Reading the "Wrong" Book

In a mind-boggling instance of political correctness run amok, the Affirmative Action Office at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis has warned a janitor at the school, Mr. Keith John Sampson, not to read a particular book in front of certain coworkers. Indianapolis's alternative weekly, Nuvo, explains how this Orwellian situation arose:

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.

[...]

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.

(Emphasis added-DD)


Unfortunately, this bizarre inability to distinguish between studying the Klan and supporting the Klan would lead to an affirmative action complaint being filed against Mr. Sampson. Please read the rest, including an update, by clicking here.

(Link courtesy of Say Anything, via Pajamas Media)