Withdrwan-IMMEDIATE ACTION NEEDED
PLEASE SEE NEW POST REGARDING THIS ISSUE. WE left this intact so you can see the original issue.
Professor Ian Hancock, received a letter (below) from a student named Joy Fattori-Hudson at Baylor University. She submitted a paper regarding the the fate of Romanies in the Holocaust. The professor refused to accept it because it dealt with Romanies. His name is Dr. Paul Sands, a theologian. I wrote to him and he replied
“I'm afraid that FERPA (the Family Education Rights & Privacy Act) does not allow me to speak with you about this matter. I applaud your work on behalf of the Romani people. May the truth be told and justice prevail -- at last. Cordially, Paul Sands.” Paul_Sands@baylor.edu
Please (PLEASE!) e-mail a protest to the president of Baylor, his address is david_garland@baylor.edu
We will also be pursuing this further.
ORIGINAL LETTER
Dear Professor Hancock,
I did not reply earlier because I ended up having a serious problem with my Holocaust Paper. My professor would not even grade it and told me it had to be rewritten. He did not like the subject matter.
I looked at the guidelines (one and half lines long) and it was okay . . . it was radical because it looked at how people hide memories that are not convenient such as the number of Romany people and others who also died in the Holocaust.
Anyway, I felt unable to argue . . . though I did try . . . I rewrote my paper leaving out almost all references to the Romany slaughter and got an A for it. I felt the original paper was the better paper even after re-reading it.
I remain unable to say anything until after I graduate, which I will on Friday.
There is something that still pervades about the Romany holocaust that people just simply do not want to know.
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9 comments:
Thanks for keeping us always posted. I have sent an email to the president of Baylor. I am hoping others will follow. i wish I would say I am surprised, sadly I have lost hope in humanity. There is no justice.
What was the assignment for the paper?
Please see the response I send to Professor Hancock posted below. The accusations are patently false. Dr. Hancock did not confer with me, the Dean, of this student prior to issuing a call for protest.
I would ask that you read this response to Professor Hancock and then desist in such reckless charges.
Dear Professor Hancock,
I am the Acting Dean at Truett Seminary (Baylor University) and I am writing because I believe one of our students has provided you with misinformation related to her paper. I have had Joy in three classes, and have nothing but the highest regard for Joy. So I hope you will hear me out as one who has had significant interaction with Joy and would recommend her to a church without question.
I must however contest what she has shared with you. I have seen the email that she sent to you and there are gross factual errors in the document. I have been on the phone with the professor last night and this morning. He forwarded me the comments he sent to her regarding her first paper. He initial comment was this:
• “I learned some important things about the Romani people and their history. The moral intuitions that guided you in writing the paper are surely right. Your writing is marked by a compassionate, Christian spirit that is very attractive.”
Dr. Sands confirmed to me that he appreciates her work and believes it is good work.
The problem, however, is that it did not match the specific requirements of the assignment. The assignment was to write “a fifteen page formal research paper on some aspect of the thought of any of the theologians / philosophers / Bible scholars covered in the Livingston text.” The paper mentions Metz here and there throughout, but it does not engage substantively with Metz’s thought. This is a paper on the Holocaust, and while done well according to Sands, it did not engage Metz as a theologian. The course was a theology elective, not a history elective and Dr. Sands was clear that the focus of the paper was to be on the theology and writing of a particular theologian.
Dr. Hancock, I have seen the email that you forwarded to a Yahoo group, encouraging them to email the President of Baylor University in this regard. I am asking that you rescind that email. I can assure you, were this a matter of racism, I would personally intervene and bring the faculty member before our faculty ethics board. Having seen the paper, the course syllabus and having heard from both the student and faculty member, I am convinced that Joy has misunderstood the situation. I will speak with Joy again today to assure her that her views on the Romani people and the tragedy of the Holocaust is a matter of grave concern for us all.
Should you have additional questions, I would be happy to speak with you by phone.
Sincerely,
W. Dennis Tucker, Jr.
It was rather interesting for me to read the article. Thanx for it. I like such topics and everything connected to this matter. I definitely want to read more soon.
I am Joy Fattori-Hudson. My email was posted without my knowledge. I was naive about that. I can understand Dr. Hancock's reaction. I did not intend for it (not me) to accuse Dr. Paul Sands of academic misdemeanor . . . he did not grade my paper and that was the issue.
It was that one single action of not grading it that lead to all kind of conlusions being drawn (both myself and Dr. Hancock). I changed it and ommited most of the Romani References; but I feel he never intentionally meant to be hurtful to anyone or any peoples.
I did not know until Paul sent me the internet addresses where it had been discussed out there and in what format. In fact it had been discussed without my knowledge. There have been too many mistakes made and I am not arrogant enough to think I was not in some kind of error on this matter. So I apologise to Paul and to Baylor and my beloved Truett for any such upset caused. I also apologise to the Romani community for involving them in this situation which I had not intended.
But, I would ask that the Romany Holocaust not be ignored or hidden . . . it is too important. My grandmother and mother were Romanichals and I am one quarter Romani. If Hitler had made it to Britain I would not be alive today! I love my heritage it makes me brave and strong . . . but also tempered in compassion.
So let us all out there let go of this and accept that mistakes were made all around and that there was no intentionality for any of this to happen. Paul Sands is a fine teacher and I am sure will learn some valuable lessons as will I from this issue.
It is New Years Eve
Let 2010 be a year we all learn how to be more sensitive, more compassionate and more accepting of the differences. I will go ahead and modify the paper and get it published for all to enjoy and I am sure it will further the Romani Holocaust situation in doing so. I feel this will be both pleasing to Dr. Hancock, to my Romani roots, yet also pleasing to Dr. Sands and the Baylor community.
Let everyone have a blessed and joyous 2010.
Joy Fattori-Hudson
(and it IS ME posting this mail this time)
Thursday 31st December 2009
Dear Joy,
If this is true and you exaggerated this situation which is what I get from this, I hope you know how much trouble this caused and time that was wasted. Do you realize that? We are quick to support those who ask for it and we have never to date had to worry about being wrong and having someone come back and say, "sorry never mind it was my fault". We have never falsely accused someone of what we accused those at Baylor of doing because in most cases when people come to us it is true. This just looked bad for everyone!In the future before you make these kinds of accusations again, I would seriously think about it. Otherwise you are doing exactly the opposite of supporting our efforts as you are taking us away from real issues that deserve our support.
bravo ! madonna for standing up for gypsy they booed her at her concert she has seen the hate,discrimanation against gypsy,s she seen it ,heard it witness it as in every race their is good and bad why do ppl judge all gypsy,s by one gypsy,s crimanal act ? not all gypsy,s are the same it is very bad in europe for them were ever they go the are cast out of country,s degraded, dehumanized they still live in the holocust it never left them sadly to say here in the .u.s.a it,s not that bad why are the gypsy children being judge punished hated for ? baby,s that know nothing at all what is going on but know that they are hated for who are their parent,s for the blood that runs threw theyer veins they see how their parent,s family are treated these poor soul,s are god,s ppl also remember that god created them equal to the rest of the ppl their god,s children also not toxic i am third genaration born in the u.s.a my child is the fourth generation racist stopped against black,s and latino,s jew,s even the germans,were forgiven gypsy,s suffered threw the holocust and they continue to do so why ? i read about this subject watched video,s new,s never in my life i witness such hate for these ppl they are still judged,prosacuted,denied from the world degraded this will never stop the only race ihave known to still be discrimanated they will never be accepted in society never be given a chance their is a god he is watching and know,s what is happening remember they too were in the holacust and sufferd also they continue to do so their children also remember they were not involved in 9/11 but yet here in america we dont blame all the ppl that are the same race of the ppl who caused 9/11 or their children in fact police and ppl protect them stand up for them and say they did not kill all those ppl just cause their the same race we cant not blame them their innocent every race steal,s kills etc why single out these ppl
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