Another U.S. University Tried to Have an ‘Affirmative Action Bake Sale’

I guess no one wanted to learn from the backlash when this happened at the University of Texas at Austin in October. At the University of Illinois on Tuesday, the college republicans (the Illini Republicans) club at the school decided they would go about rewriting history in accordance with their own prejudices, USA Today College reports..

The Illini Republicans tried not to admit they were being racist by explaining affirmative action as economically unproductive. “By allegorizing affirmative action to something as simple as a bake sale, we hope to demonstrate the silliness of implementing this policy on a macro level,” the students wrote on their Facebook page. Someone needs an education in neoliberalism. Holler at me, Illini Republicans. I’m here with Foucault in hand, ready for your resistance.

According to the club’s members, “affirmative action has not decreased racial discrimination; it has promoted it.” Can we not all just agree to the fact that, when people who experience racism (i.e., people who aren’t WHITE) call something racist, we should defer to them? Privileged people do not get to determine what qualifies as poverty. Men don’t get to determine what women do with their bodies. White people cannot claim to know or not know what racism is. They are not the authority. That's the whole point!

There was indeed outcry upon the bake sale being set up. A number of students of color responded with ~clever signage~ denouncing the implications and direct prejudice it put forth for minorities.

"We believe the bake sale was a tremendous success," Illini Republicans Vice President Timothy Kilcullen told USA Today College. Literally for whom? You had protesters and are now being vilified in the media for being this patently offensive.