Indiana

CATCH 22

By Abdul Hakim-Shabazz

There’s not much I agree with when it comes to NUVO columnist Dave Hoppe, but in his column this week he hits the nail on the head.  He writes about an IUPUI employee who got in trouble for reading a book about the KKK while on break. 

He wasn’t reading ”Klan for Dummies” or The KKK in 3 Easy Steps”, but “Notre Dame vs. the Klan: How the Fighting Irish Defeated the Ku Klux Klan” According to Hoppe, Keith John Sampson, the employee, was notified by IUPUI’s Aafirmative Action office that he was being investigated for racially harrassing his fellow employees.

Yes, Sampson was accused of racially harrassing his fellow employees for reading a book about how Catholic students in 1924 took on the KKK.  And the sad part is when he tried to explain to his fellow employees and the school no one would listen to him.  Sampson was told to either not bring the book to the campus or read the book away from his fellow employees.  By the way, he got the book from the library.

I honestly don’t know which is more ridiculous.   Someone complaining or the University officials who launched an investigation over a book that none of them read.

You would think that reading would be promoted at an institution of higher learning;  obviously it has become a lost art along with a few other things on campus.

Full post as published by Indiana Barrister on February 29, 2008 (boomark / email).