Mick Hartley

Affirmative action in, um, action, at Indiana University-Purdue University, Indianapolis, as someone is caught reading a book about the KKK:

The current controversy began last fall when Keith John Sampson, a student and university employee in his 50s, was reading Tucker’s book during a break from his janitorial duties.

Wrong place, wrong time, wrong book.

On the basis of the cover alone, a co-worker sitting across from Sampson complained that the book was offensive. The cover shows the Notre Dame dome and two burning crosses amid a crowd of robed and hooded Klansmen.

The pages inside tell the story of a 1924 street fight between Notre Dame students and Klansmen, who had gathered in South Bend purposely to terrorize the university’s Catholic students. The clash lasted two days, during which the fighting Irish prevailed, and is recognized as a turning point in Klan history.

But never mind. The co-worker apparently wasn’t interested in the content. The cover art was deemed traumatizing enough to prompt the shop steward to reprimand Sampson, saying that reading a book about the Klan was comparable to bringing pornography into the workplace.

A few weeks later, Sampson heard from the school’s affirmative action office that a racial harassment complaint had been filed against him. In a November 2007 letter, affirmative action officer Lillian Charleston told Sampson that he demonstrated “disdain and insensitivity” to his co-workers.

“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 co-workers.”

The letter also 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.

Some people seem to get offended very easily. Then again I suppose it’s understandable: the last thing you want at a university is to come across someone reading about bits of history where unpleasant things happened.

Stiil, there’s a happy ending:

Following a few weeks of relatively quiet controversy, a smattering of media reports and chatter in the blogosphere, Sampson received another letter from the affirmative action office saying that no determination could be made as to whether his reading choice was intentionally hostile. Therefore, no disciplinary action would be taken.