Young Conservatives of Texas Throw “Affirmative Action Bake Sale” At University of Texas

Rob Fox11 years ago

Usually, I’m not a fan of having my baked goods politicized, mostly because of that piece of fetus cake I ate at the pro-life rally I once randomly wandered into. It still haunts me. Ironically, I think they bought it from an erotic bakery, because I’m not even sure who else would make something like that. The cake was pretty graphic. So much strawberry syrup.

That being said, the University of Texas chapter of the Young Conservatives of Texas put on a pretty hilarious and poignant bake sale today, one aimed at speaking out against the ridiculousness that is affirmative action.

According to UT-YCT president Lorenzo Garcia, the group hopes to demonstrate several things by having the bake sale.

1) It may be demeaning to minorities to say that they need affirmative action to succeed.

2) A society cannot truly be color blind until they stop making decisions based on race.

3) Affirmative Action may create reverse discrimination.

4) Because of affirmative action, a minority may beat out someone more capable for a job or school, simply because of race or gender.

Of course, if I may be less eloquent and more to the point than Garcia, what the Young Conservatives of Texas are attempting to demonstrate is that affirmative action is bullshit, which I think their pricing does a pretty excellent, though arguably oversimplified, job of illustrating.

Exactly how much Native American blood do you need in you to get that $.25 brownie? Ah, hell, who am I kidding? I’m as white as they come. The only Native American blood my ancestors had was on their hands, not in their veins.

I had the opportunity to speak with UT-YCT Chairman Lorenzo Garcia earlier today, who was kind enough to to a quick break from infuriating liberal UT students and answer some of my questions.

Bacon: So where exactly is this bake sale taking place?

Garcia: On the West Mall. [West of the tower on the University of Texas campus.] It’s going on from 11 to 2.

Bacon: Was there anything specific that inspired the YCT to throw this bake sale now?

Garcia: Yeah, the Fisher v. UT case kind of inspired us to do this, but also just the general practice of using race as a factor for admissions. We’re against it. We don’t feel that it’s fair. It should be based on merit alone, instead of something you can’t control.

Bacon: This is a pretty humorous demonstration. Is this type of thing the YCT usually does?

Garcia: Yeah. Basically the point of this is to spark a political discussion, to figure out, you know, why does the university do this? If we didn’t do something like this, a lot of students wouldn’t really pay attention to the issue. YCT does this pretty often. Whether it’s the affirmative action bake sale or other things that are pretty controversial but prove a point and, you know, stick it to the liberals, pretty much. And the thing with college kids is, you have to do something like this to get their attention.

Bacon: I think the immediate image a lot of people are going to have with this bake sale is that it’s being put on by a bunch of privileged white kids, privileged white men, specifically, but that actually doesn’t seem to be the case.

Garcia: No not at all. I’m the leader of the organization. I’m Hispanic and I come from a middle class family. I’m kind of living proof that the whole [pro affirmative action] argument is complete conjecture. If they really want equality, to quote Martin Luther King Jr., judge a man not by the color of his skin but the content of his character, and that’s what we strive to abide by or live by, and they [liberals] are completely hypocritical about it. We’re just sick of it, so we’re just trying to prove a point, and stick it to them, to show them why they’re wrong.

Bacon: What has the reaction to the bake sale been so far?

Garcia: Some people looked at our stuff and were (laughs) horrified as they walked by. Other people actually high fived us. People bought brownies and other people just laughed and took pictures with us. It’s been kind of mixed, but mostly we’re just telling people about it, we’re informing them about it. A lot of people don’t even know that race is used as an admission factor, so that’s sort of the point of this. It pisses some people off, some people think it’s funny, but it’s still educational and intellectual at the same time.

Bacon: So the YCT, based on demonstrations such as the bake sale, seems like it is a little different than other conservative student groups, like the Young Republicans?

Garcia: We’re a principled conservative organization. We don’t support any particular party, we support the most conservative candidates and the most principled people. They [the Young Republicans] affiliate themselves with whoever has an R next to their name, we affiliate ourselves with whoever stands for what we believe in, regardless of party, regardless of anything.

The affirmative action bake sale is a pretty amusing concept if you ask me, and according to Garcia and YCT recruitment chair Allison Ngo, the bake sale was a success. Thanks in part, I’m sure, to the signs tirelessly crafted by Cody Jo Bankhead. I look forward to their next demonstration, which I assume will be some sort of raffle at which women are awarded prizes that, because of an optical illusion, appear at first glance to be smaller than the prizes their male counterparts receive, but in reality are actually the same, as commentary on the “pay gap” that apparently exists, just not in any place I’ve ever worked.

Well done, Young Conservatives of Texas.

[h/t to Allison Ngo]