Colorado: Half-Baked Idea Of Dialog

The College Republicans at the University of Colorado have just held their second bake sale to parody affirmative action, selling cookies to whites and Asians for higher prices than to blacks or Hispanics.

Insofar as their purpose was to instigate a dialog about affirmative action, they were stymied by the refusal of the counter-protesters who surrounded them to debate.

The counter-protestors declined to debate with the College Republicans, choosing instead to silently march in circles around the bake sale, fists raised in the air in a symbol of power and solidarity.

“You’re ignoring us, like you say that we’ve ignored you for centuries,” [CU senior and College Republican Jessica] Merrill said to the muted crowd. “Why don’t you stop being hypocritical and come talk to us?”

It appears that the supporters of racial preference at the University of Colorado are dedicated to debating silently.

The first [anti-affirmative action bake sale] occurred in 2004 and also drew a large crowd of counter-protestors who duct-taped their mouths shut to symbolize how they’d been silenced throughout history.

Another article reported, without the irony it richly deserves, the following statement by one of the students protesting the bake sale:

“The ignorance on campus about the issue is too large to ignore anymore, and today we are speaking up through a silent protest,” Guadalupe Loredo, a senior international affiars [sic] major, said.

Loredo joined other students Tuesday in a silent protest favorign [sic] affirmative action. Student groups involved in the protest also included the United Mexican American Students, among others, that all held the silent protest around an anti-affirmative action protest the CU College Republicans held.

“We need to increase the number of people of color on campus, and today we are just out here talking to the community too. We just want to make sure they get both sides of the story,” Loredo said.

Interesting dialog: one “side[] of the story” tries to provoke a debate; the other marches silently in circles with fists raised in the air.