REPORTING FOR DUTY
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Dec
22
Video – Political Correctness Vs. Freedom Of Thought
December 22, 2008 | 55 Comments
FOUNDING BLOGGERS ORIGINAL VIDEO
Political Correctness Vs. Freedom Of Thought – The Keith John Sampson Story
For those of you that follow these things, you might remember the story of Keith John Sampson, the college student who was branded a racist by the PC police on his campus, for doing nothing more than silently reading a book on his work break.
Keith’s African American co-workers filed racial harassment charges against him after they saw him reading a book entitled “Notre Dame vs. The Klan”. It seems that they felt the images of the Klan on the cover of the book were racist, and that Keith was harassing them by reading the book in their presence.
Despite the fact that the book was an anti-Klan book (not that it should matter) IUPUI found him guilty of racial harassment, and instructed him not to read the offending book again!
A finding of racial harassment is no small matter. Once that is in a student-employee’s permanent record, it can follow them around forever. Even though Keith was completely exonerated of any wrong doing and the university apologized to him, that is small consolation considering a Google search of his name immediately returns links to this whole sordid mess. Certainly more than one of Keith’s future employers might take the time to perform a Google search. That should make for some interesting job interviews.
Over the last several months, I was lucky enough to meet with many of the main characters of this scholastic melodrama, and this video is the result of our conversations. Hopefully in some small way, this video will help repair the damage IUPUI has done to Keith John Sampson’s reputation, as well as raise awareness of this all too common phenomenon being reported on college campuses nation wide.
UPDATE
Thank you to the many bloggers who have linked here and/or embedded the video on their websites, giving Keith’s story a very large audience. I am overwhelmed with gratitude. There are too many to name, but I would like to mention a few specifically that have been especially generous with their pixels, Instapundit, Michelle Malkin, and Gateway Pundit. You continue to be my new media heroes and I am proud to play on the same playground where your sandbox resides.
Also, I want to thank the people who have written to make me aware of a typo in the video. I will fix it as soon as possible. That would be the blogosphere’s layers of fact checking in action.
Comments
55 Comments so far
[...] The video link is HERE. [...]
Excellent work. Thank you!
Whatever happened to the old saw, “Don’t judge a book by the cover?”
The damage to Mr. Sampson’s reputation has been significant. In my view a nice lawyer should step up and help him go after IUPUI. It would take a two hour long video to show the lengths that IUPUI went to damage his reputation nationwide.
Bugler: Thank You!
Man_in_tx: Good question.
Chuck: You are correct that it would take a much longer video to examine in detail all that they did to this guy. I think he should sue, but I am just a filmmaker and not a lawyer so what do I know.
[...] Watch this excellent video from Andrew Marcus covering one of the most outrageous examples of P.C. on campus of the year. Posted in: Education, Political Correctness Send to a Friend Printer Friendly comments (0) trackbacks (0) [...]
[...] Founding Bloggers via Michelle [...]
This whole episode is an outrage.
Please note that the passage from the Chancellor’s letter did not represent an apology. It was a non-apology apology: “the Chancellor was sorry for any trouble that the November letter caused him”. The Chancellor specifically did not apologize for the Affirmative Action Office’s handling of the complaint, its “investigation” and interview techniques, let alone its “finding” that the student harassed his co-workers. It was a CYA letter to Keith John Sampson issued in an effort to fend off a possible lawsuit. That in and of itself is a disgusting and cowardly act by the Chancellor that deserves rebuke.
[...] of IUPUI also supports the KKK, or so you would think watching this video. Don’t believe me? http://www.foundingbloggers.com/word…om-of-thought/ __________________ Have You Seen [...]
[...] PC-Irrsinn in den USA: Ein Student in Illinois wurde rassistischer Belästigung für schuldig befunden, weil er in Gegenwart eines schwarzen Kollegen ein Anti-Ku-Klux-Klan-Buch las! Inzwischen hat die Universität ihren irren Beschluss zurückgenommen – aber Suchmaschinen sind nicht vergesslich und die Verleumdung des Mannes wird ihn wohl ein Leben lang verfolgen! [...]
This is a First Amendment issue–
These policies have been instituted on all campuses…
A class action case is necessary – seek those students who have been assaulted by these PC speech policies-and bring it to the Federal level…Defend Amendment I…
[...] . . . can be distilled into one incident on one university campus, involving one fairly unassuming individual who came into contact with the ravenous powers of the FHer cancer and decided to resist. This is his story. [...]
IT WOULD SEEM THAT THIS NATION AND THE PEOPLE IN IT HAVE ALL GONE OFF THE DEEP END OF INJUSTICE .THE ONES WHO KEEP CRYING AND MOANING ARE THE ONES THAT ARE BIGOTS AND RACISTS IDIOTS. IF THEY ARE SO PC’D THEY SHOULD SHUT UP AND REALIZE THAT THEY ARE DESTROYING THE VERY SYSTEM THEY ARE APART OF . TO DESTROY ONE PERSON BECAUSE OF A BOOK TITLE IS SO WRONG. WHEN I FIRST READ HARRIET BECHER STOWE’ NOVEL UNCLE TOM’S CABIN AS A KID IT WAS NOT A RACIAL NOVEL AND I DIDN’T THINK OF IT AS ONE. I DID THINK OF THE TRAILS THAT THE PEOPLE IN THE BOOK WENT THROUGH BECAUSE OF SLAVERY,BUT WE AS A PEOPLE NEVER THOUGHT OF THE COLOR OF A PERSONS SKIN MADE HIM OR HER LESS AN AMERICAN. WHAT THESE PC CROWD HAS DONE IS TRY TO DIVIDE US AND HAVE INSTILLED THE IDEA IN THESE PEOPLE HEADS THEY ARE BETTER THAN WE ARE BECAUSE THEIR SKIN IS A DIFFERENT COLOR. THEY HAVE BEEN PROGRAMED BY THE DEMOCRATS AND THEIR LEADERS ,LIKE SHARPTON AND JESSE JACKSON AND THE NAACP TO TO BE THAT WAY ALL THE RIGHTS THEY HAVE, I HAVE AS AN AMERICAN. WE STAND UP FOR ANY VIOLATIONS OF THOSE RIGHTS OF ANY CITZEN OF THIS COUNTRY. THE ONES WHO HAVE NO RIGHTS AS AMERICANS ARE THE ILLEGALS THAT ARE HERE.WE NEEDS TO HAVE A UNITED FRONT TO GET THEM OUT .WHERE IS THE PC CROWD ON THAT ISSUE? THEY ARE MISSING.
When I used to be a food vendor, I told an African-American woman that I had a “food prejudice”, while talking about food. She understood me as saying I have a racial prejudice. In her little mind, the word prejudice had only one meaning and one context.
I hope this man sues the University. Out-of-control Aff-Act Nazis are deciding what we can read.
Shame on the Liberal Facists.
Maybe if we African Americans were able to educate ourselves well enough to READ the book instead of just looking at KKK on the cover and reacting with the “racism” catch phrase, we as a community may be able to move past the whole “slavery/KKK/race” card we throw around as if we were playing “52 pick up”.As long as we try to control the white community with non issues like this we ignore the fact they control us with what we see as racism. We need to give up crime,gang life,welfare and become productive members of society not parasites.
ricland
Not long ago ago I was in a tee shirt shop and a friend found a tee with the image of a black Cleopatra on it. I quietly commented that Cleopatra was not black but from Greek origin. An African American woman nearby suddenly and shrilly pronounced that not only was Cleopatra black but also Socrates and Aristotle had created Greek philosphy by traveling to Egypt ans stealing it from the ancient library of Alexandria! When I tried to counter the womans arguement, she continued at the top of her voice, accusing me of being a racist, blah blah, yada yada.
Thus my introduction to afro-centrist history.
I’ve since read all I can on the subject and counter these believers in class and on the street, whenever the opportunity occurs. NEVER have I done so without, in the end, being accused of racism, hatred and bigotry when they can’t support their belief system with facts. Luckily I have not had any problems with school officials but fellow students warn me it’s just a matter of time.
But Truth is Truth and I have the right to state my beliefs in any arena of debate. I don’t look for trouble but neither will I run from it. I defended the right of free speech in the U.S. Navy, I will continue to do so as a citizen and I urge all Americans to do the same.
And in the end, Ms. Watkins got a promotion… I guess the Office of Affirmative Action is effective after all… she should have been fired for abuse of her position and for being an idiot.
Talking about “stealing” philosophy is kind of interesting.
It apparently gets mixed up with stealing a color television. Once a television is stolen, it’s not in the place it was originally.
But when you “steal” a philosophy, you duplicate it and take the copy with you. It doesn’t disappear from its original location.
Not clear on the concept of “Steal”, I guess.
Did Fire not send a letter inquiring what disciplinary/training action would be taken against Ms Watkins? Furthermore, the ACLU shows it deals in colors. Sad. Thank you for the video.
[...] for reading an anti-klan book on his break from work at the Indianna University, Perdue. Video – Political Correctness Vs. Freedom Of Thought : Founding Bloggers The article was linked on Michell Malkin’s site and includes an imbedded video. Back in 1983, I [...]
[...] PC reaches another new low They just keep digging in the Pit of Stupidity don’t they? Deeper and deeper and…. [...]
I really appreciate seeing all the decent people here of all colors react to this outrageous PC nonsense.
Maybe we have to form a multi racial group AGAINST PC or something. It’s going to be the death of the country if sensible people don’t stick together !!
[...] VIDEO: Political correctness vs. freedom of thought. [...]
The Office of Affirmative Action. LBJ’s corpse needs to be exhumed and put on trial like Pope Formosus. A President can change history…for the worse.
The basic and fundemental issue here–and in all efforts to purge racism from society–is the purposeful refusal to engage in objective thought and discourse. Without that simple intellectual honesty, we are condemed to crimes like this. Racism is racism. And racism can be practiced by anyone who makes judgements and takes actions based on the race of any other person or group. Of course, what we have is an absurdist policy that only whites can be racist–or at least “charged” with racism. Educational leaders have been co-opted totally. THE PC mentality is endemic from grade school through the universities. The thought police are firmly in control–and are brain-washing the minds of the next generations (note the plural) as we speak. Pure intellectual lazyness that has morphed into thought control already.
Marguerite Watkins is the name of the person who harrassed Keith John Sampson for reading a book. She has received no punishment for her actions.
http://www.iupui.edu/~oeo/directory/watkins.html
“Maybe if we African Americans were able to educate ourselves well enough to READ the book…”
Sadly, no, because the motivation behind such complaints of racial harassment is NOT to fight racism but in fact to bully and humiliate, to demonstrate power and intimidate.
Its just a question of time when a university gets sued and losses a substantial sum in addition to having a lawsuit to revoke their non profit and charitable status.
Fix misspelling at 00:44
Professor not “Proffesor.”
Otherwise, great video, well done.
Crazy shit like this happens at IUPUI all the time. This should have been stopped at the illiterate staff worker jumping claiming being offended. It should have been explained to her that she is on a college campus were the 1st amendment is practiced.
After all that, Ms. Watkins gets a promotion from the Affirmative Action office to a position as the Assistant Director for the Office of Equal Opportunity? She should’ve been fired, not rewarded. She didn’t offer any ‘EQUAL RIGHTS’ to Mr. Sampson.
Sampson should have sued the school and Marguerite Watkins for ‘racial harassment’ and gotten her fired. She was in a position of authority, prejudged him and found him “guilty” of harassing that woman just because he is white.
Watkins, Marguerite
Assistant Director
Office of Equal Opportunity
Tel: (317) 274-2306
mhwatkin@iupui.edu
http://www.iupui.edu/~oeo/directory/watkins.html
[...] University punishes white man for OFFENDING illiterate black woman! Just typical. Affirmitive Action needs to be ended. Super video! The "Affirmative Action Office" of an Illinois University finds a white student guilty of "racial harassment" for reading an ANTI-KLAN book on school grounds. The black woman was "offended" by the cover-photo, which was of a Klan rally in the 1920’s. She cannot read, so she could not understand the book’s message, but the "Affirmative Action Office" upheld her complaint anyway! Watch and listen to the video. What are your thoughts on this? http://www.foundingbloggers.com/word…om-of-thought/ [...]
Not that I’m defending the actions of the university in any way, but I just had to point out that IUPUI is not exactly a “small” college campus as stated in the video. It has over 30,000 students. That makes it the 3rd largest campus in the state, after Indiana University in Bloomington and Purdue University in West Lafayette. In fact, it’s almost 4 times the size of Notre Dame.
In my opinion, the administration at that particular university is being run by assholes.
Strikes me that every person who applied for the position of Assistant Director and lost the job to the demonstrably incompetent Marguerite Watkins has grounds to sue. I’d like to see IUPUI defend that promotion in a legal setting.
[...] One of the groups, mentioned in the article was FIRE-which I came across today: Video – Political Correctness Vs. Freedom Of Thought : Founding Bloggers There’s video at this site, along with more commentary and a link to FIRE. __________________ [...]
[...] Video – Political Correctness Vs. Freedom Of Thought : Founding Bloggers For those of you that follow these things, you might remember the story of Keith John Sampson, the college student who was branded a racist by the PC police on his campus, for doing nothing more than silently reading a book on his work break. [...]
‘Whatever happened to the old saw, “Don’t judge a book by the cover?”’
Oprah happened to it, that’s what: She doesn’t judge a cover by the book.
I fired this off to Watkins and the Chancellor:
Let me get this straight. You brand Keith Johnson a ‘racist’ because the cover of the anti-racist book he was reading, which depicted the Klan, ‘offended’ you?
That college of yours owes Johnson more than a half-assed insincere apology.
Thanks to your unbelievable stupidity, he will likely be plagued by this as long as he is a student/employee at IUPUI.
The most shameful part is the fact that you were rewarded for your feckless behavior with a promotion.
The one advantage Keith Johnson has over you is his ability to read and the cognitive skills to understand what he reads.
This is what passes for ‘equality’ in academic intelligentsia; pettiness, intellectual sloth, and hysterical flinging of the race card.
BTW: With all the fuss over addressing black Americans as “African-Americans” you may address me in accordance with my ancestry, which is Irish-Scots-German-Cherokee.
I’m as ethnically hyphenated as you can get.
I thought the video was put together well from a technical standpoint. The editing of the different interviews was done smoothly. It was also important to have author Todd Tucker and F.I.R.E.’s Greg Lukianoff and Azhar Majeed state their views. It was a nice touch to include Prof. Gary Rosenberg of IUPUI.
I am disappointed, as I have been the past, that no officials from IUPUI would go on the record. Did someone gag the ignoramus aka Ms Watkins?
Barring court action I probably will never get to hear the idiotic motivations of my accusers placed on the record.
Also it would have been better to have had an actor like Robert Deniro or Al Pacino play the role of Sampson. Sampson just doesn’t come across as angry enough. Seriously does anyone know a good lawyer?
Much thanks to Andrew Marcus for his efforts in creating a video that could easily qualify as broadcast quality.
Peace to all in “09″
[...] first collected Added 29 Dec 08 from http://www.foundingbloggers.com Flag as inappropriate or [...]
now THAT’S a change I can believe in.
.
Great post on this very terrible story. This Lillian Charleston and Marguerite Watkins are racists and fascist wannabes, they’re certainly NOT worthy of being educators. They should have been fired without question, and sued. They are terrible and despicable human beings, who obviously hate white people. Racists to their core.
I also wonder if Sampson’s fellow janitor and accuser was also going to night school, and if not, was there jealousy that gave her just one more reason to ‘hate’ the white male janitor.
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absurd thought -
God of the Universe says
don’t read history books
that are against racism
or some racists might object
.
absurd thought -
God of the Universe says
ALL Whites are racist
people of other races
can never be racists
.
absurd thought -
God of the Universe says
only whites were slave traders
they only bought their slaves
from African slave traders
.
absurd thought -
God of the Universe says
PREACH racist sermons
you will always be excused
by some racist liberals
.
All real freedom starts with freedom of speech. Without freedom of speech there can be no real freedom.
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Philosophy of Liberty Cartoon
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Help Stop Terrorism Today!
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USpace
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Great post on this very terrible story. This Lillian Charleston and Marguerite Watkins are racists and fascist wannabes, they’re certainly NOT worthy of being educators. They should have been fired without question, and sued. They are terrible and despicable human beings, who obviously hate white people. Racists to their core.
I also wonder if Sampson’s fellow janitor and accuser was also going to night school, and if not, was there jealousy that gave her just one more reason to ‘hate’ the white male janitor.
.
absurd thought -
God of the Universe says
don’t read history books
that are against racism
or some racists might object
.
absurd thought -
God of the Universe says
ALL Whites are racist
people of other races
can never be racists
.
absurd thought -
God of the Universe says
only whites were slave traders
they only bought their slaves
from African slave traders
.
absurd thought -
God of the Universe says
PREACH racist sermons
you will always be excused
by some racist liberals
.
All real freedom starts with freedom of speech. Without freedom of speech there can be no real freedom.
.
[...] creeping return of totalitarianism An US university has provided another example of the increasing power-grab executed by the PC [...]
Michelle Malkin, of whom I used to be a fan, doesn’t have the moral authority to descry political correctness anymore.
Her calls to exclude Ron Paul from Republican debates was pure right-wing frat-girl PC.
In my most recent job as a senior administrative assistant to the CEO of a non-profit agency, I was “guilty” of making a racial slur when I made the comment, “that’s like the pot calling the kettle black”. I was forced to watch a one-hour video about racial harrassment, write an essay about my conduct, and had a mark on my personnel record. I resigned the next day with no notice.
[...] Tim Slagle, Big Hollywood: Mainstream Media: Only Conservatives Are Sore Losers Founding Bloggers: Video – Political Correctness Vs. Freedom Of Thought, The Keith John Sampson Story Dana Milbank, The Washington Post: Next Choler, Please; Why Is the Left So Angry? The Entreblog!: [...]
The funny part is that the black lady, who made the complaint, was illiterate. Is this lady taking remedial reading in collage? I heard that there is a remedial reading program for blacks at Harvard.
[...] Vs. Freedom Of Thought : Founding Bloggers Collected by nocompromise Dec 29, 2008 from http://www.foundingbloggers.com // Event.onDOMReady(function() { // sizeText($(’video_title’), 475); // }) collect this [...]
If someone gets offended by something I read, it’s on them, not my problem. You want to bring me up to some PC kangaroo court & tell me I offended by my reading a book, now there’s a problem.
I’m glad Mr. Sampson found people to help him. I probably would of walked into the court, flipped everyone off then started kicking people’s asses!
BTW the earlier post that said the 1st amendment mattered most, while all of the Bill of Rights are of most importance, the 2nd Amendment garuntees all the rest. Without the 2nd Amendment all the others are just words on paper.
As far as the AAO “judge” that was promoted, what else would/should you expect. Afterall, the man that was in charge @ Waco was, after gassing then frying the Branch Davidians, was promoted to the number 2 man in the FBI.
All the Davidians had a right to a trial & to be presumed innocent until proven guilty. The government did the same things the Nazis did to the jews! No one was even fired for that, muchless AG Reno should of been thrown under the jail not just in it!
This happened in 2008. It is now 2009. The black co-worker criticizes the man for reading a book without knowing all the facts. He ultimately is considered a racist. Today if anyone criticizes the plan(s) of the current administration in Washington DC, he/she is called a racist. Go Figure. Logic thinking is not available in certain people’s minds, rather they believe their emotional reactions are justified.