Bake sale tackles race issue

Eastern Washington University’s College Republicans are planning a demonstration against racial and gender preferential programs in the form of an anti-affirmative action bake sale Thursday.

In an effort to make a point about affirmative action, organizers will list multiple prices for items at the bake sale: the highest price for whites and lower prices for women and ethnic minorities.

Organizers said they were spurred by the fervor for First Amendment rights sparked by Ward Churchill’s unsanctioned visit to EWU last week. Churchill, a University of Colorado professor, has been condemned by many conservatives, among others, for writing that the people killed in the Sept. 11 attacks were not necessarily innocent victims.

“I wanted to test the theory that if they were going to test all freedom of speech, or if it would be just for the left,” said event organizer Josh Fahrnkopf.

Some students are organizing a counter-protest, and campus Democrats plan to set a table next to the College Republicans to offer a counterpoint view.

“If you are anti-affirmative action, then you’re anti our heritage, you’re anti our blood and you’re anti our hurt,” said Jenna Williams, the Black Student Union adviser and EWU professor.

Similar bake-sale events have played out on college campuses around the country where baked goods were sold at higher prices to white males than to women or ethnic minorities. They’ve led to verbal, and even physical, confrontations.

The bake sale, which has been permitted by EWU, is a little different from previous events elsewhere, in that signs will show a price difference, but the goods will actually be sold to everyone at the same price, if anything’s sold at all, organizers said. The adjustment was made after the Center for Justice, a nonprofit social-justice organization in Spokane, sent a letter April 5 telling Bill Ponder, EWU vice president of student affairs, that charging different prices based on race and gender may violate state discrimination laws.

“If we actually did sell at those prices, then the Center for Justice would have a very small factual basis on a claim,” said Fahrnkopf, chairman of the EWU College Republicans.

Bake-sale critics say the event is demeaning. Fahrnkopf said the bake sale is a loose metaphor to show that affirmative action is demeaning.

Affirmative action “paints a picture that people of different races or (groups) can’t compete on their own and they need a leg up,” Fahrnkopf said.

An initiative passed by Washington voters in 1998 ended race-based programs and college admission programs in the state. Fahrnkopf said his protest is more focused on a national discussion.

The group had planned a similar event during the last school year, but it never took place as planned.

“The university tried to stop the event,” and the pressure hurt the club, Fahrnkopf said.

“At that time our organization went down to nothing,” he said. “Everyone was mad because (EWU) was protecting freedom of speech on the left, not the right.”

This time around, Fahrnkopf said he purposely scheduled the event after the Churchill speech, which students defended on grounds of academic freedom of speech.

“I figured it would be a lot less controversial because everyone was screaming ‘free speech,’ ” he said.

A group of students, including the Black Student Union, is trying to obtain its own event permit for a silent protest of the bake sale.

“Several students and several faculty members have attended different meetings to try and prevent the university from giving this event the green light,” Williams said.

Williams and several others walked out of a Friday public safety meeting of faculty and administrators who went over safety concerns about the bake sale. She felt opponents’ concerns weren’t understood fully.

“When affirmative action began, it was giving equal access because there was no equal access,” said Williams, who lectures on African American history.

The bake sale targets quota systems, which is different from affirmative action programs, she said, adding that she doesn’t think people who host such events understand the hurt they cause.

At Eastern, “I see a lot of anger, and I know anger is a secondary emotion. What I really see is a lot of students, especially black students who are deeply wounded and hurt,” Williams said. “Just because they don’t understand doesn’t mean we have to stop trying.”

In the fall, EWU recorded 1,304 self-identified ethnic minority undergraduate students, including 246 African Americans, 529 Hispanics, 185 American Indians and 344 Asians or Pacific Islanders. Almost 10,000 students attend the school.