# Affirmative Action Bake Sale: Offensive or Funny? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [September 30, 2011, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/affirmative-action-bake-sale-offensive-or-funny/598090 "2011-09-30T00:29:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2011, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/affirmative-action-bake-sale-offensive-or-funny/598090/1 "2011-09-30T00:29:11Z")
[http://www.cnn.com/2011/09/25/us/california-racial-bake-sale/index.html](http://www.cnn.com/2011/09/25/us/california-racial-bake-sale/index.html) Personally I find it to be just political satire (and very funny satire at that) but apparently people of intelligence seem to be offended by it. So do you find the Affirmative Action Bake Sale funny or offensive? ---
**Author:** ![Algher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Algher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Algher)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2011, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/affirmative-action-bake-sale-offensive-or-funny/598090/2 "2011-09-30T00:33:07Z")
It was humorous satire the first time it was done, now it just seems trite to me I admit. It fits perfectly into the college campus mindset, however. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2011, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/affirmative-action-bake-sale-offensive-or-funny/598090/3 "2011-09-30T00:33:27Z")
Not cool. Just whiny. ---
**Author:** ![RandMcnally](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b782af/32.png) [@RandMcnally](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RandMcnally)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2011, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/affirmative-action-bake-sale-offensive-or-funny/598090/4 "2011-09-30T00:37:54Z")
I got an email the other day from a club at my college to protest this sale or whatever. I personally think it’s idiotic, misses the point, and old. I remember hearing about something like this when I was in high school. Just ignore it, I say. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2011, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/affirmative-action-bake-sale-offensive-or-funny/598090/5 "2011-09-30T00:41:43Z")
I can see that it’s a joke. But it’s not a very good joke, and reflects more on the people telling it than it does on the folks they’re trying to make fun of. ---
**Author:** ![MsWhatsit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb8c5e/32.png) [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2011, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/affirmative-action-bake-sale-offensive-or-funny/598090/6 "2011-09-30T00:42:51Z")
Lame effort at trolling. (Er, by the campus Republicans, I mean. Not by the OP.) If I knew a Native American dude, I would bring him along to the bake sale and buy up a bunch of cookies on the cheap. Edit: Wait, it looks like a Native American _woman_ would actually get everything for free. Therefore, I would bring a Native American woman and end the sale about thirty seconds after it began. Win! ---
**Author:** ![AClockworkMelon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aclockworkmelon/32/10803_2.png) [@AClockworkMelon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AClockworkMelon)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2011, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/affirmative-action-bake-sale-offensive-or-funny/598090/7 "2011-09-30T00:46:17Z")
I’m one eleventh Cherokee. I can buy things at the discounted prices right? ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2011, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/affirmative-action-bake-sale-offensive-or-funny/598090/8 "2011-09-30T00:50:34Z")
It’s too stupid to be offensive. If I were an American Indian I’d totally get one of those cheap muffins, assuming the people put more effort into their cooking than they did with their joke. ---
**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2011, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/affirmative-action-bake-sale-offensive-or-funny/598090/9 "2011-09-30T01:07:39Z")
> [@Larry\_Borgia](#): > > It’s too stupid to be offensive. If I were an American Indian I’d totally get one of those cheap muffins, assuming the people put more effort into their cooking than they did with their joke. Standard bake sale goods. truth be told, I don’t think they’d do it except that it riles people up. They may complain about the childish of it, and yet, doesn’t the very act of complaining demonstrate it’s a rather sore spot? Heh, I love this kind of stuff. I’m not even partisan about it. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2011, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/affirmative-action-bake-sale-offensive-or-funny/598090/10 "2011-09-30T01:22:56Z")
I chuckled briefly the first time I heard about one. [At this point, it’s pretty fucking lame](http://www.google.com/search?gcx=c&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=affirmative+action+bake+sale#q=affirmative+action+bake+sale&hl=en&tbo=1&output=search&source=lnt&tbs=tl:1&sa=X&ei=pRmFTqLXHdS4tweU-7ks&ved=0CA4QpwUoAw&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.,cf.osb&fp=61c925953f14e4e&biw=1280&bih=607). ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2011, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/affirmative-action-bake-sale-offensive-or-funny/598090/11 "2011-09-30T01:32:27Z")
It does not look like they even meant it to be funny: > [@](#): > > “The pricing structure is there to bring attention, to cause people to get a little upset,” Campus Republican President Shawn Lewis Looks like he’s just admitted to trolling. So if even the organizers admit it was not meant to be funny - that it was actually meant to upset people… I guess it’s not funny. ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2011, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/affirmative-action-bake-sale-offensive-or-funny/598090/12 "2011-09-30T01:41:07Z")
Stupid more than offensive, way lame and not in any way funny or witty. Shit stirring, straight up. Stay classy pubs! ---
**Author:** ![waterj2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/858c86/32.png) [@waterj2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/waterj2)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2011, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/affirmative-action-bake-sale-offensive-or-funny/598090/13 "2011-09-30T02:05:55Z")
I’d say that Gawker’s headline sums it up: [College Republicans’ Stupid ‘Race-Based Bake Sale’ Is Exactly What You’d Expect](http://gawker.com/5844490/college-republicans-stupid-race+based-bake-sale-is-exactly-what-youd-expect). It’s exactly what college Republican groups have been doing since they moved on from [outing gay students](http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Dinesh_D%27Souza#Outing_gays_at_Dartmouth). ---
**Author:** ![Hypnagogic\_Jerk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hypnagogic_jerk/32/4252_2.png) [@Hypnagogic\_Jerk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypnagogic_Jerk)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2011, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/affirmative-action-bake-sale-offensive-or-funny/598090/14 "2011-09-30T02:18:22Z")
> [@MsWhatsit](#): > > Edit: Wait, it looks like a Native American _woman_ would actually get everything for free. Therefore, I would bring a Native American woman and end the sale about thirty seconds after it began. Win! Eh, beat me to it. That’s exactly what I’d try as well, but I assume the organizers reserve themselves the right to refuse service to anyone or something. Or, perhaps they’d consider a Native American woman taking all the cookies in the first 30 seconds of the sale an analogy for how Native American women take all jobs and college spots from hard-working white men… 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2011, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/affirmative-action-bake-sale-offensive-or-funny/598090/15 "2011-09-30T02:40:52Z")
It isn’t offensive, but it isn’t funny either. Not because I’m PC or anything, but just because it isn’t that funny (I’ve seen and heard far funnier non-mainstream material). It is more trite, listening to overindulged college educated white men from good families (of which I am one) complain about how hard we have it compared to black women gets embarrassing after a while. For whatever reason when well educated, financially successful white men portray themselves as victims of minorities and the poor it just rubs me the wrong way. It sounds so petulant. ---
**Author:** ![Chen019](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f19dbf/32.png) [@Chen019](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chen019)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2011, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/affirmative-action-bake-sale-offensive-or-funny/598090/16 "2011-09-30T02:43:24Z")
> [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](#): > > [http://www.cnn.com/2011/09/25/us/california-racial-bake-sale/index.html](http://www.cnn.com/2011/09/25/us/california-racial-bake-sale/index.html) > > Personally I find it to be just political satire (and very funny satire at that) but apparently people of intelligence seem to be offended by it. So do you find the Affirmative Action Bake Sale funny or offensive? Funny, a good light hearted way to make a serious point. The only change I’d recommend would have been to make the price of the asian cupcakes the most expensive as they pay the highest price according to Thomas Epenshade’s [research](http://infoproc.blogspot.com/2009/10/affirmative-action-numbers.html). > [@](#): > > US News: … Translating the advantages into SAT scores, study author Thomas Espenshade, a Princeton sociologist, calculated that African-Americans who achieved 1150 scores on the two original SAT tests had the same chances of getting accepted to top private colleges in 1997 as whites who scored 1460s and Asians who scored perfect 1600s. > > Espenshade found that when comparing applicants with similar grades, scores, athletic qualifications, and family history for seven elite private colleges and universities: > > Whites were three times as likely to get fat envelopes as Asians. Hispanics were twice as likely to win admission as whites. African-Americans were at least five times as likely to be accepted as whites. ---
**Author:** ![Chen019](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f19dbf/32.png) [@Chen019](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chen019)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2011, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/affirmative-action-bake-sale-offensive-or-funny/598090/17 "2011-09-30T02:47:16Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > I chuckled briefly the first time I heard about one. [At this point, it’s pretty fucking lame](http://www.google.com/search?gcx=c&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=affirmative+action+bake+sale#q=affirmative+action+bake+sale&hl=en&tbo=1&output=search&source=lnt&tbs=tl:1&sa=X&ei=pRmFTqLXHdS4tweU-7ks&ved=0CA4QpwUoAw&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.,cf.osb&fp=61c925953f14e4e&biw=1280&bih=607). Just like affirmative action. ---
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2011, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/affirmative-action-bake-sale-offensive-or-funny/598090/18 "2011-09-30T02:57:42Z")
> [@Chen019](#): > > Funny, a good light hearted way to make a serious point. The only change I’d recommend would have been to make the price of the asian cupcakes the most expensive as they pay the highest price according to Thomas Epenshade’s [research](http://infoproc.blogspot.com/2009/10/affirmative-action-numbers.html). Holy cow! I was thinking the same thing. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2011, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/affirmative-action-bake-sale-offensive-or-funny/598090/19 "2011-09-30T03:21:05Z")
I don’t find it offensive, though I also don’t find it to be clever, funny, or thought-provoking. ---
**Author:** ![Hypnagogic\_Jerk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hypnagogic_jerk/32/4252_2.png) [@Hypnagogic\_Jerk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypnagogic_Jerk)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2011, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/affirmative-action-bake-sale-offensive-or-funny/598090/20 "2011-09-30T04:34:17Z")
> [@Chen019](#): > > Funny, a good light hearted way to make a serious point. The only change I’d recommend would have been to make the price of the asian cupcakes the most expensive as they pay the highest price according to Thomas Epenshade’s [research](http://infoproc.blogspot.com/2009/10/affirmative-action-numbers.html). It was made by young white Republican men. They view all minorities as being given an unfair edge over them, even those minorities you like. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/affirmative-action-bake-sale-offensive-or-funny/598090.md?page=2)