Reading a book can now be harrassment

[Rearden]

Keith John Sampson never thought he could get in trouble for reading a book, especially not on a college campus. But that’s what happened. Sampson is a man in his early 50s. He does janitorial work for the campus facility services at IUPUI, where he’s been gradually accumulating credits for a degree in communications studies. He has 10 credit hours to go.

“Being on that campus has really been an experience for me,” Sampson told me not long ago. It’s an experience that got a lot more complicated last year.

Sampson is an avid reader. It’s been his habit to bring books to work with him, so that he can read in the break room when he’s not on the clock. Last year, Sampson was working in IUPUI’s Medical Science building. It turns out the break room there is across from the morgue, which, as Sampson pointed out, is kind of ironic when you stop to think about it.

At the time, Sampson was reading a book he had checked out from the public library. Notre Dame vs. the Klan: How the Fighting Irish Defeated the Ku Klux Klan, published in 2004, features a photograph of the University of Notre Dame’s famous golden dome on the cover. Its author is Todd Tucker, the publisher is Loyola Press of Loyola University in Chicago.

The book is about how for two days in May 1924, a group of Notre Dame students got into a street fight with members of the Ku Klux Klan. The Klan was meeting in South Bend for the express purpose of sticking a collective thumb in the eye of the country’s most famous Catholic university. Notre Dame vs. the Klan was a Notre Dame Magazine “Pick of the Week” and garnered an average customer review of 4.5 stars on Amazon.com. In its review, The Indiana Magazine of History noted that Tucker “succeeds in placing the event in a broad framework that includes the origins and development of both the Klan and Notre Dame.”

Sampson recalls that his AFSCME shop steward told him that reading a book about the Klan was like bringing pornography to work. The shop steward wasn’t interested in hearing what the book was actually about. Another time, a coworker who was sitting across the table from Sampson in the break room commented that she found the Klan offensive. Sampson says he tried to tell her about the book, but she wasn’t interested in talking about it.

A few weeks passed. Then Sampson got a message ordering him to report to Marguerite Watkins at the IUPUI Affirmative Action Office. He was told a coworker had filed a racial harassment complaint against him for reading Notre Dame vs. the Klan in the break room. Sampson says he tried to explain to Watkins what the book was about. He says he tried to show her the book, but that Watkins showed no interest in seeing it.

Then Sampson received a letter, dated Nov. 25, 2007, from Lillian Charleston, also of IUPUI’s Affirmative Action Office. The letter begins by saying that the AAO has completed its investigation of a coworker’s allegation that Sampson “racially harassed her by repeatedly reading the book Notre Dame vs. the Klan: How the Fighting Irish Defeated the Ku Klux Klan by Todd Tucker in the presence of Black employees.” It goes on to say, “You demonstrated disdain and insensitivity to your coworkers who repeatedly requested that you refrain from reading the book which has such an inflammatory and offensive topic in their presence … you used extremely poor judgment by insisting on openly reading the book related to a historically and racially abhorrent subject in the presence of your Black coworkers.” Charleston went on to say that according to “the legal ‘reasonable person standard,’ a majority of adults are aware of and understand how repugnant the KKK is to African-Americans …”

Sampson was ordered to stop reading the book in the immediate presence of his coworkers and, when reading the book, to sit apart from them.

“I feel like I’ve been caught up in a 21st century version of catch-22,” says Sampson, who has never been given the opportunity to officially face any of his accusers. When I tried calling the Affirmative Action Office, I was told their policy is to never speak to the media.

But, Sampson says, this episode could be an opportunity. He would welcome the chance to participate in a moderated forum that might use his experience for a larger discussion dealing with intellectual freedom on the IUPUI campus.

That’s a good idea. For Sampson’s sake, I hope ideas still count at IUPUI.

http://www.nuvo.net/articles/21st_century_catch22/

[p911dad]

That is not a tough one to answer. Sampson is an idiot. The KKK is an abhorent memory and to couch this as an intellectual freedom issue by a janitor is also idiotic. The KKK is a hate based organization. There is no intellectual issue here, this is a hate issue and you know it. What's up, doc?

[varmint]

Originally Posted by gmeteer

That is not a tough one to answer. Sampson is an idiot. The KKK is an abhorent memory and to couch this as an intellectual freedom issue by a janitor is also idiotic. The KKK is a hate based organization. There is no intellectual issue here, this is a hate issue and you know it. What's up, doc?

i think you need to read the post again. the book told the story of some notre dame students who fought against the klan.

[Gogar]

You typed KKK. You insensitive, racist, scum.

[island_dude]

This is the sort of non-thinking that goes on a lot these days. Decisions are arrived at with bothering to find out what the facts are. We seen a lot of this in the schools when it comes to judging student conduct without putting actions in to context. (e.g. The preschooler being charged with sexual harassment for placing his head in a teachers aide's chest.)

[billh1963]

Originally Posted by gmeteer

That is not a tough one to answer. Sampson is an idiot. The KKK is an abhorent memory and to couch this as an intellectual freedom issue by a janitor is also idiotic. The KKK is a hate based organization. There is no intellectual issue here, this is a hate issue and you know it. What's up, doc?

The book is clearly about fighting back against the Klan and should be celebrated. We have allowed political correctness to run amok.

The old saying of, "those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it" is true. I guess if we don't read or talk about issues they will all go away.

If everyone thinks like this then we truly are doomed.

[Joeaksa]

Originally Posted by billh1963

The book is clearly about fighting back against the Klan and should be celebrated. We have allowed political correctness to run amok.

The old saying of, "those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it" is true. I guess if we don't read or talk about issues they will all go away.

If everyone thinks like this then we truly are doomed.

Totally agree and I would fight this one. Just about everyone involved, except the student, needs to be disiplined as this is PC gone wild.

Suppose next they are going to try to control thought? Now they do not want you to read about anything, so thinking is next ?

[mikester]

Would a book about WWII be treated the same way? We fought against Hitler who had ideals that are similar to the KKK.

[notfarnow]

Originally Posted by mikester

Would a book about WWII be treated the same way? We fought against Hitler who had ideals that are similar to the KKK.

exactly!

FWIW, my car is German, and worse yet it has a KKK turbocharger. I can't sleep at night

[Mule]

Originally Posted by gmeteer

That is not a tough one to answer. Sampson is an idiot. The KKK is an abhorent memory and to couch this as an intellectual freedom issue by a janitor is also idiotic. The KKK is a hate based organization. There is no intellectual issue here, this is a hate issue and you know it. What's up, doc?

You are as typical as it gets. Your PC mindset means that you don't have to deal with the facts or even think at all. It's all about how you FEEL!

[dtw]

Originally Posted by gmeteer

That is not a tough one to answer. Sampson is an idiot. The KKK is an abhorent memory and to couch this as an intellectual freedom issue by a janitor is also idiotic. The KKK is a hate based organization. There is no intellectual issue here, this is a hate issue and you know it. What's up, doc?

So if a PhD student had been reading it, that would have been ok?

No, you're right though. While your sense of guilt is running completely roughshod over your intellect, please send Wayne an email to make "KKK" a banned/censored word on the BBS. We wouldn't want anyone getting offended in a turbocharger discussion.

GAFB.

[Rikao4]

Most likely his co-worker can't read that well.
Rika

[masraum]

Originally Posted by gmeteer

That is not a tough one to answer. Sampson is an idiot. The KKK is an abhorent memory and to couch this as an intellectual freedom issue by a janitor is also idiotic. The KKK is a hate based organization. There is no intellectual issue here, this is a hate issue and you know it. What's up, doc?

I hope this was supposed to be sarcastic and the rest of us just didn't realize.

[ckissick]

Originally Posted by gmeteer

That is not a tough one to answer. Sampson is an idiot. The KKK is an abhorent memory and to couch this as an intellectual freedom issue by a janitor is also idiotic. The KKK is a hate based organization. There is no intellectual issue here, this is a hate issue and you know it. What's up, doc?

But Notre Dame kicked their collective arse. That's a good thing, no?

Should we ban books describing how we defeated Hitler?

[Jeff Higgins]

Originally Posted by gmeteer

That is not a tough one to answer. Sampson is an idiot. The KKK is an abhorent memory and to couch this as an intellectual freedom issue by a janitor is also idiotic. The KKK is a hate based organization. There is no intellectual issue here, this is a hate issue and you know it. What's up, doc?

This is either:

A) One of the funnier little bits of sarcasm I've read on this BBS in awhile.

or

B) One of the most utterly moronic posts I have ever read on this BBS.

Would you mind terribly, clearing this up for us? Seems you have left a number of us confused.

[onewhippedpuppy]

Put me down as also curious. I know we live in a hand-wringing, limp-wristed PC society, but I sincerely hope that the comment was sarcastic. Remember all, subtle sarcasm = green text!

[Hawktel]

A book, its like Kryptonite you know.

Don't blame me, I'm just quoting Chris Rock.

[legion]

Originally Posted by gmeteer

That is not a tough one to answer. Sampson is an idiot. The KKK is an abhorent memory and to couch this as an intellectual freedom issue by a janitor is also idiotic. The KKK is a hate based organization. There is no intellectual issue here, this is a hate issue and you know it. What's up, doc?

I so hope you forgot the green text.

Otherwise, you are no better than the brainless, PC Affirmitive Action Office mentioned above.

Jumping to conclusions without examining the facts is never a good thing...

[esample]

I think we could all agree that, at the least, Sampson was insensitive. How long does it take to read a book? He could have honored the wishes of those around him and finished it at home before bed, or in the john.

Because you have the right to a thing doesn't necessarily make it the right thing to do. Courtesy is never wrong.

-e.

[kstar]

Originally Posted by esample

I think we could all agree that, at the least, Sampson was insensitive. How long does it take to read a book? He could have honored the wishes of those around him and finished it at home before bed, or in the john.

Because you have the right to a thing doesn't necessarily make it the right thing to do. Courtesy is never wrong.

-e.

Oh my.

Best,

Kurt