Ice Climber: UITC - That's What I'm Talkin' About! by WhatUpThen

Last year, when WhatUpThen was holed up in his apartment learning the basics of epidemiology, the College Republicans of the University of Washington threw one of those Affirmative Action Bake Sales that have become increasingly popular at schools across the country. I hate linking to FOX News, but it has the blurbs about the different schools. It's a horrible thing, in my opinion, first because affirmative action has been illegal in Washington as of 1998, and second, because the premise of the bake sale is flawed. The concept of the sale is that women, people of color and disabled citizens pay less for the items sold; it's supposed to be an allegory for those groups putting forth less effort for the same job or college admission. However, let's use the college example. Every university in the U.S. has minimum standards for admission. No school would bring in a student who did not meet those standards, so every person admitted has put forth the effort, or "paid the total price". It's also insulting to suggest that white males have a more difficult time advancing in life than women and minorities, yet that assertion is implicit in the CRs claim that whites are paying the most. Of course there are white males out there in truly fucked-up situations, but there are privileges to whiteness that, if anything, allow whites to pay less than everyone else to obtain the same things. I hate to even talk about this whole "payment" idea because really everyone should be judged on their talents, abilities and skills. We've made a ton of progress in the right direction but we aren't anywhere near that day and I know I won't see it in my lifetime. There's a lot of other stuff I'm missing, but I should move on.

The Bake Sale last year ended badly. There was a lot of shouting and someone got hit and one student (I've met her and she's fucking awesome) tore down the CRs sign and canopy. It wasn't totally crazy...not like anyone was arrested or anything, but it wasn't just another day.

Long story short --> Last week, the CRs put on another Bake Sale but this time the sane students on campus were ready. The GBLT Student Commissioner rallied a ton of student groups to essentially have a fair that day and in the same location as the CR Bake Sale. The idea wasn't to confront the madness, but to drown it out with music, promotion of events, frisbee and FREE baked goods (I got my hands on a few donuts before I left). It was a great success. There were no confrontations and the unnecessary and divisive messages were largely ignored this time around. I'm impressed by the student's ability to mobilize in such a short time (just 6 days for the whole thing) and also I was happy to see so many groups encompassing so many ethnicities working together for a common goal. It was called Unity in the Community. If you were an employer, wouldn't you want to hire a student who put this together?

Here are a coupla more links to Leoule's column in the UW Daily and the counter-argument by the CR president, Nick Dayton.