Weigel

Happy Ninth Anniversary, College Republican Stunt!

Tim Mak reports on a “Diversity Bake Sale” to be held at Cal, with College Republicans pricing confections different depending on the race of the buyer. Amazing social commentary – pungent, newsy. Just where did they get this idea?

February 27, 2002, from U-Wire:

The University of New Mexico College Republicans sold “quota cookies” Tuesday at an affirmative action bake sale outside Zimmerman Library, with prices varying according to ethnicity.

Cookies were 25 cents for Hispanics, American Indians and blacks; $ 1 for Caucasian or Asian females; and $ 1.50 for Caucasian or Asian males.

February 18, 2003, from the Detroit News:

At a Monday bake sale at the University of Michigan, a student group sold bagels and muffins for $1. But for African-American and Hispanic customers, the price was 80 cents. 

The group – reporters and editors of the conservative Michigan Review newspaper – called it the “Affirmative Action Bake Sale.”

February 10, 2004, from the (Colorado Springs) Gazette:

The sale, hosted by the College Republicans at CU-Boulder, will offer baked goods at different prices depending on the race of the buyer.

For example, whites and Asians will be charged $1 for a cookie. For the same cookie, Hispanics will pay 50 cents and blacks will pay only 25 cents.

March 25, 2005, from the AP:

At the College Republicans’ affirmative action bake sale this week at Grand Valley State University, the same cupcake that a white male could buy for $2 was available for 75 cents to a white female or a black person, 50 cents to an Asian or a Hispanic, and only a nickel to an American Indian.

February 26, 2006, from the (Allentown) Morning Call:

Prices at the so-called “Affirmative Action Bake Sale,” which was actually against affirmative action, varied depending on the race of the customer, with whites paying more than minorities.

“The sign said $1 for whites, 25 cents for blacks and women got a 25-cent credit, so they told me, “Go ahead and take it, it’s free for you,”’ said Amirah Cottman, a black woman.

March 18, 2008, from the Flint Journal:

The University of Michigan-Flint issued a campuswide e-mail Tuesday trying to counter a purported anti-affirmative action bake sale by a conservative campus group.

June 23, 2009, from the Philadelphia Inquirer:

The “affirmative-action bake sale,” at which the Bucknell University Conservatives Club charged different prices depending on a customer’s race, was shut down by the administration in April.

We learn two things from these articles.

1) Inflation isn’t much of a problem for baked goods. The dollar baseline has remained strong for nearly a decade.

2) It’s awfully fortunate that intellectual originality isn’t as much of a factor in admission as race is.