How dare you read that book!
March 6, 2008 by Abhishek
Keith Sampson, a university employee and student, has been charged with racial harassment for reading a book called “Notre Dame vs. the Klan: How the Fighting Irish Defeated the Ku Klux Klan” during his work breaks. Apparently, the mere presence of the word Ku Klux Klan offended a co-worker, despite the fact that the book is in fact about opposition to the Klan. The school’s Affirmative Action Office agreed. In a letter to Sampson, they accused him of “disdain and insensitivity” and ordered him to stop reading that book in the presence of co-workers.
Sigh…
Update: The affirmative action office has (following the uproar?) issued a new letter to Sampson, effectively canceling its previous order and making a complete retreat from its earlier position.
–
Also read:
Don’t Glock in school.
Did you use the word?
Political correctness bordering on the insane. If the co-worker is so offended, he should probably look for another job. Unless every law is defined on the basis of coercion, things are only going to get worse in the future.
Its the same thing everywhere - affirmative action, quotas - children being punished for the acts of their father. Justice? What does that mean?
I have updated the post above following new developments: the affirmative action office has made a complete retreat from its previous position. Yay!
But yes, it is extremely depressing that so many laws take away individual freedom in the name of ‘justice’ or ‘fairness’. The silver lining is the presence of several organizations that fight for freedom and raise public opinion against such laws, litigate to prevent coercive actions by the government, or just talk about libertarianism in general. Maybe we will see a better day!
http://www.reason.com
http://www.ij.org
http://www.cato-at-liberty.org
http://www.fff.org
Protected minorities are so used to hootin’ and hollerin’ and raising a stink everytime their feelings are hurt, and the affirmative action monitors are so used to jumping when they say jump, that there is absolutely no restraint among these people once they realize they can have a little fun at the expense of a decent white man.
It does not read like a retreat. Sounds more like an muted warning, as some people on the site you have previously linked to say.
Justice is not an unambiguous term. You only make it ambiguous when you concede to stupid demands which unfortunately wear legal armour. The coworker had a choice. Even if Keith Sampson were racist (he is definitely not from what I have read), the co-worker could have simply ignored his reading of the book. Or could have moved on to another job. Forcing Keith to stop reading a book because he didn’t like it shows that he is either ignorant or conceited.
I don’t support any law, banning hate crimes or otherwise, that punishes non-coercive actions. If Keith Sampson had beat up the co-worker, or had threatened him, or done something similar, then I can understand the university taking action or even the police coming into the picture. But that is hardly the case. Who would have thought reading a book can brand you as a bigot. Maybe Keith should move on instead of working in a university that supports such nonsense.
I hope there are enough sensible people on both sides of the colour divide who understand the immense damage such incidents can cause to the idea of freedom. For if there aren’t, this will move on to other countries as it already has in many cases. What America does today, the world will most probably do tomorrow.
And giving preference to minority demands instead of treating everyone at the same level will mean that we will have to continue playing the stupid game of mirror mirror on the wall, who is the smallest minority of them all. For those who don’t know the answer to that question, the smallest minority of them all is - the individual.
Aristotle: The reason I called it a ‘retreat’ is that compared to their earlier position, it is.
I completely agree with your other remarks.
[...] 2, 2008 by Abhishek A couple of months ago, I blogged about the Keith Sampson case. The Volokh Conspiracy has an update about the [...]