NOT THE SHARPEST KNIVES IN THE DRAWER: A Mind Is A Terrible Thing To Read
Columnist Kathleen Parker tells the astonishing tale of Keith John Sampson, a middle-aged man taking classes at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI), who also worked as a janitor at the school.
In his spare time, Sampson was reading “Notre Dame vs. the Klan: How the Fighting Irish Defeated the Ku Klux Klan,” the true story of a two-day street brawl in 1924 between Notre Dame students and Klansmen, “who had gathered in South Bend purposely to terrorize the university's Catholic students,” explains Parker, “during which the fighting Irish prevailed, and is recognized as a turning point in Klan history.” A co-worker was offended by the book’s cover, which included burning crosses and Klansmen in full regalia, resulting in Sampson’s being reprimanded by the shop steward who compared “reading a book about the Klan … to bringing pornography into the workplace,” reports Parker.
Apparently without having read the book herself, the school’s affirmative action officer Lillian Charleston then chastised Sampson in writing for using "extremely poor judgment by insisting on openly reading the book related to a historically and racially abhorrent subject in the presence of your black co-workers" and forbade him to read it in front of his co-workers. Parker takes specific issue with the Charleston’s contention Sampson should have known the book would have cause consternation amongst those who had not read it, merely because of its subject matter:
The letter … noted that by 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 not to read the book in the presence of his co-workers. …
But reasonable people also know how repugnant the KKK is to people of all races. Reasonable people also know that history is what it is. Reading about it isn't an incitement to riot or an endorsement of the bad guys.
When word of the university’s untenable position trickled out, Sampson received a second letter from the affirmative action office informing him that he would not be subject to disciplinary action because there was no evidence that he was intentionally “creating a hostile atmosphere of antagonism” by reading the book. As Parker notes: “To read is sublime; but to read a mind is tricky.”
Comments