September 15, 2005

OPEN LETTER TO UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA PRESIDENT BERNIE MACHEN

I am writing you to express my deepest sense of indignance and grievance to the cartoon that depicts Kanye West and Condoleezza Rice utilizing the phrase "Nigga Please!" This is not an issue of freedom of speech or censoring of speech. This cartoon revolves around a moral issue of whether it is right or wrong to use racial slurs to inflict pain and indignity upon others.

The first paragraph of the University of Florida mission statement states:

     "The University of Florida faculty renews its
     commitment to serve the citizens of Florida
     and educate students so they are prepared to make
     significant contributions within an increasingly
     global community. In affirming the university's
     academic mission, we honor the human component of our
     mission: our students, faculty, staff and
     administrators; and recognize the importance of
     these human resources to the university's success.
     Towards this affirmation, the University of Florida faculty
     specifically encourages a campus-wide culture of caring."

In the midst of already compromised racial tensions in the United States after Hurricane Katrina, this cartoon undermines the humanity and dignity of black Americans and it further exacerbates our current racial tensions. This cartoon is a racial slur and is intolerable. Moreover, it demonstrates that there are people in this country who still refuse to seriously engage in a discussion about the painful and demoralizing roots of the n-word. The next day, the Alligator then portrayed an equally offensive cartoon that trivialized the experiences of the hurricane victims. This action is directly equivalent to Hitler trivializing victims in a gas chamber during the Holocaust. The outrage should be the same regardless of the race, creed, or ethnicity.

As a concerned, full-time and well-qualified black student at the University of Florida, I am deeply hurt and angry that the Alligator is using my tuition and fees to blatantly disrespect myself, University Faculty, staff and students. Moreover, President Machen, this cartoon blatantly disrespects and undermines your efforts to bring about true diversity upon the University of Florida campus and achieve your goal to bring the University of Florida as a Top 10 public research institution.

This depiction demoralizes many of the black students at the University of Florida. Although the Alligator is independent from UF, it still directly impacts the university community. It wrongfully implies that black people are inferior as intellectuals, our feelings are not important and our contributions to the development of the United States and the intellectual body of knowledge within University of Florida is trite and insignificant. After seeing this cartoon on Tuesday, I have not been able to proudly walk through this campus as I have done for four years now. Since Tuesday, I have not felt confident to look into the eyes of other black students as I usually do. Moreover, I have felt a sense of compromised collegiality between myself and my white peers.

As a McNair Scholar, University Scholar, Presidential Scholar, Gorenberg Scholar, and proud University of Florida Policy debater, I have traveled and presented my research throughout the nation at well-respected conferences and have represented the University of Florida in its highest esteem to every individual I have encountered.

I whole-heartedly believe and am committed to the UF mission statement and your personal initiatives towards increasing diversity in the UF scholarly community. I certainly exude this confidence through my speech and more importantly my actions, when I interact with notable scholarly figures in academia and other potential UF students who are well-qualified and underrepresented students such as myself.

During your inauguration, we spoke after the first "Beverly Tatum Conversations About Race Panel Discussion." Your words further strengthened me to help you in your salient diversity initiatives. I respect you and your position and I am inflamed that the misjudgments of the Alligator would disrespect the entire UF community and undermine the mission of the University of Florida.

President Machen, I trust that you too, will remain faithful to your words and agenda, and take the necessary, direct, and immediate actions to publicly address and redress this morally wrong action of the Alligator. I trust that you will positively and actively respond to the grievances of the people who make the University of Florida the well-respected institution of higher learning that it is.


Sincerely Yours,

Vanessa Fabien, concerned UF student.