This is embarrassing…
Indiana University students mistook a Dominican Monk wielding a rosary for a klansman with a whip. This wily foe was up to no good at Red Mango — the frozen yogurt joint.
Twitter was abuzz with reports of a weapon-bearing klansman terrorizing campus.
According the The Tab, who first reported the story, a campus Resident Advisor cleared up with misunderstanding for the ignorant masses:
“Behold, your ‘klansmember….’“This is what happens when there is miscommunication. So what happened tonight goes like this: a person saw white robes and what looked to them like a weapon, got scared (rightfully so), warned people, warned staff, which in turn caused me to warn my residents because I need to look out for my residents, which in turn made it spread.“Then my residents, terrified, come running to me, saying yeah the report must be true, they saw him and couldn‘t believe there was a klansmember with a whip. And I see this picture. It’s a priest. With a rosary. “Now, I get it why a person would be scared. There in fact HAVE been klansmembers on the campus spurting hate speech, but never have they been reported with a weapon. So yeah, if it was in fact a weapon and a threat, it’s a good thing to warn a friend. So when someone warns other people, we need to be cautious. However, what I’ve learned from this is to take anything with a grain of salt. In the future, I’m still sending my residents warnings of threats, crime, hate gatherings, and all that but I will wait for a confirmation. But now that there is no danger I can say: this is a hilarious miscommunication.”
The Tab caught up with Father Jude McPeak, the klansman Dominican friar in question who said, “I thought it was kind of funny, a lot of my friends have been teasing me. It’s been humbling.” And no, he does not hate black people.
New education efforts are underway to prevent further confusion.
At least this student gets it:
Follow Kemberlee on Twitter @kemberleekaye
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