In theory, Oberlin College's hubris cost the school a theoretical $44 million. In practice, it'll be only $33 million, thanks to Ohio's cap on punitive damages, but it's quite a sum in any case.

The press has been quick to brand the whole debacle a "racial profiling case," but this gets everything backwards. The exact reason Oberlin's about to pay out some 3% of their endowment to a family grocery store is because there was no racial profiling, yet officers of their institution helped spread the false and defamatory accusation that there was.

In November 2016, an employee of the family-owned Gibson's Food Market and Bakery suspected an Oberlin student was stealing wine and subsequently followed and got into a scuffle with the student and two of his acquaintances. The three students were arrested, and all three eventually pleaded guilty to attempted theft and aggravated trespass. The initial suspect also pleaded guilty to underage consumption. It was a simple case of college students trying to steal alcohol because they were too young to purchase it.

This is where the story ought to have ended, but instead Oberlin's students began a campaign to brand Gibson's as racist, as the three students involved were black. The campaign to boycott and smear Gibson's began with students, but as much as Oberlin tried to convince the court, the grocery store owners provided ample evidence that university officials had assisted in the making and distribution of libelous fliers. Oberlin also officially suspended business with Gibson's altogether because of this false case of discrimination.

So an Ohio jury issued a declarative shot directed squarely at Oberlin. It's a warning to every other school that thinks it can wage a social justice war on private businesses using the common "by any means" strategy of lying in order to increase awareness.

The "woke" aspect of Oberlin's war is the least interesting aspect of this case. Colleges across the country are creating cultures openly hostile to all forms of political dissent and indulgent in reveling in victimhood. The severity of the punitive damages demonstrates that courts are finally taking this new reality seriously. Technically, Oberlin is a private nonprofit institution. It also charges about $50,000 for annual tuition and fees, takes in millions in direct federal funding, and, like the overwhelming majority of American universities, is indirectly subsidized by taxpayer-funded student loans.

The city of Oberlin has fewer than 9,000 residents, about 3,000 of whom are students of the college. An entity with both the moral and financial authority of a university has government-granted ability to destroy a private business. The jury wasn't going to let a subsidized Goliath kill David in this case.

Oberlin's payout is going to hurt, and rightly so. Universities have overstepped their mandate, dictating the fortunes of entire towns not just by the dollar but by the moral rule of the "intersectional" academy. The threat of a $33 million judgment might just make other universities hesitate before running the same gambit against a mom and pop shop.