JC

Back in 2016, Oberlin College encouraged and supported students and faculty in falsely accusing the local Gibson’s Bakery of RACISM. The bakery then sued the college for defamation, its lawyers enduring years of every dirty legal trick a large, well-funded woke college could throw at them, but a jury eventually awarded the little bakery $36 million in damages.

More years of appeals followed. But yesterday, Ohio’s Supreme Court turned down Oberlin’s final appeal 4-3, meaning the school will now have to stroke a check to the bakery it nearly put out of business with its reckless, goofy, woke nonsense.

Justice. This is the kind of thing that makes lawyering worthwhile.

The back story is that in 2016, several diverse Oberlin students attempted to steal booze from Gibson’s, a local family-owned bakery near campus that had long served the Oberlin community. A family member who noticed the theft chased the students out of the store; they attacked him. He called the police, the students were arrested, pleaded guilty, and finally admitted race had nothing whatsoever to do with their arrest.

But that didn’t stop Oberlin. Students and faculty members called the bakery owners racists; they staged protests outside; and Oberlin officials participated in the protests, endorsing and supporting the protestors’ fake narrative. Protestors harassed bakery customers, taking pictures and insulting them. They also blocked customers from store aisles and slashed the tires of a store employee.

In private emails later unearthed by Gibson’s hardworking lawyers, Oberlin’s degreed and credentialed administrators can be seen constantly vilifying the tiny bakery and anyone who defended the small business, calling Gibson defenders “idiots” and saying, “F*** them.”

Best and brightest! Oberlin parents, you sure are getting your money’s worth! In case the sarcasm wasn’t clear, by “sure are,” I mean, “sure AREN’T.”

To this day, Oberlin refuses to admit it did anything wrong, has cancelled all its long-standing contracts for baked goods from Gibson’s, and officially advises its students not to shop there, all of which, as you can easily imagine, became a major talking point in the various appellate briefs filed by Gibson’s lawyers along the way. In my law practice, I call that kind of vindictive post-lawsuit behavior “self inflicted injuries.”

It’s not too difficult to imagine that, had the college just promptly apologized to Gibson’s, paid them a hundred grand, and increased a few bakery contracts, all would have been well and this would be a non-story. But that’s not how woke works. Woke means never having to say you’re sorry, even if you have to pay somebody $36 million bucks.

Apologies are racist anyways.