Posted on 10/02/2003 10:39:02 AM PDT by .cnI redruM
This past June, the Supreme Court handed down a couple of decisions that were widely seen as lending aid and comfort to those who support the practice of affirmative action, i.e., discrimination on the basis of race or some other token of alleged victimhood. At issue were two lawsuits challenging admissions policies at the University of Michigan. The decisions were mixedthe court ruled (by a margin of 54) in favor of letting stand the law schools policy of discriminating on the basis of race, while it partially reversed (63) a similar scheme in undergraduate admissions. Mixed or not, the university hailed the rulings as a major victory. Quoth Mary Sue Coleman, the universitys president: This is a tremendous victory for the University of Michigan, for all of higher education, and for the hundreds of groups and individuals who supported us. A majority of the court has firmly endorsed the principle of diversity . This is a resounding affirmation that will be heard across the landfrom our college classrooms to our corporate boardrooms. Whether the Supreme Courts endorsement of discrimination was a victory for anything other than the forces of political correctness may be doubted. But President Coleman was surely right that the Courts decisions will be heard across the land. Even now, we imagine, squads of lawyers and ACLU activists are honing their grievances in preparation for another assault on the principles of color-blind justice and equality of opportunity.
But when, we wonder, will news of Mary Sues tremendous victory reach Texas? The University of Michigan had a system whereby an applicants raceprovided it was the right race, i.e., not the white raceearned him 20 points out of a possible 150 points. (To put the 20 points in perspective, note that an outstanding essay, leadership or personal achievement garnered a mere 3 points each.) In late September, some enterprising students at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, endeavored to apply the Michigan principle to community fund-raising. According to a story carried by the Associated Press, a group called Young Conservatives of Texasfollowing the example of some students at other campusesorganized a bake sale in which cookies were priced according to the buyers race or gender. White males could get their confections for a buck each, white women got the same thing for 75 cents. Hispanics did even better: they could get their cookies for only 50 cents a piece, while blacks were luckiest of all: for them, cookies were on sale for two bits a pop.
What if you were only part black? Or one-third Hispanic? Did Asians have to pay a surcharge?
Well never know. Southern Methodist University promptly shut down the sale after only forty-five minutes because, the AP story reported, it created a potentially unsafe situation. What, undercooked cookies? Salmonella in the baking pan? No, the threat was not biological but ideologicala condition the university apparently considers far more toxic. No sooner had the sale gotten under way than a black student filed a complaint charging that the sale was offensive. More offensive than the racism of affirmative action?
According to Tim Moore, director of the SMU student center, shutting down the bake sale was not an issue about free speech. Really? You might think it was precisely a matter of free speech; so might we. But for Mr. Moore, this effort on the part of conservative students to dramatize the absurdity of affirmative action was really an issue where we had a hostile environment being created.
A hostile environment? Puh-leeze. A hostile environment is what you encounter in Antarctica, in the streets of Tikrit, or in university classrooms if you are imprudent enough to espouse conservative opinions. A bake sale with a sliding scale of prices doesnt create a hostile environment: it creates an embarrassing environment for politically correct academic administrators too squeamish to acknowledge their own hypocrisy. A racially or sexually determined scale of perquisites is just dandy when it comes to college admissions, academic advancement, employment at The New York Times, etc. A twenty-point bonus, redeem- ableif you are blackat one of Americas great universities: no problem! Thats making education more equitable and increasing diversity. But poke a bit of fun at this system of organized hypocrisy and you find you are creating a hostile environment. Its enough to make one toss ones cookies.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.