Another Volokhian speaks

("Volokhian"—sounds like a race you'd meet on the Andromeda TV show. I like it.)

Mr. Bernstein:

Op-ed On Affirmative Action Bake Sales:
Is it a no-no for students to satirize affirmative action at UC Irvine? The answer is a resounding "yes!" Recently, the university shut down an "affirmative action bake sale" run by the College Republicans. Members of the group offered doughnuts at prices ranging from 10 cents to $1, depending on each student's race and gender. The obvious message: It's wrong to treat people differently based on immutable characteristics. But apparently you can't say so in public.
So begins my op-ed (link requires free registration) in today's Orange County Register.

Feh.

When they run the bake sale such that it has the intent and effect of affirmative action programs, then you can morally defend them.

So let them sell their baked goods at reduced price to those who, rightly or wrongly, they feel are unable to afford them at full price for reasons outside the purchasers' control. That would accurately reflect the intent of affirmative action programs. And I don't care what cause they ascribe to the purchasers' inability to raise the cash.

With that in place, let them set up any other conditions they wish, in a conscious attempt to skew the sales such that people who can readily afford the baked goods, and have the means to get them—at the bake sale, at the bakery, the supermarket six miles away, anywhere they want—wind up underserved somehow.

As I said, Feh.

All I need now it some nonsense by Tyler Cowen to be posted there and my day will be complete.

Posted by Prometheus 6 on October 21, 2003 - 3:56pm :: Seen online
 
 

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