It’s high time we stop acting as if the progressive woke crowd is some invincible Leviathan that can’t be stopped. Yes, the hard left still has the upper hand at the moment. It dominates most of America’s major institutions.
But even a cursory look at the landscape shows that this giant can bleed.
Take, for example, the saga surrounding the feud between Gibson’s Bakery in Ohio and Oberlin College. The conflict has finally come to an end, and this particular David has defeated a woke Goliath. And he didn’t even need to use a sling this time.
For those unfamiliar with the story, the situation began when Gibson’s, a bakery with deep roots in the community, came under fire from adherents of wokeism at the college after an altercation with some of its students. In 2016, some non-white students tried to swipe alcohol from the establishment. When caught, a Gibson family member gave chase as the students fled the store. The students attacked him for trying to retrieve the company’s property.
The family member contacted the authorities, who arrested the students shortly thereafter. Students and faculty began accusing the bakery of racism for its “treatment” of the hooligans. The race-baiting continued even after the suspects conceded that race did not play a part in the altercation.
The Daily Wire reported:
But other students and faculty accused the bakery of racism and staged protests outside, with Oberlin officials fully endorsing and supporting the protestors’ false narrative. Further, while Oberlin claimed in court the protests were peaceful, some demonstrators entered the bakery and harassed customers, taking pictures of them and making disparaging comments. They also blocked customers from moving down the aisles and slashed the tires of a store employee.
Behind the scenes, Oberlin administrators trashed the bakery and anyone who defended it, calling defenders “idiots” and saying, “F*** them.”
But instead of tolerating the unfair attacks, Gibson’s went on the offense. Their weapon? The legal system. They filed a defamation lawsuit against the college, claiming the accusations of racism were not only false but had a detrimental impact on their business. In their motion to ask the court to compel the college to pay damages, the Gibsons elaborated on how the situation affected their company:
The continuing conduct of which the Gibsons have become aware and which has brought the Gibsons to their knees include the following: Oberlin College’s authorized new student tour guides are still being heard to say don’t shop at Gibsons Bakery when the tours pass in front of the store; neither the College, its administrators, nor its professors have resumed any ordering of the Gibson’s products for College events; and notices still denigrating the Gibsons are posted in College buildings for students and their families to see.
In court, the college’s lawyers claimed it attempted to calm down the students staging protests in front of the business. However, it was revealed that their statements had a rather tenuous relationship with the truth.
Officer Victor Ortiz, who was responsible for keeping the peace at the demonstrations, said, “I didn’t see anyone trying to calm the students down at all.”
He explained that “people were getting flyers shoved in their faces saying Gibson’s were racist, curse words were chanted, and they chanted how this business was racist too.”
The officer stressed that he saw no college staff “instructing the students not to use curse words and didn’t hear any of them tell their students not to shout that Gibson’s is racist.”
A jury originally awarded the bakery $36 million in damages. But the college used every means available to oppose the verdict. However, on Tuesday, Gibson’s hit pay dirt and won its case. The state Supreme Court refused to hear Oberlin’s appeal, which means it’s time for the college to pay up.
This is not the only instance in which the non-woke crowd has successfully pushed back against the progressive left – and won. Parental rights advocacy group Parents Defending Education forced Wellesley Public Schools in Massachusetts to stop implementing racial affinity groups, which excluded students based on skin color. How? They filed a lawsuit and won.
It is one of several examples showing how non-wokies can fight back against the progressive agenda through the legal system. There are now several conservative legal nonprofits dedicated to doing just that. Of course, lawfare is not the only weapon we have. But it has already been shown to be a critical way to stymie the hard left’s agenda and will be useful in this ongoing battle.
