Professor knows Vanderbilt better off without this history

Middle Tennessee News & Information ^ | Sunday, 10/13/02

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When Jimmie Franklin came to Nashville in 1986 to begin serving as a history professor at Vanderbilt University, he was well aware of the school's conservative reputation.

As far as racial segregation and discrimination were concerned, that history was virtually the same at Vanderbilt as it was at the University of Alabama, the University of Mississippi, the University of Georgia and even Emory University near Atlanta.

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[BenR2]

''I was not repelled by Vanderbilt's history but challenged by it,'' Franklin, an African American, told me this past week. ''My objective was to make Vanderbilt a better place for all individuals.''

Sure, Jim, the best way to make Vanderbilt a better place is to revise its history!

[dyed_in_the_wool]

Confederate Memorial Hall projected the wrong image, Franklin said.

''It was a negative icon, a powerfully negative icon to many because it was associated in the minds of many with the past history of slavery and Jim Crow,'' said Franklin

Er, uh, Jim Crow came AFTER the CSA lost the war there, professor. Guess you never studied that, eh?
And, uh, lemme guess, State's rights never came up, either.
So, I'm sure he's not going to propose studying African History due to all of the support and continued use of slavery, huh?

[Verginius Rufus]

Wow! The UDC was founded in 1859! That was before the Confederacy even existed! Prescient women, they were.

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

''I think the university's decision gets rid of a very fictional situation on campus,''

So even he agrees this whole thing is much dog doo about nothing. A made up non issue. He really should read his Webster's regarding the use of the word "fictional".

[=Intervention=]

''The Confederate flag bothers me because when I see it most of the time, it is being used in a manner that has nothing to do with history,'' said Franklin, who has served as president of the Southern Historical Association. ''When I see it on a pickup truck, I think whoever has it is trying to tell me something about my race and the objection to it.'

Amazing. This guy taught in the South for 15 years and he still doesn't get it. I suppose some people truly can't be taught. It is a shame, however, that the ignorant should be accorded any place in our halls of academia.

The writer's attack on the Daughters was cheap. I'm writing and telling him so.

[stainlessbanner]

Great observations. I found another one. The Southern Historical Association, which Franklin was president of, appears to be focused on integration, minorities, and slavery in the South. Consider the following titles from their SHA Journal:

1. “The whites shall rule the land or die”: Gender, Race, and Class in North Carolina Reconstruction Politics
2. The Limits of Antislavery Thought in the Revolutionary Lower South
3. (Un)Furl That Banner: The Response of White Southerners to the Civil War Centennial of 1961–1965
4. Flag Culture and the Consolidation of Confederate Nationalism
5. War of Words: The Controversy over the Definition of Lynching, 1899–1940

Now, I have never read the periodical (and I will eventually), but if it's anything like Dr. Franklin's revisionist article, I would not give the SHA journal much credit.

[=Intervention=]

Here's my letter...

Dear Sir:


I read your article on a website recently. Needless to say, you as the typical liberal newspaperman, are wholly ignorant of many facts and do violent injustice to your subject matter. Let's begin with a quick tour of your error.

"When Jimmie Franklin came to Nashville in 1986 to begin serving as a history professor at Vanderbilt University, he was well aware of the school's conservative reputation."

(Ooh bad, bad, bad! Conservative reputations are anathema as far as education is concerned, aren't they? Vandy is one of a FEW conservative-leaning schools in a tidal wave of liberalism. But no-one ever mentions the liberal bias of Harvard, Princeton, or the University of Florida, do they? What we see above is typical liberal "identify the enemy" thought.)

"'I was not repelled by Vanderbilt's history but challenged by it,'' Franklin, an African American, told me this past week. ''My objective was to make Vanderbilt a better place for all individuals.''"

Now, now. Racial segregation was a de facto rule in MANY places all over the United States, not just in the South. Or were you not aware of that? Many schools have skeletons in their closets, and I'm sure the good professor would have to deal with that "legacy" wherever he went.

"So what's his take on Vanderbilt's recent decision to remove the word ''Confederate'' from the name of a residence hall on the school's campus?"

"''I think the university's decision gets rid of a very fictional situation on campus,'' Franklin said as we talked over the telephone Thursday morning. ''This has been a continuing problem for a number of years so hopefully it is resolved."

Wait. Fictional in this context means false. He acknowledges it's a non-issue! Did you not proofread your own article? What was your GPA in journalism school, exactly?

"In case you haven't heard, the United Daughters of the Confederacy, who helped secure funding to build Confederate Memorial Hall, is challenging Vanderbilt officials for deciding to drop what they call the key word in the name of the building."

"They've even threatened to sue the university."

Again, hold on. Is it a bad thing to expect the building to reflect the name of the organization that helped secure funding for it? Why are there two sets of expectations -- one for the DOC and another for other groups? Imagine the outrage if the Southern Law and Poverty Center secured funding for a building, but the University decided to change the name of the building from "The Martin Luther King Justice Center" to the "Justice Center." They would be regaled as righteous fighters against injustice, but when the DOC wants to do the same, they are branded as racists! That's not justice if you have different standards for people based wholly on their race or political persuasion.

"''The important thing is that it gets rid of something that was almost psychologically debilitating to some students and faculty who were already here on campus,'' said Franklin, who received his undergraduate degree from Jackson State University in Mississippi."

"Confederate Memorial Hall projected the wrong image, Franklin said."

The rubber-roomed world hypothesis on display, again. A simple name of something is so offensive to people it almost debilitates them! You conjur up the image of the helpless, over-emotional Sambo who must have a rubber-roomed world for himself because he can't take the rough-and-tumble external world.

"''It was a negative icon, a powerfully negative icon to many because it was associated in the minds of many with the past history of slavery and Jim Crow,'' said Franklin, author and specialist on the American South. ''And those things in the minds of most African Americans were related to a history of oppression.''"

For a specialist on the American South, the professor conflates periods of history with ease. Jim Crow came after the defeat of the Confederacy. For "Confederate" to summon up images of a following period of history is either untrue, reveals the education level of those who promote and accept the hypothesis, or both. I also find it interesting that he is able to speak for "most African Americans" so glibly, and that you accepted his statement without question. Again, it's one rule for any sort of self-identified minority, and another for the majority. Minority groups have leaders that speak for the rest of their group, even without consent. Did you ask any other blacks what they thought? No! Where are your reporting skills? Or do you presume that all blacks just kowtow whatever a "leader" says without question? You are a racist, aren't you?

"Members of the United Daughters of the Confederacy have said since this controversy erupted that dropping Confederate from the building's name is an affront to the men who died fighting for the Confederacy during the >Civil War."

"And members of the UDC, which was founded in 1859 in Atlanta, the capital of the ''New South,'' also claim the Civil War was about states' rights and economic issues, not preserving slavery."

"I wonder when they will give up that lost cause."


About the same time that you actually do some research for your articles and discover that they have a point, which is to say, never. Ignorance loathes education, and nowhere is this more obvious than in your caricature of the DOC. But then again, the arrogance in your verbiage above states all that readers need to know. By summarily dismissing the viewpoints of others, you reveal that you have no interest in history, in fair treatement of others, or in any persuasive argument -- it's typical slipshod leftist journalism. You can't argue with the DOC's point, so you just call them names.

"''The Confederate flag bothers me because when I see it most of the time, it is being used in a manner that has nothing to do with history,'' said Franklin, who has served as president of the Southern Historical Association. ''When I see it on a pickup truck, I think whoever has it is trying to tell me something about my race and the objection to it.''"

Some people can live in the South all their lives and never really understand it. I almost feel sorry for a man who is both that sensitive and that clueless. It's a shame that his dull-wittedness now passes for education and that he has derived the right to censor building names for the overemotional Sambos who cannot handle confrontation or history. It amazes me just how racist such arguments are. He and you are treating blacks as though they are little children, unable to handle differing viewpoints, much less names on the buildings! (Let me guess. It's "for the children" right?)

"Some people, including members of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, may not understand what Franklin >is saying because they haven't felt the pain of slavery or the lingering effects of perhaps the most horrible tragedy >in American history."

How do you understand what he is saying? Have you felt the pain of slavery or its lingering effects? Does emotional or intellectual understanding derive only from experiencing the very same thing? You are really saying that without direct experience, no-one can really understand the emotions of another person. If that were so, then your whole career in journalism is a tawdry lie, because you depend upon your ability to understand what others have experienced what you have not experienced in order to inform the masses.

"I am glad Vanderbilt administrators have such an understanding, though, and like Dr. Jimmie Franklin says, the university will be much better off in the long run without the word ''Confederate'' on a building on its campus."

And you sit here and cheer because a private group was denied their ability to have a building named for their organization. Justice for some, but not for others, indeed. I am sickened and offended by your backhanded promotion of censorship. You are just another self-righteous judgemental journalist who spews dreck in the pages of American newspapers. Take your latent racism, your slipshod writing, your pathetic editoral skills, your inability to reason and go write kindergarten books, if they'll take you.

Sincerely Yours,
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

[wardaddy]

The big lie: Vandy is about as conservative as I am liberal. I know some of the staff. I am around the students frequently. It may not be Smith, Reed, or Bennington but it is far far from Conservative.

[fieldmarshaldj]

Ain't that the truth. As a lifelong resident of the People's Republic of Nashville, I almost choked on my chocolates when I saw Vandy described as "Conservative." Don't get me started on their so-called "Divinity School", which apparently is something Beijing would be mighty proud of.

[PirateBeachBum]

"Some people, including members of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, may not understand what Franklin is saying because they haven't felt the pain of slavery..."

Including Dr. Franklin...he's never felt the pain of slavery. I'm fed up with that tired excuse.

[wardaddy]

Yes ....Vandy's esteemed Divinity School (it should have been named for the Christmas candy). The same divinity school with a ranking atheist professor....what a joke.

I know one of their graduates....a woman. Very very very very Kum-Ba-Yah if you get my drift. She's rather prominant here in lefty circles. Not a bad person at all but very misguided. You know, being nice is all that matters and having an opinion or G-d forbid judging someone is strictly verboten.

[toddst]

The big lie: Vandy is about as conservative as I am liberal. I know some of the staff. I am around the students frequently. It may not be Smith, Reed, or Bennington but it is far far from Conservative.

Should be interesting to see what impact all this has on fundraising. While Vandy isn't all that conservative internally (few universities are) the alumni who support it are likely not happy with "Confederate" being removed from the building.

Vanderbilt Chancellor Gordon Gee may find his tenure shortened, as his job consists primarily of raising funds for the school.

[4CJ]

Vanderbilt Chancellor Gordon Gee may find his tenure shortened, as his job consists primarily of raising funds for the school.

BUMP!