200 students attend bake sale at UW over affirmative action
May 3, 2019, 11:27 AM | Updated: 5:58 pm
Two hundreds students showed up for a bake sale on the University of Washington campus Friday morning put on by college Republicans.
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Cookie lovers were charged different prices for the store-bought morsels depending on their race. The organizers were protesting Washington state’s new law — I-1000 — that brings back affirmative action.
About 15 cops were on hand and one woman was detained for knocking over several cookies.
See video of the bake sale here.
University of Washington President Ana Mari Cauce responded to the bake sale (courtesy KIRO 7):
“The so-called “affirmative action” bake sale the UW College Republicans are hosting today has no place in such a debate. It does not create a forum for serious discussion, but instead appears to mock not so much just a policy, but individuals who belong to racial, ethnic and gender groups that have historically been marginalized and that have often experienced very real prejudice, discrimination and oppression. Indeed, the way that the poster advertising this event juxtaposes race and price is reminiscent of a time when persons in some of these groups were literally bought and sold. Regardless of its intent, this sale humiliates and dehumanizes others. It is no surprise that so many on our campus and in our community are deeply offended by it, as am I. It is the opposite of the equitable, inclusive and welcoming climate that the vast majority of us are working hard to create and maintain.
I have written before about free speech and why we uphold it, even when it is offensive and hateful. In this case it is also important to keep in mind that the number of students involved in the sale is extremely small and certainly not representative of all UW students. They are not even representative of the state College Republican organization. It is the crudity, offensiveness and sheer outrageousness of the message that creates a megaphone that amplifies it.”