "Confederate" from the name of a residence hall have been targeted with threats, and it wants a judge to keep their names sealed.
A Confederate heritage group is suing Vanderbilt over the decision to change the name of Confederate Memorial Hall.
Certain members of the university's administration, faculty and Board of Trust "have been subjected to a deluge of mail, electronic mail, and telephone messages, including some threats" since the name-change decision in September, university lawyers wrote in a motion filed last week in Davidson County Chancery Court. me: looks like the administrators were quite cognizant of threats me: despite their reluctant to admit that you got any me: also, a lot of these nazi orgs were discussing you quite a bit Jonathan: Yes, so I can respond: Jonathan: Off the record, by the time of the Tim Chavez hit job it was clear I had no allies. Jonathan: I had had no idea that these neo-Confederate groups were this organized. Jonathan: When Gary Waltrip wrote me, I thought he was just another individual. Jonathan: Tim Chavez as I recall describes Gary Waltrip as "a California accountant" (I believe I sent you the webpage). Jonathan: But in fact Waltrip was, or had been, Vice President of the Confederate Society of America. Jonathan: Several years prior---1995 or 1996---when a USA Today columnist (Richard Price or Pride) had compared Jefferson Davis to Hitler, there was a heritage violation alert Jonathan: and Waltrip, in his newsletter, outlined five steps for dealing with such people. One of them Jonathan: was to engage in "offensive or defensive lawsuits". Jonathan: What was in this newsletter was what they were doing to me. Jonathan: Another element was Waltrip had his computer set up (Compuserve at the time) to alert him whenever there was an article on the Confederacy. Jonathan: Then he would sent out this information to neo-Confederate groups. Jonathan: The NAACP Legal Defense Fund lawyer did nothing to help, after my lawyer, David Danner, quit on me. Jonathan: The Tennessean paused one week before publishing, but they saw I had no defense. Jonathan: I believe that this may have been the week Gordon Gee published his attack on me too: I only found out about that later. Jonathan: He had told a law school professor privately (I saw the email he sent her) that he was going to defend me. Jonathan: So I was quite surprised at what he actually did. Jonathan: At this point, I had used my Vanderbilt email address for everything, so I realized at some point if Vanderbilt was against me, I could be vulnerable: Even if what I wrote was justified, they were making everything seem bad. If you're African-American, you're not allowed to be angry. Jonathan: But, on the record, I agree with the email message Tim Chavez publishes as mine in its entirety. Jonathan: I just want to stand on a principle: they had no business publishing any email. Jonathan: I never said I wrote it (or denied it), so it was shoddy attack-journalism to publish it. Jonathan: They knew they had legal difficulties which is why they waited a week---until they saw I had no lawyer and even Vanderbilt was attacking me. Jonathan: The floodgates opened after that Tennessean article. Jonathan: Incidentally, the girl defending me in the article? I never heard from her again. Jonathan: Lana Rajkumar. Jonathan: I speculate she got deluged with hate mail and her parents probably told her to leave it alone. me: okay, I'm not going to be able to get to a lot of the details as I've still got to stay up tonight and write the epilogue, so save this for when I do the big article on the whole affair Jonathan: I understand. Jonathan: So: regarding the webpages you sent me. me: won't be able to address stuff about student org presidents and whatnot Jonathan: The stormfront people are discussing that particular Tim Chavez article. Jonathan: Tim Chavez actually wrote many, many articles about me. Jonathan: Another point: Gordon Gee in the book chapter said they were going to change the name of the building. Jonathan: They didn't: the name of the building is still "Confederate Memorial Hall". Jonathan: He probably wrote that chapter even after the court case was decided (in May or June 2005) Jonathan: so he knew it was "Confederate Memorial Hall". Jonathan: The judge in the case even said Vanderbilt could not physically remove the stone blocks bearing the name (each letter several feel wide) "Confederate Memorial Hall". Jonathan: Which is a weird ruling to me, probably unprecedented in the law. Jonathan: Yes, Vanderbilt was aware of the threats---they were getting them---making their lack of concern regarding me so stunning. Jonathan: I didn't know about the threats they were getting until much later. Jonathan: As I said, I tried to not know about what was happening in Nashville. Jonathan: No one from the Vanderbilt administration every came to me to discuss the article; they fired off their statements without consulting me at all. Jonathan: And now that I think about it, the person who wrote me about the money deposited into my account without my permission or awareness was, after I tried to return it, was McCarty. Jonathan: He had some explanation that it was money Vanderbilt owed me. Jonathan: As I told you, I believed it was Vanderbilt trying to establish that I was a Vanderbilt employee at the end of January 2003, after which (presumably) there had been a subpoena. me: when did you inform Vanderbilt of your decision to go to MIT temporarily? Jonathan: It's your chapter, and I liked what you wrote; I just feel it's important to mention other people like Nia Toomer to make it clear it wasn't "lone nutter" Jonathan Farley. Jonathan: I don't remember: but I got the offer in June or July 2002, and I don't see why I wouldn't have told Vanderbilt right away. Jonathan: I certainly told Constantine Tsinakis, former math department chair who was then in the provost's office. Jonathan: Tsinakis had told me I still had to go through the math department chair, which I *had* delayed doing because he, Mike Mihalik, was hostile and had tried to prevent me from taking up my Fulbright Distinguished Scholar award the year before. Jonathan: re-reading the Tim Chavez article, it is interesting: Chavez refers to The Washington Times. Jonathan: So how did McCain hear of the email? me: I don't follow Jonathan: Either Chavez let another person "scoop" him, or McCain got it from Gary Waltrip. me: see, this is exactly what we need Jonathan: I mistakenly told you that McCain was quoting from this article by Chavez. Jonathan: But re-reading it, I see that Chavez refers to the Washington Times article. me: I need to figure out if we can show that McCAin was coordinating Jonathan: There you have it. Jonathan: I don't think the email was mentioned in any previous story. me: explain it as a whole, please me: pretend I don't know anything about this Jonathan: So Waltrip or Chavez must have fed it to McCain. me: which column by Chavez, etc Jonathan: Tim Chavez refers to the email purportedly written by me in his article for The Tennessean on December 8, 200, saying that parts of it were quoted in the Washington Times "last Tuesday". me: okay me: I mean, go on Jonathan: So that begs the question, how did McCain get a hold of the email: either from Chavez (who for some reason let someone else "scoop" him) or from Gary Waltrip, former Vice President of the Confederate Society of America. Jonathan: Or perhaps all three were coordinating. Jonathan: It's also possible Chavez referred to it this way to justify publishing it as "public information"; and McCain refers to Tim Chavez. Jonathan: At the time, I had noticed this pattern: the student newspapers would write something horrible, since there were no controls, Jonathan: and then the Tennessean would republish it, saying it had been published, and the the national media, like AP, would publish something---I'd get hate mail from South Carolina or Texas---and the the student newspaper would Jonathan: publish something because it was in the national media. Jonathan: That was how they were able to justify writing about me for months, even though I stopped talking to the media after about two weeks. Jonathan: Anyway, McCain's article was supposed to be news, not opinion, and nowhere does he indicate he belongs to a neo-Confederate organization, so he's hardly impartial. Jonathan: Back to Tim Chavez: Chavez dishonestly makes it seem as if I wrote Waltrip out of the blew. Jonathan: In fact, Waltrip wrote me a hostile email. Obviously I had never heard of Waltrip, and there would never be a reason for me to write any of these people first. Jonathan: The essential points for me are: (1) The Tennessean behaved with a lack of journalistic integrity Jonathan: both by publishing an unverified email and for violating copyright even if it was verified Jonathan: (2) by inverting Waltrip's attack and the alleged response, in a deliberately deceptive fashion Jonathan: (3) by acting as if there was something wrong with the response. As I said, on the record, I support everything in it. Jonathan: It also illustrates one tactic of neo-Confederates, evident in their emails to Gee and Mihalik, the chair of Vanderbilt's math department: Jonathan: I would get an email with racial epithets, and then the same person would write Gee or Mihalik (cc'ing me) and be polite and urbane. Jonathan: That's their trick: "we're all about heritage, not hate", but of course it's all about hate. Jonathan: I think that's also why they often have the Daughters of the Confederacy take the lead. Jonathan: You look a bit silly complaining about a bunch of little old ladies, only, they're not, and they have all of these other organizations---Sons of Confederate Veterans, Southern Independence Parties, League of the South---behind them. Jonathan: Back to the Stormfront page: Jonathan: It's probably true that Vanderbilt was worried about its endowment. Jonathan: But in fact, the people who said they weren't going to donate any money to Vanderbilt probably were never going to anyway. Jonathan: The article about the discussion at Vanderbilt: I had told the organizer I would come if it were held off campus, say, in the black part of town, but not at Vanderbilt, since I wanted to make clear my essay had nothing to do with my job. Jonathan: Regarding another article on the Stormfront page: Jonathan: I knew that the fix was in when the judge said to keep sealed the names of the people who had made the decision to change the name of Confederate Memorial Hall. Jonathan: They could not be subpoenaed, he said. Jonathan: But Jonathan Farley could be subpoenaed. Jonathan: So, it's logical to think that Vanderbilt did in fact cut a deal with the very people who were suing them, to give them me in exchange for being left alone. Jonathan: It's 3:30 am where I am, so I will now go to sleep. I'd be happy to check your chapter again for typos, etc., or answer any new questions you may have in the morning. me: great, I'll e-mail you tonight and hope to hear back from you in the morning