Let’s thank Southern Methodist University and weak-minded affirmative-action proponents for making cookies offensive.

A bake sale held Sept. 23 by the Young Conservatives of Texas at SMU was shut down less than an hour after it began. The bake sale was meant as a simple example of the flaws the group sees in affirmative action.

So to that end, they priced cookies like this: White women paid 75 cents for a cookie, Hispanics paid 75 cents and blacks paid 25 cents. White males paid a full dollar for the baked goods. Other groups on other campuses have done this type of thing without a hitch.

But SMU shut down the bake sale on the grounds that it was making a potentially unsafe situation. That may have been a legitimate reason given that the shouting matches the sale sparked might have escalated into physical violence. But the university should be in the business of protecting free speech and punishing those who attempt to violently stifle it, not the other way around.

It is sad this incident caused a student to file a discrimination complaint, saying the bake sale was offensive.

Is that how much higher education’s stomach for freedom of expression has weakened, that challenging an inherent inequity in public policy is now considered “offensive”? If the university wants to create an environment where people are challenged to think and defend themselves, then it should let this bake sale go on.

Because just what message is being sent by wanting to choke off freedom of expression on this matter?

Is it saying the proponents of affirmative action are unable to defend themselves?

Or is it maintaining that the admissions policies that use affirmative action really are unjust?

Yes, the Young Conservatives may have vastly simplified the issue, because affirmative action is not just about giving minorities a cheaper ticket to education — it’s also about bringing diversity to the academic environment.

But if voices of diversity are so important that affirmative action is needed, then let them speak out. Let them hold their own peaceful demonstration. Let them shed light on the other side of a difficult issue.

The best way in an intellectual and democratic environment to counter speech you find offensive is to respond by exercising your own free speech. Those who support affirmative action and the halt of this bake sale face the ultimate irony of protecting the notion of diversity by reducing the diversity of free speech.

That is what you — whether you are for or against affirmative action — should truly find offensive about this issue.