Tensions are high at the University of California, Berkeley, where the College Republicans (BCR) are under fire for plans to host a satirical “Increase Diversity” bake sale on Tuesday, September 27. BCR will sell baked items on Sproul Plaza, altering the price of the goods depending on the buyer’s ethnicity.
The bake sale was scheduled to coincide with another event being planned by the Associated Students of the University of California (ASUC), Berkeley’s student government. During this event, students who pass by will be encouraged to call California legislators and Governor Jerry Brown, and ask them to support a law permitting state universities to consider race and ethnicity as factors for admissions.
In its attempt to criticize affirmative action through satire, the BCR bake sale was rebuked by ASUC Sunday night. The senate passed a resolution that “condemns the use of discrimination whether it is in satire or in seriousness by any student group.”
The Republicans plan to list the price of baked goods, including cupcakes and brownies, as a function of the buyer’s ethnic origins. Caucasian students will see a price of $2.00 per item; Asians, $1.50; Latinos, $1.00; Africans, $0.75; and Native Americans, $0.25. Women will get a 25-cent discount.
Acting in compliance with standing law and campus regulations, BCR will not adhere to their listed prices. Instead, they will allow students to name their own price.
The consensus among BCR members is that universities should consider socioeconomic factors in their admissions decisions–such as exposure to adversity, family income, and quality of local schools–rather than race, ethnicity, or national origin.According to BCR President Shawn Lewis, the bake sale aims to protest racial preferences.
“The bake sale would run concurrently with the phone bank as a protest against both the ASUC, which BCR feels is misusing its authority as representatives of the student body, and the Legislature, which BCR maintains is promoting discrimination with SB 185,” Lewis said.
The response from the student body has been mixed. While some support the event and the group’s right to hold it, others called for boycotts and disruptive behavior. BCR organizers received threats and canceled their recruitment tabling on Friday due to concerns about volunteers’ personal safety.
The backlash also prompted ASUC to organize a public “town hall” meeting at a local student co-operative housing complex. Within minutes of the start of the meeting, the ASUC group Student Action was removed, as were local media, including UC Berkeley’s student paper, the Daily Californian.
One witness, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that the student Republicans were also forced to leave. Some Hispanic and black members of BCR argued that they should be allowed to stay because of how the debate would impact them, but they too were removed.
Organizers said that the purpose of the meeting was to discuss “how to wipe BCR off campus,” and suppressed any discussion or dissent, saying, “If you have something to say that is negative to our message, please leave. This is not the time or place for debate.”
The atmosphere was very hostile, according to the witness.
“There was lots of profanity, and they made it very hostile to the very few white people present,” the witness said. “Some guys said, ‘Why are there white people here?’ and ‘I fucking hate white people.’ I felt like the target of racism indirectly, seeing that.”
The meeting was then moved to the campus multicultural center to alleviate some of the overcrowding, but the doors were closed to the public, in violation of campus regulations governing the use of school property. Another attendee, present with a hidden recording device, captured the second meeting and created a partial transcript in which he identified Anthony Galace, an ASUC senator, and Maricela Acosta, a La Raza caucus facilitator.
One woman at the meeting was recorded saying, “I personally feel like, well I learned this early this week in my classes that we have to separate white people from whiteness.”
BCR also dealt with criticism on the Facebook page for the bake sale. Student Kirk Coleman wrote, “Affirmative action is not racist, and there is no such thing as racism towards white people.”
Another student, Marya Gonzalez wrote, “Colorblindness=racism just thought you should know.”
Despite the outpouring of hostility, the Berkeley College Republicans are not giving in, and still plan to host the bake sale on Tuesday.
Andrew Glidden is a student at the University of California, Berkeley, and an SFPA Contributor.
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