In December 2017, as reported by TGP reporter Cassandra Fairbanks, an Ohio bakery filed a lawsuit against Oberlin College and its dean for slander, after the establishment was branded as “racist” after three black men assaulted the shopkeeper and were arrested for attempting to steal wine.
The men had claimed that they were simply trying to purchase the wine from Gibson’s Bakery using fake identification cards, but pleaded guilty to attempted theft and aggravated trespassing in August. Campus Reformreports that part of their plea agreement included an admission that their actions were wrong and that the store had no racist intentions.
Allyn Gibson, the person working at the shop at the time, was repeatedly accused of racial profiling after being assaulted by the men — though no evidence was ever provided of his alleged racism. The Oberlin Student Senate even passed a resolution claiming that Gibson had “a history of racial profiling and discriminatory treatment.”
“Racism can’t always be proven on an Excel sheet,” Kameron Dunbar, an Oberlin junior and vice chair of the student senate, told the Chicago Tribune.
For decades the college would buy baked goods from the small family-owned and operated business, but the bakery says that ended after the students were arrested. The administration reportedly told the bakery that they would restore the business relationship only if they stopped prosecuting first-time shoplifters and notified the school instead. Owner David Gibson declined the offer, citing the difficulty in determining who is a first time offender and the high cost of stolen goods.
