The bake sale strikes back
A bake sale sounds innocent enough. Most people think about cookies and muffins and maybe some girl scouts. No girl scouts were present at the September 2003 bake sale held by the Young Conservatives of Texas, and that’s where it all started.
The YCT was founded on March 2, 1980, as a nonpartisan group dedicated to “the preservation of the American Dream and a strong and free America” according to their founding principles. The Southern Methodist University chapter was founded in the fall of 2002 and ultimately recognized by the university in spring of 2003 as recorded in Chairman Reed Hanson’s YCT history.
The YCT warranted definite applause for their effort in gaining substantial media coverage for SMU and spotlight for the young organization. The next day everyone heard about the SMU bake sale that sold cookies to different ethnic groups and genders at different prices.
As Student Senate election gets closer, the YCT has something new on their agenda. The members believe that the special interest seats, such as African-American Senator, Asian-American Senator, Hispanic-American Senator and International Senator, bring about double representation and reverse discrimination. Student Body President Chip Hiemenz appointed a task force that researched the matter at hand. As the current Senate Constitution stands, in order to run for a special interest seat, the candidate must belong to that particular ethnic group. The task force made the recommendation this January that the Constitution be amended to qualify any student to run for the special interest seat regardless of his or her race.
As the recommendation surfaced, YCT’s plan also materialized. Four YCT members applied to run as candidates for each of the special interest seats. In the case of the International Senator, the YCT candidate runs uncontested. Their intentions have “warning” written all over them. They did make one mistake though. The amendment is to be voted with this election. It has not been passed. Therefore, their members cannot run for the special interest seats. Yet.
With the YCT future plans revealed, many minority students at SMU had a change of heart about the amendment. The amendment did not draw hostility when presented to the minority community. The open-minded naively considered it an adequate compromise and did not expect the rule to be abused. As it turns out, the racial restriction guarded off malicious intents. Had YCT been able to run this year, they would have gotten the International seat uncontested.
YCT is a strong and well-organized group that has brought up valid concerns. After all its influence played an important role in submitting these special interest seats under scrutiny. The members of YCT have the right to do whatever they want under the protection of freedom of speech. However, when freedom of speech becomes freedom to make a mockery out of certain people, their victims don’t need to put up with the abuse.
Nonetheless, YCT is not without diversity merits. They don’t only target ethnic minority groups. “Hippies,” “gays,” and anyone else who they believe threatens a “Strong and Free America” also fall under their realm of specialty.
The scarier part is: their agenda is fixed. Last fall, Senator Shyung, the current Asian American Senator, led a group of students to a YCT meeting to discuss matters, but they were turned away and told that the meeting was “private.” Discussing matters in a civilized manner may not be the most feasible option as Asian American Student Services Coordinator Karen Click suggested, “Don’t use your energy to talk to them. Use your energy to talk to your friends.” Talk to people who care about diversity in this community and mobilize them against a group that refuses to even consider ideas outside of their own.
Besides the barrier of apathy on campus, students simply do not know what is going on. “In our world information does not just walk up to you and say, ‘excuse me, I think you need to know this,’” said Jennifer Jones, Director of the Department of Multicultural Student Affairs. Senate election is well in sight. Major decisions with lasting impact lie in the hands of the student body. Hopefully, it lies in the hands of an informed one.
