FoxNews.com - JOHN STOSSEL: Get Your Affirmative Action Cupcake... http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2010/11/10/john-stossel-affirmative-ac...
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OPINION
By John Stossel Published November 10, 2010 | FoxNews.com
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This week, I held a bake sale -- a racist bake sale. I stood in midtown Manhattan shouting, “Cupcakes for sale.” My price list read: Asians -- $1.50 Whites -- $1.00 Blacks/Latinos -- 50 cents
People stared. One yelled, “What is funny to you about people who are less privileged?” A black woman said, angrily, “It’s very offensive, very demeaning!” One black man accused me of poisoning the cupcakes.
I understand why people got angry. What I did was hurtful to some. My bake sale mimicked what some conservative college students did at Bucknell University. The students wanted to satirize their school’s affirmative action policy, which makes it easier for blacks and Hispanics to get admitted.
I think affirmative action is racism -- and therefore wrong. If a private school like Bucknell wants to have such policies to increase diversity, fine. But government-imposed affirmative action is offensive. Equality before the law means government should treat citizens equally.
But it doesn’t. Our racist government says that any school receiving federal tax dollars, even if only in the form of federal aid to students, must comply with affirmative action rules, and some states have enacted their own policies.
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Sponsored Links Buy a link here Advocates of affirmative action argue it is needed because of MOST COMMENTED Mortgage Rates Hit 2.67%! historic discrimination. Maybe that was true in 1970, but it’s no If you owe under $729k you longer true. Affirmative action is now part of the minority special MOST READ MOST COMMENTED probably qualify for Gov’t Refi privilege machine, an indispensable component of which is Programs www.SeeRefinanceRates.com perpetual victimhood. Clinton Vs. Palin in 2012? You Betcha!
George Bush Is Still Leading -- By Example $84/Hr Job - 117 Openings All the Bucknell students wanted was a campus discussion Make $84/Hr Working From Home about that. Why not? A university is supposed to be a place for Congress' Next Job: Fix the Health Care Bill Online. Read The Shocking Special open discussion, but some topics are apparently off-limits. On Report The Election's Over, So Let's Get Back to WallStreetNews9.com my Fox Business show this week, I’ll discuss this with a Business member of the Bucknell Conservative Club who participated in the bake sale. Did Dem Donations Score Final KO on Keith Olbermann? Y OU MIGHT ALSO BE INTERESTED IN About an hour after the students began their “affirmative action” The $1,000 Omelette and Other sale, the associate dean of students shut it down. He said it Meals You Can't Afford was because the prices charged were different from those Jury Recommends Death for listed on the permissions application. An offer to change the Connecticut Man in Home prices was rejected. Then the club’s application to hold another Invasion Rape-Murders Loews CEO on Deficit sale was rejected. Ironically, the associate dean said it would Nearly 4,500 Passengers Tisch: some business tax violate the schools nondiscrimination policy! He would authorize Stranded on Carnival Cruise Ship credits should be phased out Off Mexico a debate on affirmative action, but nothing else. Dollar Dents Dow, Nasdaq Ekes Out Gain How ridiculous! Fortunately, the Foundation for Individual Rights Loews CEO on QE2 Ten Worst Places to Live in Education (FIRE) has come to the students’ defense: One-on-One with James Tisch “Using this absurd logic, Bucknell would have to require its College Democrats to say nothing political on campus unless they give equal time to Republican candidates at their events, or its Catholic Campus Ministry to remain silent about Univision's Impact on Midterm Elections abortion unless it holds a debate and invites pro-choice activists to speak,” FIRE’s Adam Univision CEO shaking Kissel said. “While students are free to host debates, they must not be required to provide a Capitol Hill platform for their ideological opponents. Rather, those opponents must be free to spread their
own messages and host their own events.” Most Distrusted: Government or CEOs? Right. My affirmative action cupcake “event” led to some interesting discussions. One young Battle between Main Street woman began by criticizing me, “It’s absolutely wrong.” and Wall Street hits midterms
But after I raised the parallel with college admissions, she said: “No race of people is worth more than another. Or less.”
But do you believe in affirmative action in colleges? I asked.
“I used to,” she replied.
Those are the kind discussions students should have.
Affirmative action wasn’t the only issue that brought conservative Bucknell students grief. When they tried to protest President Obama’s $787 billion “stimulus” spending last year by handing out fake dollar bills, the school stopped them for violating rules against soliciting! According to FIRE, Bucknell’s solicitation policy covers only sales and fundraising, which the students were not engaged in, but the school rejected the students’ appeal, saying permission was needed to distribute “anything, from Bibles to other matter.”
Absurd! The Bucknell administration tells me it stopped the anti-stimulus protest because the students had not registered to use that busy campus space. FIRE disputes that. FOX FORUM COLUMNISTS Lauren Green Liz Peek “Distributing protest literature is an American free-speech tradition that dates to before the Juan Williams Patrick Dorinson founding of the United States,” Kissel said. “Why is Bucknell so afraid of students handing out Ellen Ratner Fr. Jonathan Morris ‘Bibles [or] other matter' that might provide challenging perspectives? Colleges are supposed to Oliver North Bob Beckel be marketplaces of ideas, but Bucknell is betraying this ideal.” Geraldine Ferraro KT McFarland Ellis Henican Peter Johnson Jr. It is, indeed. Why are America’s institutions of higher learning so fearful? Alan Colmes Phil Kerpen
John Stossel is host of "Stossel" on the Fox Business Network. The show airs Thursdays at 9 Michael Goodwin Mallory Factor p.m. and midnight ET. It re-airs Fridays at 10 p.m., Saturdays at 9 p.m. and 12 midnight, and John Tantillo Andrea Tantaros Sundays at 10 p.m. (all times eastern). He's also the author of "Give Me a Break" and of "Myth, Cal Thomas Glenn Beck Lies, and Downright Stupidity." Judith Miller Dana Perino Peter Roff To find out more about John Stossel, visit his site at johnstossel.com . To read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at
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