Posted on 02/08/2004 2:12:48 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
What's the cost of reverse discrimination? College students across the country have been cooking up some clever satire to demonstrate the answer.
The guerrilla theater takes the form of a bake sale. Cookies are sold at varying prices depending on the buyer's race and gender. White males may pay $1 for a cookie while white females are charged 75 cents, Hispanic students 50 cents and African-Americans 25 cents. The price list makes the political statement that certain groups don't have to meet the same academic standards to gain college admission.
Whatever you might feel about affirmative action, these bake sales are a humorous, creative and highly effective way of expressing one side of the debate. So effective, in fact, they spark college administrators to shut them down.
Political correctness has no sense of humor.
Last year, Southern Methodist University ended an "affirmative action bake sale" organized by the Young Conservatives of Texas after just 45 minutes. A school official was quoted in the Dallas Morning News as saying it created "a hostile environment."
Similarly, bake sales have been shuttered at the University of California at Irvine, Northwestern University, the College of William and Mary and the University of Washington.
At Northwestern, after the campus Objectivist Club had its bake sale ended prematurely, the group was sanctioned by the student government for not having an approved cash box (for the 39 cents of profit the group took in) and for failing to disclose that the sale was really a political protest.
Will Coggin, co-founder of Sons of Liberty, a libertarian group at the College of William and Mary in Virginia, said his bake sale in early November was closed down after he received a call from Mark Constantine, a student affairs official.
"He told me he wanted me to take down the pricing sign because the prices were a violation of the campus' discrimination policy," Coggin said. "I told him that we were trying to make a point and this was protected free speech. His response was, "No it wasn't.' "
These reactions are in stark contrast to how college administrators react to the "pay equity" bake sales organized by student chapters of the Feminist Majority Foundation. The premise is precisely the same: Cookies and other baked goods are sold at differing prices based on the sex of the customer - $1 for men and 80 cents for women. The point here is to raise awareness of the gender wage gap.
Crystal Lander, director of campus programs for the Feminist Majority Foundation, says their bake sales have been "well received" at the more than a dozen schools where they have been held. None has been shut down. In many cases, Lander says, "they have the backing of the women's studies program."
Use satire to illustrate a politically popular position and whole departments rush to your aid; use it to poke fun at affirmative action, the sacred cow of academia, and college officials use every pretext to make it go away.
Here again is evidence of the way the political left is just as dangerous to freedom of expression as is the right. Virtuecrats may take aim at indecency and flag burning, but the diversitistas of the world have no tolerance for those who would question why white and Asian students are held to higher standards in college admission. They conflate speech with action, believing that vocal opposition to affirmative action is the same as a discriminatory act.
They don't get the Constitution at all. (Of course, only state schools have a legal obligation to respect the free speech rights of students, but many private colleges guarantee their students expressive freedom in school policies.)
In light of the way this repression has infested college campuses, affirmative action bake sales would have stood little chance had it not been for a civil liberties group devoted to championing students' rights. The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, or FIRE, has been tracking school responses to the bake sales and intervening when necessary. Through letter writing and public embarrassment, FIRE has had a number of successes. Coggin at William and Mary, for example, was recently able to hold a second bake sale without being hassled. But there are campuses that continue to resist.
Greg Lukianoff, director of Legal and Public Advocacy at FIRE, says the culture on modern college campuses exalts preventing hurt feelings above free speech. "I think that students come in and are essentially told they have a right not to be offended and if they are offended they should run and seek an administrator," Lukianoff says. "Being offended just means having your deepest beliefs challenged; and having your deepest beliefs challenged is essential, not incompatible, with a real education."
Satire is the way thinkers can inspire reform. Jonathan Swift's famous 1729 satire, A Modest Proposal, suggested eating children as a way of addressing the hunger and overpopulation in Ireland. Here, the modest proposal is to buy cookies - a parody that has driven college administrators into such a tizzy that free speech is something they can no longer stomach.
Colorado Senate President John Andrews then sent a letter to every college president in the state asking them to provide statements describing their protections for students and detailing any problems on their campuses.
At the same time, he convened an ad hoc legislative committee to hear from students and faculty members about whether academic freedom is adequately being protected on state-supported colleges and universities. The hearings were held on December 18.
Despite the fact that the hearings took place when most universities were in the midst of final exams, more than 30 students showed up to testify. Congregating on the third floor committee room in the Colorado State Capitol, they were joined by media representatives, college administrators, legislators, and members of the public at large.
Frontpagemag.com has obtained transcripts of this two-and-a-half-hour hearing. They reveal an environment of bias and hostility towards conservative viewpoints on Colorado campuses. We see many examples: a professor insisting that student Republicans withdraw from the Political Science Association; a professor teaching one-sided history class in which students were told that Ethel and Julius Rosenberg were "martyrs" and that Stalin was a victim of U.S. persecution; a student skipping classes out of fear of the professor's tactic of ridiculing and humiliating conservative students in front of the class, and so on.
Readers can decide for themselves whether an Academic Bill of Rights is in order for Colorado schools. [Transcript at LINK] ***
There was one white male who had scored perfect 800s. He had been admitted to graduate school.
There was one black female whose scores were around the midway point in the scale (0-800). She had been admitted as well. Her scores didn't seem any better than other scores not high enough to be admitted.
I took the GRE (twice) and scored approximately the same as the black female. My scores weren't high enough to merit entry to most schools where I applied, though one took pity on me and provided me space. I quickly determined that I am no scholar and went back to pounding nails. I'm working on a scholarly report on the intricacies of proper nail hold prior to delivering blow.
It's even worse than that. Some offenses are perfectly all right. Others are anathema--and are punished by laws with teeeeth in 'em!
"Liberals" love selective enforcement of laws and rules--and selective application. And they love dividing people into categories.
"Liberals" particularly love to assign individuals to "victim" and "predator" categories.
If a "victim" is offended, that's one thing. If a "predator" is offended, that's quite a different matter.
"Liberals", of course, reserve the authority to decide who will be assigned to what category.
If they decide to assign you to the "predator" category--heaven help you! They will show no mercy.
"Liberals" would love the taliban. All they want is to be able to set the rules--and the categories.
It's conservative speech college administrators don't want to hear. If you're not a supporter of liberal democrats and socialism then you're someone to be isolated before you offend sensitive ears.
Hey blacks, get wise. Quit whining.
Ever hear of capitalism? Buy up all the cookies for 25 cents a piece, and then sell them to all the whites for a buck! What do you say? ;)
Ain't it sweet? Capitalism is better than whinin'.
Near the end of the interview of prosecuting attorney, Tim Russert and The President, George got in a good zinger yesterday. Russert was telling him how he was disliked in Europe ........ as badly disliked as Ronald Reagan. G.W. came back smartly and with a grin, "At least I'm in good company."
Yup, happened here at the USI campus.
It was shut down, cold.
Last year, Southern Methodist University ended an "affirmative action bake sale" organized by the Young Conservatives of Texas after just 45 minutes."
HA!!
Sounds like SMU was trying to practice "tolerance" until administration could stand it no longer; if, it lasted a whole 45 minutes.
No kidding.
USI's bake sale was shut down before they even got started.
What was really weird was how the area's mediots -- TV *&* radio -- were there "on the scene" to cover the event before anything ever happened.
They sure were, & their mo for covering this was something to see too, *classic* and priceless.
Repeated on camera interviews featuring downtrodden & oppressed minority students -- future civil rights heros -- panning now & then to a folding table full of cookies.
Yessiree Bob, then there were riveting, gutwrenching close-ups of the damning price list printed out on poster board!
I tell ya it was *not* for the faint of heart & that's for damned sure.
The best part though, is all the while the camera's capturing images of this "Montgomery-like" event, the voice-overs from the future civil rights leaders explain what & why one's looking at a table full of cookies.
The racist-oppressors responsible for this bold, "in yo' face" heresy, of course, were limited to <5 sec to tell the camera, "We're holding a bake sale."
Yup sure was weird alright, like helplessly watching person or persons being gang raped.
"A school official was quoted in the Dallas Morning News as saying it created 'a hostile environment.'"
HA!
Translation: "Y'all are gonna get'cher heads smashed in by a mob of student-like Rodney Kings if y'all don't cut the crap in the name of 'justice,' y'hear?"
Naturally the college repubs complied, law abiders as they are; but, they did chatter just as a colony of frightened chipmunks will do -- from the opening of their holes -- when a cat shows up.
Even if no one was litening.
"Here again is evidence of the way the political left is just as dangerous to freedom of expression as is the right. Virtuecrats may take aim at indecency and flag burning, but the diversitistas of the world have no tolerance for those who would question why white and Asian students are held to higher standards in college admission. They conflate speech with action, believing that vocal opposition to affirmative action is the same as a discriminatory act."
Yup, spot-on; but, I so do like those *new* words. {g}
"They don't get the Constitution at all."
Gee, ya think?
All depends whose constitution we be talkin' about, I suppose.
Say FGS, aside from all the insanity right from the pages of an Orwell novel, don'tcha find it *kind* of odd to be reading this in a rag the likes of the St.Petersburg Times?
No, really.
I'm *really* trying to again show [some more of] my optimistic & humorous side! :o)
Just one question, bub.
...think The Associated Press will pick it up? ;^)
...think The Associated Press will pick it up?
I'm betting they'll take a pass. I suspect they've already flogged this horse......several times. On second thought, it never stopped 'em before. The headline could be problematic:
White Students Discriminate Against, uh, White/Minority Students By Charging Them More/Less for Cookies)???FGS
Ummmm, let's see.
Ahhh half the sale would be shut down? (~& you can guess which half, too. :o) )
I mean I'm just trying to be consistent, using the various college/university administrator's behavior as my *template* & guide, OK? {g}
"Beside the $1.25 the Asian Club members would be charged for a cookie? Has that been tried anywhere yet? Serious question."
HA!!
I *don't* think today's educators want the insanity of their policy(s) on display -- even if only in parody -- mom.
I truly believe the nitwits don't give a damn about their minority student's [read: "customers"] feelings nearly as much as they do their own; hence, the reactions we've witnessed?
Still, your question deserves a serious answer.
But for me to do so would mean I'd have to really distort my reasoning, which I cannot do.
Well no more than relating the absurdity of what I've actually heard & witnessed, anyway.
...masked as humor? {g}
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