The bookstore chain Barnes and Noble issued a rather belated apology to Dr. Omar Amin, 73, of Scottsdale, after he was thrown out of a children’s book section in Arizona. He was told that men are not allowed to be in the children’s section unless they are accompanied by a minor. That’s right. He was told that as a man he was viewed as a danger if reading alone in the section.
Amin was shopping for books for his grandchildren at his neighborhood bookstore when a female customer complained that a man was seen reading alone in the section. Barnes & Noble employee Todd Voris reported explained that men are viewed as potential child abusers if they are alone in the section.
What is fascinating is that the company responded to the incident by publicly supporting the decision to throw Amin out — insisting that Voris “acted appropriately.” What followed was days of criticism of the company.
Finally, yesterday the company did a complete 180 turn and denounced the decision as wrong and unacceptable. Now, Barnes & Noble vice president Mark Bottini maintains that “[i]t is not our policy to ask customers to leave any section of our stores without justification. We value Dr. Amin as a customer and look forward to welcoming him in any of our stores.”
Once again, I am amazed by the ineptitude of major corporations in such controversies. The company had to have deliberated on the first response and decision to embrace the policy. Then it abandoned that position and denounced the very act that it previously called appropriate.
There is something perverse in our society that the image of an elderly man reading in a children’s section is enough to send a woman to the front desk to report a suspected child molester.
Source: Daily Mail
As to the female do-gooder who complained:
“..but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without
end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.” thus “all the ill she does, she does without realizing it.”
(C. S. Lewis & Diane Setterfield)
BigFatMike,
Major Stupidity on the part of the bookstore and of course…
The issue that hasn’t emerged yet is the fact that the emphasis on protecting kids from “dirty old men” is totally misplaced. The most common child molestation case occurs within the family and if the child’s mother gets riled up about it she is punished and if the kid gets riled up about it he’s likely to get his whole life messed up by the government agencies set up to protect him — and all at taxpayer expense!
THe “dirty old men” are the scapegoats for a society that really does NOT protect kids yet wants to be thought of differently. “Stranger Danger” is miniscule in comparison to the real problem of incest within the coercive family with litigious abusers on board, together with the “expert mill” and the lawyers’ unnatural influence on our society.
An old man should be allowed to read books and buy books anywhere he wants. Old men who LIKE picture books should be unmolested [proper use of the term] while reading or browsing them. How DARE it be otherwise?
“Also–WE WILL NOT SHOP IN BARNES AND NOBLES EVER- I can buy the children’s books at Lakeshore learning–or order them over the internet. Imagine–this guy Amin lives in a very expensive area-Scottsdale, AriZOna-a retired Dr. and he is getting the BS because he is a man. The female customer who complained is retarded and Barnes and Nobles is bigoted. They have ;lost my business.”
So I am absolutely not defending Barnes and Noble here in their original behavior.
I think it’s silly to boycott BN over this due to the poor training or poor response of one employee and one BN PR representative. IF there is evidence that BN has a pattern of misogyny that would be one thing, boycott on the basis of someone honest mistake and continue that boycott after they have sought to correct that mistake — that’s silly.
The other day at a convention an ASUS employee tweeted a picture of the rear of their new computer and the rear of a model holding it, and tweeted, ““The rear looks pretty. So does the new Transformer AIO.””
http://www.inquisitr.com/247719/asus-nice-rear-tweet-sexist-some-say-no/
And immediately idiot feminists started tweeting this all around social media and people were calling for a boycott of ASUS.
Nevermind that people have been selling goods with sex for 1000s of years, and even if that particular tweet hadn’t been made, ASUS was still selling their new computer with a model with a nice ass.
Nevermind that had it been a man holding the computer and a women in had tweeted the exact same tweet, all that would’ve been heard were “Yo go grrrl”.
One tweet said ““So the official @Asus account wins the award for “most misogynistic PR tweet of 2012.””
So when tweeting a picture of some booth babe’s nice ass hits the record books as most misogynistic anything, the world is a pretty fucking good place.
Boycotting ASUS over one sexist tweet is silly.
So is boycotting BN over one employee’s poor response and BN’s support f that.
Other than allowing you to go on yet another pointless, ill-informed rant can you explain what “political correctness” has to do with this story?
And, for the record, political correctness got started when the niggers, chinks, kikes, WOPS, pollaks towel heads, red niggers, mackerel snappers, krutes, slopes, spics, micks, beaners and others asked to be addressed with a bit more common decency than they had been afford in earlier times.
I understand for some of you thats asking way too much and is a huge imposition on your daily life. So much so that you are constantly on the look out for an excuse to whine about it.
“Once again, I am amazed by the ineptitude of major corporations in such controversies. The company had to have deliberated on the first response and decision to embrace the policy. Then it abandoned that position and denounced the very act that it previously called appropriate.
There is something perverse in our society that the image of an elderly man reading in a children’s section is enough to send a woman to the front desk to report a suspected child molester.”
———————————————-
yup.
and yet these entities are afforded extra protections by the courts, by scotus, by banks and the legislatures….even as they agress, oppress, attack and undermine the very populace that makes their existance possible….
Marilyn, “this guy Amin lives in a very expensive area-Scottsdale, AriZOna-a retired Dr. ”
What does this have to do with it? Is he less likely to be a pedophile than someone who lives in a middle or low income area and retired from another profession?
I hope the store gave him a very nice gift card. Not that he has to use it. hmmmm, that keeps the money with them whether he uses it or not. Maybe they should also give him the money and an invitation to come back.
Barnes & Noble. Sells books. Expects deference for being a proponent of free expression. Better than the ice cream store next door. Boycott them.
Go in and ask where the bookstore is in town that has a children’s section that will allow an old fart to browse the book shelf for a book for grandkid without fear of arrest. Then leave in a huff.
Dumbschmucks dont know that the pedophiles have on black outfits with white collars and are frantically searching the religious texts for paths of redemption. Jeso Barnes & Noble Prize folks keep the priests out of the children’s section too!
marilyn grashow
I am a retired teacher and my husband is a retired accountant. Every time we pass a Barnes aNd Nobles on route 437 in NJ on the way home from a farm where we buy grass fed meat, we stop to get our grandson a couple of Dr. Suess books–we look around the children’s section extensively as that particular Barnes and Noble is quite well stocked with great books ANd games for kids. I usually leave my husband there alone to use the ladies room and also to pick up a cappaccino at the Starbucks that is in the store.
Dr. Amin was way too nice. If that had happened to my husband when I left him alone, I would have immediately called the police and have had the store manager arrested for violating his civil rights. I would have filed a police report/complaint. I would definately have filed a law suit against Barnes and Nobles for violation of civil rights, constitutional rights, and besmirching his character in public, and I would have had a lawyer find some legal thing to say basically expressing the stupidity of Barnes and Nobles. I would also have gotten the name of the female customer who complained about my husband’s presence and filed a law suite and police complaint against her. I think that parents are responsible for watching there children in public places. The public in general cannot decide against gender, race, or age etc. in such a ridiculous manner.
Also–WE WILL NOT SHOP IN BARNES AND NOBLES EVER- I can buy the children’s books at Lakeshore learning–or order them over the internet. Imagine–this guy Amin lives in a very expensive area-Scottsdale, AriZOna-a retired Dr. and he is getting the BS because he is a man. The female customer who complained is retarded and Barnes and Nobles is bigoted. They have ;lost my business.
Kind regards,
marilyn Grashow
CG: Depends.
I’m sure more elderly people have the scratch to buy hard-bound picture books than children, or even their young parents. They don’t have to be buying them as gifts for their grandchildren, either; I know a large number of adults, who are artists, writers, or merely fans, who buy children’s books for themselves regularly.
I buy my grandkids books at yard/garage/tag sales. Much cheaper, and no hassle.
There is a Barnes and Noble in NYC where the bathrooms are located behind the children’s book section – Does that mean I, as an older man, would not be allowed to pee?
Political correctness is nothing more than all of us having to conform to and placate the “easily offended”. Thanks to our wonderfully litigious society.
@Bron: Didn’t political correctness start as a progressive tool to stifle free speech on college campuses?
No, it did not. It started exactly how it sounds, with politicians choosing their words to not offend voters. The “politically correct” way to say something is how a politician must say it to not offend voters and lose votes.
Trump, when running for President, said he was always friendly with “the blacks.”
We know who he is talking about, but “the blacks” prefer to be addressed as “the African-American community,” or often, to be included in the larger group of humanity: Trump the Politician would have been better off denying any recognition of race as a factor at all, e.g. I would have advised Trump to say, “Race, religion, gender, young, old, I get along with everybody, what really matters to me is competence and a job well done.”
See? Same message, but now he is an advocate for meritocracy, and actually sounds more believable.
Political correctness is not always a restriction on freedom of speech, sometimes it is just doing a group the courtesy of addressing them or their dilemma as they wish to be addressed, and not addressing them or their dilemma with words that insult them, diminish them, or marginalize them.
It originated with politics, not academia. It was popularized by the press, because they parrot politicians. It is actually a good idea to avoid needless offense to people, and was adopted by academia, because we like good ideas.
A “Barnes & Noble employee…explained that men are viewed as potential child abusers if they are alone in the section.”
But parents are not viewed as potentially abandoning their parental responsibility if they leave a child unsupervised in that same section????
I don’t just blame the corporation. On some subjects they fairly accurately reflect the views of consumers.
I would argue that since the ’90’s we have been living in an age of hysteria regarding children and abusers.
Child abuse of any kind is a terrible crime.
But it seems that the wide publicity and media attention given to some cases has resulted in near paranoia regarding who and what situations constitute a threat.
This situation is not necessarily helped by professional and institutions. In our area there was a recent PSA on the radio that suggested that citizens call authorities if they had even the slightest suspicion that anything was wrong.
No one wants to give cover to child abuse. But one has to wonder at the families that may be disrupted and traumatized due to police intervention over playground bruises and other normal occurrences of daily life.
Dredd,
I can see some value to what they did……. But if you’ve ever been to a barnes and Nobel bookstore they have security camera’s throughout……
what do you expect with political correctness run amok. Apt name for it as amok means a wild, irrational killing spree. What has been killed with political correctness is common sense and good judgement.
Didnt political correctness start as a progressive tool to stifle free speech on college campuses?
“Paranoia runs deep … into your heart it will creep …” (Buffalo Springfield)
QUOTE “There is something perverse in our society that the image of an elderly man reading in a children’s section is enough to send a woman to the front desk to report a suspected child molester.”
I was thinking the same thing. I have a hard time trying to think why a complaint like that would be justified, let alone acted on.
But then juries seem to always think that if you got arrested, there MUST have been some reason…unless of course your OJ. Then all the evidence becomes circumstantial.
I have to remember that even at his lowest point Bush had 24% of the people thinking he was doing a good job, so that has to give you an idea just how many clueless people that there are walking around.
Professor Turley, to paraphrase the wise Mr. Carlin, think about how stupid the average corporation is and then realize that half of them are stupider than that.