Actions Toward Bake Sale Justifiable
Editorial | Oct 06, 2003 | Comments 0
On Sept. 25 the College Republicans hosted a satirical bake sale in order to promote the abolishment of Affirmative Action and to encourage students to vote yes on Proposition 54.
If passed, Prop 54 would prohibit the collection of race-related statistical information, such as asking people to select the race which they most identify with on forms ranging from college applications to medical documents.
They were selling doughnuts for a dollar each to white male students and doughnuts for 75 cents to Asian females not because they wanted to discriminate against white males, but because they wanted to depict that Affirmative Action promotes reverse discrimination against white people and against males.
Through the demonstration the group was making a legitimate argument that Affirmative Action is a form of reverse discrimination where minorities are given special privileges. In order to comply with Affirmative Action, businesses may hire a person solely based on their ethnic origin rather than their qualifications. Thus, qualified whites can lose jobs to not so qualified, skilled minorities.
Despite the fact that Affirmative Action was intended to promote ethnic diversity in colleges and the workplace while also discouraging discrimination, it actually makes minorities seem inferior to people of Caucasian decent. It implies that minorities need extra help in order to compete with male Caucasians.
Sally Peterson, the dean of students, asked the group to take down their sales listing sign in response to students, including MEChA, who called the bake sale racist.
Although the College Republicans had a valid point in varying the prices of doughnuts based on a person’s ethnic identity, Peterson had the right to take down the bake sale menu.
Under the First Amendment, people are given the freedom of speech and the right to espouse whatever opinions they wish. However, selling doughnuts was an action
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