I’m not sure how I managed to miss this story when it first broke, but I’m glad it’s kept kicking around long enough for me to find it. It’s another abso-bloomin’-lutely perfect example of the injustices that arrogant, inattentive, perhaps even stupid bureaucrats can do to people. Unlike most others, however, this one doesn’t involve governmental bureaucracy at all. The culprits in this case were from two organizations—a university and a labor union, both of which really ought to have known better.

Keith John Sampson is a Communications senior at Indiana University/Purdue University-Indianapolis. He’s also a janitor there, and as an employee is a member of AFSCME, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, which is one of the largest labor unions in the country.

Mr. Sampson was seen reading a book in a break room at the university titled Notre Dame vs. the Klan: How the Fighting Irish Defeated the Ku Klux Klan, by Todd Tucker which was published in 1924. It told the story of how Roman Catholic students at Notre Dame University stood up to the KKK, deprived them of their hoods and robes and ran them out of town. Someone saw “KKK” in the title and jumped to the conclusion that Mr. Sampson was a supporter of the KKK, and filed a complaint against him with his university’s Affirmative Action Office, alleging that his reading the book in the break room constituted racial harassment.

I’ll let Mr. Sampson tell the next part of his story, as it ran in the New York Post:

They didn’t want to hear the truth. The office ruled that my “repeatedly reading the book . . . constitutes racial harassment in that you demonstrated disdain and insensitivity to your co-workers.”

…the $106,000-a-year affirmative-action officer who declared me guilty of “racial harassment” never spoke to me or examined the book. My own union – the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees – sent an obtuse shop steward to stifle my freedom to read. He told me, “You could be fired,” that reading the book was “like bringing pornography to work.”

Sampson relied on the press and the help of the ACLU and the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE). Eventually his university reversed their position, and, with much egg on their faces, issued statements about the university’s commitment to the principles of freedom in educational inquiry, and regret over the censorious incident. Neither the NY Post story or others I found online mentioned any expression of regret by AFSCME for their role in the mess.

Many things about Sampson’s ordeal rang bells as features common to so many bureaucratic abuses. I’ll list a few here and elaborate another time.

• “Unchecked power” of bureaucrats
• Bureaucrats who, by neglect or outright refusal, failed to read pertinent documents
• As above also in their failure to talk with Sampson
• Sampson’s having to rely on the press and outside help to clear himself

As for that last, there are many, many people who have no hope of press coverage or outside help. More on that another time.

Peace.

Deborah Alicen