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U.S. NEWS Monday 11 deceMber 2017

Racial dispute at beloved bakery roils liberal college town

By DAKE KANG Oberlin professor Roger
Associated Press Copeland.
OBERLIN, Ohio (AP) — Stu- The three students were
dents at Oberlin College arrested after punch-
have long enjoyed pas- ing and kicking the white
tries, bagels and choco- shopkeeper. The 18- and
lates from Gibson’s Bak- 19-year-old students said
ery, a century-old, family- that they were racially pro-
owned business near cam- filed and that their only
pus. That sweet relationship crime was trying to buy al-
has turned bitter amid hotly cohol with fake identifica-
disputed accusations of tion; the shopkeeper, Allyn
racism, roiling a school and Gibson, said the students
town long known for their attacked him after he
liberal politics. caught them trying to steal
The dispute, which began bottles of wine.
in November 2016 with the The day after the arrests,
arrest of three black Ober- hundreds of students pro-
lin students who tried steal- tested outside the bakery.
ing wine from Gibson’s, is Members of Oberlin’s stu-
now a lawsuit in which the dent senate published a
exasperated bakery own- resolution saying Gibson’s
ers accuse the college and had “a history of racial pro-
a top dean of slandering filing and discriminatory Pedestrians pass the storefront of Gibson’s Food Mart & Bakery in Oberlin, Ohio. A long relationship
between one of Americas most liberal colleges and 132-year-old family-owned Gibson’s is in
Gibson’s as a “racist estab- treatment.” tatters amid student allegations of racial profiling. The bakery filed a lawsuit last month accusing
lishment” and taking steps Few colleges put the “lib- the college and a top dean of slandering Gibson’s as a racist establishment and taking steps to
to destroy the family’s liveli- eral” into “liberal arts” more destroy the family’s livelihood.
hood. than Oberlin, which in the (AP Photo/Dake Kang)
Caught in the middle are early 1800s became the spreading online, bikers provide evidence or exam- slander, accusing faculty
longtime residents of this first in the country to regu- and out-of-town counter- ples of profiling, they said members of encouraging
town of 8,300 people, larly admit women and protesters soon converged only that when black stu- demonstrations against
many of whom identify minorities. But it also more on the town to jeer students dents enter the store, they the bakery by suspending
themselves as liberals but recently has become, for and buy doughnuts from feel as though they’re be- classes, distributing flyers,
who have patronized Gib- conservatives, a symbol of Gibson’s. Conservatives ing watched. and supplying protesters
son’s for decades. Many political correctness gone derided the students on “Racism can’t always be with free food and drink.
believe the timing was right awry and entitled youth. social media as coddled proven on an Excel sheet,” It says Raimondo took
for the conflict to boil over; News articles in 2015 quot- “snowflakes” with a mob said Kameron Dunbar, an part in the demonstration
the arrests came the day ed students decrying the mentality, while students Oberlin junior and vice against Gibson’s with a
after Donald Trump won school dining hall’s sushi attacked the store as a chair of the student senate. bullhorn and distributed a
the presidential election, and Vietnamese banh mi symbol of systemic racism. Copeland and other resi- flyer that said the bakery
electrifying students who sandwiches as cultural ap- The three students arrested dents say the accusations is a “RACIST establishment
had long heard suspicions propriation. The divisive, at Gibson’s pleaded guilty of racism are unfounded. with a LONG ACCOUNT of
of racial profiling at Gib- voice-of-a-generation in August to attempted “I’ve never seen evidence; RACIAL PROFILING and DIS-
son’s. actress Lena Dunham, theft and aggravated tres- it’s always hearsay,” Co- CRIMINATION.”
“I can understand why famously a 2008 Oberlin passing and said in state- peland said. “When your Today, the lawsuit says, col-
people were looking for alumna, was quoted in ments required by a plea fellow student is shutting lege tour guides continue
some outlet for their frustra- Food & Wine magazine as agreement that their ac- down a conversation be- to inform prospective stu-
tion, but it’s just counterpro- saying, “The press reported tions were wrong and that cause he or she is made dents that Gibson’s is racist.
ductive to bend that anger it as, ‘How crazy are Ober- the store wasn’t racist. uncomfortable, it leads to Dave Gibson, the bakery’s
towards a small family busi- lin kids?’ But to me, it was Even so, students continue a hive mentality.” owner, says the lawsuit is
ness that to my knowledge actually, ‘Right on.’” to boycott Gibson’s over On Nov. 7, the Gibsons about standing up for his
is not guilty of the sort of With Oberlin’s reputation perceived racial profiling, sued Oberlin and Meredith right to crack down on
racial profiling that people preceding it and news causing business to suffer. Raimondo, vice president shoplifting without being
accuse it of,” said retired of the Gibson’s protests Pressed by a reporter to and dean of students, for branded as a racist. q