By Warner Todd Huston ——Bio and Archives--March 18, 2008
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Notre Dame vs. the Klan: How the Fighting Irish Defeated the Ku Klux Klan, published in 2004, features a photograph of the University of Notre Dame’s famous golden dome on the cover. Its author is Todd Tucker, the publisher is Loyola Press of Loyola University in Chicago. The book is about how for two days in May 1924, a group of Notre Dame students got into a street fight with members of the Ku Klux Klan. The Klan was meeting in South Bend for the express purpose of sticking a collective thumb in the eye of the country’s most famous Catholic university. Notre Dame vs. the Klan was a Notre Dame Magazine “Pick of the Week” and garnered an average customer review of 4.5 stars on Amazon.com. In its review, The Indiana Magazine of History noted that Tucker “succeeds in placing the event in a broad framework that includes the origins and development of both the Klan and Notre Dame.”You'd be excused if you were to cock your head and wonder if you had misunderstood the whole deal, here. Yes, Mr. Sampson's book IS about how some brave students stood up against the KKK in 1924. And yes there is not a thing “racist” about it. Yet, Mr. Sampson was attacked by the race baiters at IUPUI over this quite innocuous book, anyway. As Nuv reports:
Then Sampson received a letter, dated Nov. 25, 2007, from Lillian Charleston, also of IUPUI’s Affirmative Action Office. The letter begins by saying that the AAO has completed its investigation of a coworker’s allegation that Sampson “racially harassed her by repeatedly reading the book Notre Dame vs. the Klan: How the Fighting Irish Defeated the Ku Klux Klan by Todd Tucker in the presence of Black employees.” It goes on to say, “You demonstrated disdain and insensitivity to your coworkers who repeatedly requested that you refrain from reading the book which has such an inflammatory and offensive topic in their presence … 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 coworkers.” Charleston went on to say that according to “the legal ‘reasonable person standard,’ a majority of adults are aware of and understand how repugnant the KKK is to African-Americans …”This is a stupid overreaction by the easily outraged fools at the IUPUI, for sure. Sampson was not only ordered to stop reading the book when “in the immediate presence of his coworkers,” but the officious authorities went on to tell him to segregate himself if he insisted on reading it. For his part, Mr. Sampson is at a loss as to what to say about all this foolishness. “I feel like I’ve been caught up in a 21st century version of catch-22,” Sampson said. Worse he has never had a chance to face his accusers or attempt to explain himself. And the university toughs wouldn’t talk to the paper that broke the story, either. Sampson is taking this philosophically, to his credit. But, Sampson says, this episode could be an opportunity. He would welcome the chance to participate in a moderated forum that might use his experience for a larger discussion dealing with intellectual freedom on the IUPUI campus. I’d warn him of the den of lions he is about to innocently blunder into, however. American Universities are not places of honest dialog and debate. Let’s hope he is wearing some stiff armor should such a faux “moderated forum” be summoned. Far from a “forum,” Mr. Sampson could more likely expect to find a kangaroo court. In any case, this is another perfect example of the PC, hatemongers who are cruising the halls of our Universities like ravenous sharks looking for reasons to be outraged to justify their wasted money for programs like “wymin’s studies,” “gay studies,” “ethnic studies,” and foolish, unnecessary appendages like the ‘Affirmative Action Office.”
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Warner Todd Huston’s thoughtful commentary, sometimes irreverent often historically based, is featured on many websites such as Breitbart.com, among many, many others. He has also written for several history magazines, has appeared on numerous TV and radio shows.
He is also the owner and operator of Publius’ Forum.