21 century catch 22

[ls317]

Affirmative action at IUPUI

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.

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

[BrotherBuzz]

1. Sounds like Sampson is surrounded by thick-headed, hair-triggered people

The book actually sounds great! Here's decent review that explains the story a bit better, something Sampson wasn't able to do:

In 1924 the Klu Klux Klan was the largest and most powerful organization in Indiana. It boasted 350,000 members, one out of every three white men in the state. Among the many groups hated by the Klan was the Catholic church, whom they hated and feared because they were seen an aliens in a Protestant America.

On May 17th, thousands of Klansmen converged on South Bend with the intention of terrorizing the students of Notre Dame. A riot developed between the Klan and the students with the students eventually gaining the upper hand. This was the climax of the Klan's existence.

Within little more than a year, D. C. Stephenson the head of the Klan in Indiana was convicted of murder. From prison he engineered the release of documents that detailed the close relationship the Klan had with various elected officials, many of whom wound up in prison. Within another year membership in the Klan had fallen to 15,000.

This book is well written, making the historical events come alive with his excellent characterizations of the key players and fast moving story.

[Karenina]

4. What part of "...DEFEATED the KKK"

do ya think the complainants missed? :shrug:

[Mojambo]

2. Unbelievable.

And on a college campus of all places.

Fucking idiots.

[Mythsaje]

3. The comments on the article are even more ignorant than the people who complained about the book...

After reading them I was overtaken with a sudden urge to take a bath.

On edit:

This was MY comment.

This story is remarkably sad, but even more sad are some of the comments in response to it. It's knee-jerk, reactionary responses to things that tend to cause misunderstandings all the way across the board.

Blaming it on "Political Correctness" when it's actually due to a basic failure to communicate, or willingness to communicate, on the part of the various people involved is to deliberately simplify a complex issue down to a reactionary "conservative" talking point.

People of color wouldn't be so sensitive about such things if not for the fact that allegedly "good, upstanding, Christian white folks" fought a running battle against anything approaching equality for African Americans for nigh on a Century AFTER the Civil War and even now stand in support of a "War on Drugs" that results in far more severe punishment for African Americans and members of other minorities than whites.

Was this a travesty? Hell, yeah. But to try to use this as some sort of example of knee-jerk liberalism is flat disgusting. What it's really about is individuals who are unwilling to communicate with other individuals, and the fact that one such person abused her authority on top of refusing to communicate.

Every single person involved except Mr. Sampson, by the sound of it, could use a lesson in compassion and civility towards a fellow human being. As could several of the respondants here, apparently.

We'd all be a heck of a lot better off if we stopped thinking of our fellow citizens as a member of a particular group and just accept them as another human being first. Then maybe people would stop being harmed by prejudice and irrational fear and hatred.