Althouse: The right to refuse to make a racist cake...

September 26, 2016

The right to refuse to make a racist cake...

... and to form your own opinion about what constitutes racism....

... and to apologize if commercial interests indicate you made the wrong call.

41 comments:

Eric the Fruit Bat said...: Getting a POW/MIA cake would be pretty funny.; 9/26/16, 12:01 PM
JackWayne said...: it's a cliche that when one side breaks all the rules, the other side has no other course than to do the same. I hope that the big government lovers in this country love the future they have created where everyone punches back twice as hard. Maybe the rule of law will look a little bit better then. But it will be too late won't it? And the moderates will be wondering how it all fell apart when they had such good intentions.; 9/26/16, 12:02 PM
Brent said...: So glad it wasn't about a protected class . . .; 9/26/16, 12:06 PM
Chris said...: Couldn't they just kneel during the decoration? That seems to be the popular compromise these days.; 9/26/16, 12:07 PM
John henry said...: So they can refuse to make a cake that they perceive as racist.

But they can't refuse to make a cake celebrating gay weddings?

This is so fucked.

John Henry; 9/26/16, 12:07 PM
BarrySanders20 said...: Insect politics- easy
Cake politics - hard; 9/26/16, 12:12 PM
YoungHegelian said...: And all the Lefties thought that the only problem with this compelled-speech business would be only with those superstitious Christian hicks.

Look, I know I'm a philosophy geek & I'm fucked in the head because I like to read Kant for fun, but it just amazes me when I've to remind otherwise intelligent people:

There's religious morality based on revealed theology & there's moral philosophy based on human reason. That's it. If you don't believe in the religious morality, well, you're left with moral philosophy. And the only thing certain in moral philosophy is that there's nothing certain in moral philosophy. That includes your sacred cows.; 9/26/16, 12:12 PM
DAN said...: A favorite line from the NYT Lionel Shriver piece you tipped us to last week, "People who would hamper free speech always assume that they’re designing a world in which only their enemies will have to shut up."; 9/26/16, 12:28 PM
Joe said...: How is that racist?

Walmart should fire whoever made that cake. I suspect there are some very uncomfortable Walmart meetings going on right now in Georgia. (When crap like this happens, it usually means there are serious problems in middle-management and its likely that the store manager has contempt for customers or is indifferent--or out so often all the managers know his/her opinion doesn't matter.); 9/26/16, 12:29 PM
Joe said...: To clarify. The so-called new cake is so amateurishly done, Walmart should be embarrassed.; 9/26/16, 12:32 PM
Rob said...: The authoritarian instinct is strong among the so-called progressives. Take a look at Jay Rosen's media blog post--especially the comments--for a frightening look at the desire for suppression.

As for me, in light of this incident, I'm not going to be purchasing my winter frock at Walmart.; 9/26/16, 12:32 PM
rhhardin said...: Not the same people for the different levels. The employee follows the company policy or gets fired, is the rule.

Freedom of association should apply around that.; 9/26/16, 12:32 PM
James Pawlak said...: Did they fire the Fascist employee?; 9/26/16, 12:36 PM
CWJ said...: This is as it should be. Wal-Mart can refuse the cake and suffer the market consequences, good, bad, or nothing. Note that no one is filing suit in this case, nor is government stepping in to force the issue one way or the other.; 9/26/16, 12:39 PM
Steve M. Galbraith said...: It's all about power now. Who has and who doesn't.

If you have it then use it against your adversary (enemy?); because you know they'll do the same.

Tribalism on steroids.

As Nixon would say, "We're all statists now."; 9/26/16, 12:58 PM
Comanche Voter said...: Well an appropriate response is to take that "make up cake" offered by Walmart and shove it in that bozo manager's face. Not that I'm advocating violence or anything like that. Wouldn't be a bad idea to take that gay wedding cake the Oregon bakers were forced to bake and shove it in the judge's face either.

But on a more restrained note; people should be free to refuse to do certain things that are morally repugnant to them or violate their core beliefs. Taken too far, that means that a Ku Klux Kloset guy should be able to push a black man away from a white's only water fountain. So there is a limit; but if I argue that the Oregon baker or the Washington florist should be able to ask a gay couple to take their business down the street to someone else who can and will provide the same service to them, then I have to argue that a low level cake decorator in a Georgia Walmart can refuse to decorate a Blue Lives Matter cake. You can question a person's belief; you can say that it is not rational or based on voodoo superstition (atheists like to describe religion in that way). But ultimately, like Bartleby the Scrivener, a person ought to be able to say,"I would prefer not to do that."

The world would be a better place if people tolerated that right.; 9/26/16, 12:59 PM
Unknown said...: "The right to refuse to make a racist cake..."

The principle is important, but the title suggests that the cake design was, in fact, racist. Was this the Althouse intent? (I suspect not.); 9/26/16, 1:01 PM
damikesc said...: Store had every right to say no. If it requires somebody's labor, then "no" should be allowed. The market will punish them if warranted.; 9/26/16, 1:07 PM
James Pawlak said...: "Saying NO"----Does that apply to "straight" backers who refuse to do a wedding cake for a same-sex "marriage"?; 9/26/16, 1:13 PM
The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...: "Unknown said...
"The right to refuse to make a racist cake..."

The principle is important, but the title suggests that the cake design was, in fact, racist. Was this the Althouse intent? (I suspect not.)"

The shitheel employee said it was racist, Unknown. Try to keep up.; 9/26/16, 1:15 PM
mockturtle said...: You're getting as bad as the NYT with your intentionally misleading headlines. 'Racist cake?'; 9/26/16, 1:15 PM
n.n said...: Smurfs?; 9/26/16, 1:39 PM
Known Unknown said...: "You're getting as bad as the NYT with your intentionally misleading headlines. 'Racist cake?'"

Read the very next line, mock. The blue linky one.; 9/26/16, 2:18 PM
JaimeRoberto said...: How can a cake be racist? Did it refuse to be eaten by black people? Did it give them an upset stomach?; 9/26/16, 2:32 PM
jg said...: stupid stuff. but i would much rather everyone just argue vociferously about the rules surrounding cake-making-policy than indulge in recreational rioting / highway blocking.
wal-mart wouldn't decorate a police-retirement cake because it was 'racist' in their estimation. ok, let's delve deep into THAT very significant issue ...
it's not even remotely about police wrongly killing innocents (which does happen, sadly).; 9/26/16, 2:52 PM
Anonymous said...: There is alt right racism and alt left racism. With the media ignoring alt left racism for political objectives and conflating the generic term racism with alt right thought. The term racism only exists today as a transformation made by the alt left to control conversation. Similar to the purging methods of Maoists in China. The alt right at times tends to accept the alt left definition in the face of bad pr.; 9/26/16, 2:56 PM
Andrew said...: I only shop at Walmart for ammo, ammo for when the blue lives are running late.

In my world SJWs enhance my leisure time, I enjoy saying "FUCK OFF!".; 9/26/16, 2:59 PM
southcentralpa said...: I would give all the cake self-righteousness more credence if the SJWs had immediately swarmed the Dearborn Muslim bakeries who refused to make a gay "wedding" cake: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgWIhYAtan4

Some cake-refusers are apparently more equal than others ...; 9/26/16, 3:33 PM
JCC said...: So the Walmart manager is unable to make his employees do their job? And this all seems OK to the left, racism trumps rights to cake-baking whenever and however you want that cake?

OK.

Just more overt hypocrisy. Why isn't Walmart getting fined a bazillion dollars a day they don't produce that cake?; 9/26/16, 3:47 PM
Laslo Spatula said...: I Googled it, and no one on the first few pages has claimed it, so therefore:

I propose all Cake Decorators who refuse to Frost PC Messages on the cake to be now called 'Cake Deniers'.

"Have a Great Day" on your cake? What -- with Global Warming? There ARE no Great Days anymore: you are a Cake Denier!"

Soon all heretic messages will be passed along on cakes: cake samizdat.

I am The Replacement Laslo.; 9/26/16, 3:47 PM
n.n said...: Class diversity. Apparently, cakes can also be divided into colorful clumps of dough. However, there is no moral imperative to recognize the individual dignity of a cake.; 9/26/16, 3:47 PM
Jupiter said...: Comanche Voter said...

"... people should be free to refuse to do certain things that are morally repugnant to them or violate their core beliefs. Taken too far, that means that a Ku Klux Kloset guy should be able to push a black man away from a white's only water fountain. So there is a limit...".

What you are saying, CV, is that "taken too far", someone might exercise their rights in ways that you don't approve of, and therefore those rights don't exist.; 9/26/16, 4:22 PM
jr565 said...: "This is as it should be. Wal-Mart can refuse the cake and suffer the market consequences, good, bad, or nothing. Note that no one is filing suit in this case, nor is government stepping in to force the issue one way or the other."

Will they face the govt fine though?; 9/26/16, 4:42 PM
jr565 said...: for example, the bakery that didnt bake the gay marriage wedding cake had to pay a 135,000 dollar fine. Shoudnt Walmart have to pay a similar fine?; 9/26/16, 4:45 PM
Rick said...: I can't find any reference to them being fired, but they should be. What fools to claim this is racist.; 9/26/16, 5:32 PM
Curious George said...: Is it just me or do you imagine some cop saying to himself "30 years on the force, put my life on the line to serve and protect, and they go me a cake from Walmart?" I mean google "McDonough Georgia bakery" and ask again, Walmart?; 9/26/16, 5:39 PM
Char Char Binks, Esq. said...: "Racist" is a word the left uses to silence dissent. The way some of them use it, I'd be ashamed not to be called racist.; 9/26/16, 6:05 PM
jaed said...: "Cake samizdat" is worthy of Laslo Classic.

Noted.; 9/26/16, 6:30 PM
traditionalguy said...: N.B. This is more than a normal event It is the WalMart black managers in charge acting out as show off racists, pure and simple. They told a person honoring a relative with a cake to go to hell based on their skin color. Freedom is not having to deal with demands of privileged white people.

This public relations event is a symptom of an organized racist political push to flip a close to the tipping point Metro Atlanta County to black Government officials. This is a county that is currently being flooded with Soros money that bought and is running racist black candidates, while bribing white opponents to withdraw after election qualifying was closed.; 9/26/16, 10:13 PM
Michael Fitzgerald said...: jr565 said...
for example, the bakery that didnt bake the gay marriage wedding cake had to pay a 135,000 dollar fine. Shoudnt Walmart have to pay a similar fine?
9/26/16, 4:45 PM

I think it might depend on who fined the Christian bakery. Was it a federal entity like the DOJ or a state or local post like a licensing commission or something? If the feds fined the Christians and let these cop-haters walk scot-free, well, that will only be the latest example of the corrupt and partisan nature of the democrat party controlled federal government.; 9/26/16, 10:38 PM
damikesc said...: for example, the bakery that didnt bake the gay marriage wedding cake had to pay a 135,000 dollar fine. Shoudnt Walmart have to pay a similar fine?

If it was the same state, yes. I'd ask how that fine doesn't run afoul of "cruel and unusual punishment". It seems unbelievably excessive.; 9/27/16, 7:03 AM