Pointing out that a good school and a good education do not necessarily go hand in hand may amount to beating a dead horse these days. Still, The Scrapbook was taken aback by the uproar last week at -Indiana University (our alma mater), which may have achieved a new low in ungrounded social panic.
The Tab reports that, “around 9:15 p.m., social media became a furious storm of confusion regarding a man in white robes roaming along 10th St. and purportedly armed with a whip.” A resident assistant at one of the dorms notified students, “There has been a person reported walking around campus in a KKK outfit holding a whip. . . . Please PLEASE PLEASE be careful out there tonight, always be with someone and if you have no dire reason to be out of the building, I would recommend staying indoors if you’re alone.” He asked students who felt unsafe to contact him.
The Scrapbook wonders what exactly the RA thought the supposed Klansman was going to do that necessitated an effective soft lockdown of the dorm. Admittedly, the state of Indiana had a sordid episode with the Klan, but that was in the 1920s. Indeed, about a decade ago, IU was the center of controversy when some students lobbied to have a historic Thomas Hart Benton mural removed from a classroom building because of its depiction of KKK members burning a cross—never mind that Benton was celebrating the triumph of crusading journalists who had helped destroy that iteration of the Klan.
Perhaps if students had a greater appreciation of Benton’s mural, they might have been in a position to identify actual KKK regalia. After all, not all who wander are lost, and not all who wear white robes are Klansmen in sheets. Some, it turns out, are Roman Catholic priests.
In the clear light of morning, it was discovered that the ominous figure in robes was in fact Father Jude McPeak, a Dominican friar, who has been ministering in Bloomington for two years. In fact, on the night of the incident, he was walking to a local frozen yogurt shop with a group of students after leading a men’s group. The supposed whip in his hand was, in fact, his rosary beads.
Father Jude was a good sport about the entire misunderstanding. “I thought it was kind of funny,” he said. “A lot of my friends have been teasing me. It’s been humbling.” Let’s hope those who sowed the panic are humbled as well.
