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OATMEAL RACIST: Clemson U. bake sale has a right-wing twist to it

OATMEAL RACIST: Clemson U. bake sale has a right-wing twist to it

OATMEAL RACIST: Clemson U. bake sale has a right-wing twist to it

“Facts, not feelings,” proclaimed the sign at a bake sale held at Clemson University. However, it’s the prices — which are graduated depending on the race of the customer — that have students boiling.

In protest and to bring light to the affirmative action policies that Turning Point USA members feel are harmful, the group posted a sign declaring that a cookie is only 20 cents for a Black student and 50 cents for a Hispanic student, but $1 if the customer is white, and $1.50 if they’re Asian — free for Native students.

(The twist of placing Asians in the most-affected position is an extra layer of irony, in the days following a Republican politician actually proposing that Chinese students shouldn’t be allowed in American universities.)

It’s a common right-wing complaint — while affirmative action programs are put into place to make things more equal, conservatives argue that they are unfair to white students.

However, while the sign may boast a preference for “facts” over feelings, the organizers involved admit that they don’t know whether Clemson’s admission policies involve any affirmative action or similar bases.

It’s also not the first such event associated with groups like Turning Point USA, Charlie Kirk’s right-wing extremist organization, although it’s not clear whether he was directly involved with this particular bake sale, held by the Clemson chapter.

This round happens to have prompted bonus outrage by being dropped just in time for Black History Month. WYFF4 reports:

“Turning Point USA at Clemson says it held the event in opposition to affirmative action…They said they are not sure what Clemson’s processes are in terms of admission and affirmative action.”

A similar event on a University of New Mexico campus in 2017 seemed to reflect new conservative boldness, Rolling Stone reported, with Donald Trump newly in office.

There, too, the facts were superfluous:

“The fact that UNM didn’t use a race-based selection process didn’t seem to matter. The sale was designed to agitate, and it was serving its purpose.”

The Clemson version had the same result — see, for instance below, the tweet from one student frustrated with the racist display, and the college’s defense of it.

Stephanie Bazzle
Steph Bazzle is a news writer who covers politics and theocracy, always aiming for a world free from extremism and authoritarianism. Follow Steph on Twitter @imjustasteph. Sign up for all of her stories to be delivered to your inbox here:

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