Eyebrows and questions were raised on Tuesday when the UC Berkeley College Republicans held a bake sale in order to protest bill SB185, which would allow the University of California and California State University to take matters such as national origin, gender and ethnicity into account when determining admissions for graduates and undergraduates.
The sale occurred despite vigorous protests by students and members of the community who were outraged with the proposed intent. The event was originally advertised on a Facebook post from the Berkeley College Republicans, the final sentence reading: “Hope to see you all there! If you don’t come, you’re a racist!” Former UC Regent Ward Connerly, who helped head the movement for Proposition 209 (banning public institutions from considering ethnicity or gender from admissions), was personally involved in the bake sale. In a message to the campus community prior to the sale, UC Berkeley administrators reported that the sale provided “a vivid lesson that issues of race, ethnicity and gender are far from resolves, and very much a part of lived experience here and now.”
The bake sale made its point with a sliding scale pay rate for confections; white students were charged $2. Latino students, meanwhile, had to divvy up $1. Black students paid 75 cents, and the Native American community were levied 25 cents; women received a 25 cent discount on top of their ethnicity. The college group stated that the event was intentionally racist in order to draw comparisons to the bill.
The bake sale has since resulted in a change of University policy. The Associated Student body unanimously approved the decision to outlaw discrimination in public events. ASUC President Vishalli Loomba stated that the resolution was intended to “make sure student groups keep in mind the value of equity and inclusion.”
Meanwhile, Shawn Lewis, president of Berkeley College Republicans, called the event a success. “People are […] talking about the issue, and that’s exactly what we wanted. […] People are sitting around the table and talking about race and ethnicity, and that’s productive.”
