By Terence Chea
The Associated Press
Image by Stacy Nguyen/NWAW
BERKELEY, Calif. — UC Berkeley student leaders have condemned a Republican group’s satirical diversity bake sale offering pastry prices based on race and gender.
The Republican group says the bake sale is meant to show how affirmative action is a form of discrimination. Students will be charged different prices based on race, gender, and ethnicity.
“Measuring any admit’s merit based on race is intrinsically racist,” according to the event posting on Facebook. “The purpose of the event is to offer another view to this policy of considering race in university admissions.”
Student senators at the campus say in a 19-0 vote on Sunday that the bake sale is discriminatory.
The San Francisco Chronicle says the Berkeley College Republicans still held the bake sale the following Tuesday on campus.
Joey Freeman, a spokesman for the student body association, said campus Republicans have the right to organize against the legislation and the campus phone-in effort, but he doesn’t approve of their tactics.
“It is very offensive to many communities on campus,” Freeman said. “We try to promote a healthy campus climate. Events like this bake sale get in the way of respect for one another.”
The event is designed to denounce a bill now on Gov. Jerry Brown’s desk that would allow California public universities to consider race, ethnicity, and gender in student admissions.
California has barred the consideration of race, ethnicity, or gender in public college admissions, hiring, and contracting since voters approved Proposition 209 in 1996.
The GOP group on Tuesday sold baked goods priced according to race, gender, and ethnicity: “White/Caucasian” pastries for $2, “Asian/American” for $1.50, “Latino/Hispanic” for $1, “Black/African American” for 75 cents, and “Native American” for a quarter. Women get a 25-cent discount. (end)