Go Woke, Go Broke

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An American college has discovered that PC mobs don’t always get away scot-free.


Oberlin College is known for its ‘social justice’ activism and is considered one of the most PC colleges in the US. In recent years, Oberlin students have demanded trigger warnings on classic literature, called for a ban on ‘F’ (failed) grades, and complained about the cultural appropriation of sushi in the dining hall. So, it wasn’t all that surprising when, in November 2016, students launched a campaign against a local bakery, claiming it was racist for calling the police on a shoplifter who happened to be black.

What is surprising is the ultimate outcome of these protests. Last week, a jury determined that Oberlin owes Gibson’s Bakery a whopping $44million in damages (which may get reduced to $33million). This should be a wake-up call to Oberlin and other colleges: go woke, go broke.

This is a David versus Goliath case, featuring a fifth-generation family business up against an elite higher-education institution (where it costs about $280,000 to obtain a degree in four years, and a majority of the students are from families in the top 10 per cent of earners).

The details of the court case – as reported by the Legal Insurrection website – were eye-opening. The case exposed how Oberlin’s administration was willing to engage in a campaign based on false allegations of racism, a campaign that sought to smear and destroy this small downtown shop. The millions of dollars in damages spoke to the jury’s assessment of not only economic loss, but also the need to punish Oberlin for the malice it displayed. The verdict will not bankrupt Oberlin, but the case has revealed the college’s intellectual and moral bankruptcy.

The basic facts of the case are straightforward. On 9 November 2016 – the day after Trump was elected president – an African-American student attempted to leave Gibson’s with two wine bottles under his shirt. Seeing this, Allyn Gibson, the shop-owner’s grandson, called the police and then apprehended the student outside the store. This led to a scuffle, with two Oberlin black female students joining in. The police broke it up and arrested the students. All three suspects later pleaded guilty, and the young man said he didn’t believe Gibson’s actions in detaining him were racially motivated.

www.spiked-online.com/2019/06/18/oberlin-and-the-price-of-wokeness/


trigger warnings on classic literature, ...a ban on ‘F’ (failed) grades


Why bother studying at all? It's clearly far too much for the poor mentally unstable kids to cope with.

[Dex]

This is a good article and I agreed with you all the way til you got to the last and pinned a label onto the ones who wanted to do away with the F in the grading system.

You don't know enough about the school or the particulars to make a judgement in that case to call whoever disagrees with it, "unstable". I'd have to have more information before I'd come to that kind of conclusion.