This letter is in response to the Iowa State Daily’s Sept. 30 editorial, “Bake sale upheld value of free speech,” about the bake sale at the Southern Methodist University campus.

The big problem everyone is missing is that affirmative action was poorly represented, and minorities receiving it were depicted as getting something for free because of their inability to be productive in society.

No, the words never came out of anyone’s mouth, but when there is no historical education on affirmative action and the civil rights act, it does look like a handout. That is why the bake sale was cancelled.

Some people are blinded by their own environment and don’t see oppression and the Constitutional, even blatant racism minorities face on a daily basis.

If one were to claim the idea that it is now an equal race for all in the capitalist system, white men still own 76 percent of the market. They didn’t just take over the market last night, either. It is what we consider a “no contest” market. When everyone else was being socially oppressed, they harnessed everything.

However, the bake sale wasn’t telling that part of the story at all.

Affirmative action will always be needed anywhere minorities exist in a society. In almost every case, minorities are misrepresented or are simply ignored.

Peris Chamberlain

Senior

Industrial Technology