Shared this with a friend from across the country who actually works at a comics shop and also happens to be black, and has many amusing stories about casual nerd racism. He had a pretty good comment I'm going to paraphrase here.

Him: "Okay, so if my shop had a room that everyone called 'dead nigger storage', think…

To everyone saying it is just a joke: That's the point.

One would think that massive media coverage would make them rethink how their actions are perceived by the public and received by the community that are supposed to protect. Instead, it seems to fuel their abhorrent behavior.

Well, libraries do buy the books and digital media they lend to the public... I imagine an author gets paid for a library ebook in a similar manner as a physical book bought by a library...

There is also the Overdrive app that a lot of libraries are using to check out e-books. There are some current and catalog books and a huge catalog of classics that are off copyright. They don't always have a ton of copies, like the real library, but the app auto returns your books so no late fees!

My wife teaches critical thinking in her English classes.

pay attention to the avatar mythos; no single element is the most powerful.