Periodically, in what seems like a never-ending assault on our basic values and the rule of law, good news emerges.
The good news now is the unanimous decision of a panel of three judges on an Ohio Court of Appeals, supporting a jury decision in favor of Gibson’s Bakery in its case against Oberlin College.
Gibson’s Bakery sued Oberlin College for libel, intentional infliction of emotional distress and intentional interference with a business relationship, because of the school’s involvement and support of student demonstrations accusing the bakery of racial profiling and discrimination.
The decision is worthy of our attention because it shows just how troubling the situation is at our colleges and universities.
As our nation leans increasingly to the left, as our most basic values — now called conservative values — are being pushed out the door, while they are displaced by the chaos of moral relativism, some bold individuals — in this case, the proprietors of Gibson’s Bakery in Oberlin, Ohio — refuse to be intimidated and concede.
And that refusal has paid off for the Gibson family and for all Americans who care about truth.
Oberlin College now must pay $33 million in punitive damages and $11 million in compensatory damages to Gibson’s Bakery.
In brief, a Black student from Oberlin was chased down by the son of the store’s proprietor when he saw him shoplift a bottle of wine.
The student, and two of his friends who then got involved, were arrested by the police and all subsequently pleaded guilty.
But the incident set off student demonstrations outside this mom and pop bakery, started by David Gibson’s great-grandfather in 1885.
The owners were branded racists, and flyers were handed out claiming that the store had a history of “racial profiling and discrimination.”
Hopefully, the lawsuit filed and won by the Gibson family will put a damper on the casual use of these horrible accusations.
The snapshot we now have of the academic and social reality at Oberlin College, which has a reputation as one of the nation’s premier liberal arts colleges, is deeply troubling.
Oberlin is now on the line for millions of dollars in damages because its own school administrators are so self-absorbed in their own liberal dogma that they can no longer think clearly, honestly and objectively.
The college maintains a website dedicated to the case, and now, even after they have experienced such a devastating defeat in court, they are still in denial about what happened.
Particularly troubling is that the school administration refuses to accept that this case was not about the First Amendment but about their support of their own students to libel the Gibson family.
Over the years, I have spoken at almost 300 colleges and universities, and I have watched and experienced these campuses taken over by dogma and left-wing activists.
In a study published in 2020 by the National Association of Scholars, 12,372 college and university faculty were surveyed regarding political affiliation.
Over the full sample, 8.4 were registered Democrat for each registered Republican. At Oberlin College, this ratio was 10.8 to 1.
Given that over the whole American population, the ratio of those identifying as Democrat to Republican is about 1 to 1, we get a picture of the incredibly distorted reality that has captured higher education.
In the last presidential election, former President Donald Trump won the vote of those with no college degree, 50% to 48%. However, he lost the vote of college graduates 43% to 55%.
The nation is indebted to the Gibson family for refusing to be intimidated by left-wing dogmatists at Oberlin and for standing hard and fast for what is true.
But despite this important victory, we remain with a big problem that young Americans are getting college degrees and learning how not to think.
Star Parker is president of the Center for Urban Renewal and Education and host of the weekly television show “Cure America with Star Parker.”
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Hooray!
You called it out correctly in that last line…”young Americans are getting college degrees and learning how not to think.” That’s been the point all along…don’t think, just do what we, the government, tell you to do. Don’t question, don’t have open and respectful discussions with someone who has different opinions and whatever you do-vote Democrat!! (Bitter sarcasm, if unrecognizable.)
I’m almost 60 and I’ve never seen the world go to hell in a such a fancy designer handbag (which is the second most polluting industry in the world-just behind the oil production the leftists scream about while wearing designer fashions) so fast.
Amazing that private company’s like facebook and twitter, etc can run their private business as they see fit and even deny people their first amendment rights of free speech, ban the president, congress people and ordinary joe’s, yet a conservative baker refuses to bake a cake for a gay couple, and gets ruined. How can one private company discriminate, yet another can’t ? AND the big company’s get special protection from unconstitutional congressional laws. States need to quit playing footsy with the federal gov as it no longer knows it’s bounds. For more information one may want to check out tactical civics. Learn what has been forgotten.
Another point in the article. Liberals CANNOT ADMIT THEY ARE WRONG! That is because they think mankind ( and themselves, particularly) are perfectable without God. Not so! Conservatives know that because of sin, mankind is fatally flawed, and in dire need of our Savior, Jesus.
This is an encouraging outcome. I do not think we will see anything about it in the nightly news.
Hooray for the Gibsons!!!
Good for them, I sincerely hope they are able to collect!
If I were the Gibson’s, I’d move away. Liberals and many of the more stupid students at the university will seek revenge. I hope the Gibson family collects a bundle from this university.
Somewhere in time common sense will prevail and fairness….like all young people of all generations have known to wake up….
Good for Gibson’s. Maybe this Court decision will embolden the residents of the town to vote out the current mayor and overturn the sanctuary city declaration. Maybe the College will have to raise tuition so much that non-binary students won’t be able to attend and whine about the men working on the dorms’ heating and plumbing systems.
Oberlin College once had a reputation for standing up for justice; they were once a stop on the Underground Railroad. How the founders must be spinning in their graves.
So, college educated adults tend to vote less for Trump and more for the Democrat. It seems there is value to education after all.
De-fund the schools.
Great story here & hopefully it sets a precedent for the other liberal to the extreme radical colleges all over this nation as it brings to mind a school right here in my home state of Vermont, i.e. Middlebury College…Middlebury College represents to any conservative based speaker to avoid at all costs now as quite recently a conservative based speaker was not only heckled throughout by both the students & the professors, it got violent enough to the point the speaker needed a police escort off of the campus…Middlebury ceased being a school of higher learning many years ago now & it has become that ” radical indoctrination center ” these kids parents, most of whom are middle to upper middle class income wise are spending on their children’s supposed higher education in a school right here in Vermont…
Oberlin College is a classic example with respect my above mentioned VT college.
I praise the judge in coming to a plausible verdict & giving a small bakery some vindication in the application of Rule of Law in this particular case… Kudo’s to Gibson’s Bakery in their Victory of Truth.
Bill… :~)
Excellent commentary. Hugh win.
Hooray!
You called it out correctly in that last line…”young Americans are getting college degrees and learning how not to think.” That’s been the point all along…don’t think, just do what we, the government, tell you to do. Don’t question, don’t have open and respectful discussions with someone who has different opinions and whatever you do-vote Democrat!! (Bitter sarcasm, if unrecognizable.)
I’m almost 60 and I’ve never seen the world go to hell in a such a fancy designer handbag (which is the second most polluting industry in the world-just behind the oil production the leftists scream about while wearing designer fashions) so fast.
Amazing that private company’s like facebook and twitter, etc can run their private business as they see fit and even deny people their first amendment rights of free speech, ban the president, congress people and ordinary joe’s, yet a conservative baker refuses to bake a cake for a gay couple, and gets ruined. How can one private company discriminate, yet another can’t ? AND the big company’s get special protection from unconstitutional congressional laws. States need to quit playing footsy with the federal gov as it no longer knows it’s bounds. For more information one may want to check out tactical civics. Learn what has been forgotten.
Another point in the article. Liberals CANNOT ADMIT THEY ARE WRONG! That is because they think mankind ( and themselves, particularly) are perfectable without God. Not so! Conservatives know that because of sin, mankind is fatally flawed, and in dire need of our Savior, Jesus.
This is an encouraging outcome. I do not think we will see anything about it in the nightly news.
Hooray for the Gibsons!!!
Good for them, I sincerely hope they are able to collect!
If I were the Gibson’s, I’d move away. Liberals and many of the more stupid students at the university will seek revenge. I hope the Gibson family collects a bundle from this university.
Somewhere in time common sense will prevail and fairness….like all young people of all generations have known to wake up….
Good for Gibson’s. Maybe this Court decision will embolden the residents of the town to vote out the current mayor and overturn the sanctuary city declaration. Maybe the College will have to raise tuition so much that non-binary students won’t be able to attend and whine about the men working on the dorms’ heating and plumbing systems.
Oberlin College once had a reputation for standing up for justice; they were once a stop on the Underground Railroad. How the founders must be spinning in their graves.
So, college educated adults tend to vote less for Trump and more for the Democrat. It seems there is value to education after all.
De-fund the schools.
Great story here & hopefully it sets a precedent for the other liberal to the extreme radical colleges all over this nation as it brings to mind a school right here in my home state of Vermont, i.e. Middlebury College…Middlebury College represents to any conservative based speaker to avoid at all costs now as quite recently a conservative based speaker was not only heckled throughout by both the students & the professors, it got violent enough to the point the speaker needed a police escort off of the campus…Middlebury ceased being a school of higher learning many years ago now & it has become that ” radical indoctrination center ” these kids parents, most of whom are middle to upper middle class income wise are spending on their children’s supposed higher education in a school right here in Vermont…
Oberlin College is a classic example with respect my above mentioned VT college.
I praise the judge in coming to a plausible verdict & giving a small bakery some vindication in the application of Rule of Law in this particular case… Kudo’s to Gibson’s Bakery in their Victory of Truth.
Bill… :~)
Excellent commentary. Hugh win.