The student government has stepped up ahead of Tuesday’s racist bake sale.
In response to a planned, racist bake sale hosted by the Berkeley College Republicans featuring baked goods priced based on the race of the buyer, the University of California Berkeley student government convened Sunday and voted to condemn all discriminatory activities on campus.
BCR’s "Increase Diversity Bake Sale" is planned for Tuesday and takes aim at a bill currently under consideration by Gov. Jerry Brown that would allow the University of California and California State University to consider race, ethnicity and gender in student admissions. The bake sale was timed to coincide with another campus event in support of the bill.
BCR will sell the sweets to white men for $2, Asian men for $1.50, Latino men for $1, Black men for $0.75 and Native American men for $0.25. All women will get $0.25 off those prices.
“We agree that the event is inherently racist, but that is the point,” wrote BCR President Shawn Lewis on the group’s website. “It is no more racist than giving an individual an advantage in college admissions based solely on their race or gender.”
In response, the student government adopted a bill of their own, condemning the discriminatory conduct of any kind. Although there will be no university-backed penalties for the action, the students have requested a partnership between the Chancellor's Task Force for Hate and Bias and the student government's Commission on Diversity Affairs "to initiate a dialogue on encouraging a respectful campus climate and courteous student group conduct."
Tuesday’s controversial bake sale certainly isn’t the first of its kind. Texas A&M University’s Young Republicans drew similar outrage for their bake sale in 2003 and Georgia Institute of Technology students cried foul when their bake sale was shut down in 2006.
(Photo: REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst)
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