The University of California Berkeley's Republicans have a new take on pastries: racism.
The student group is intentionally selling baked goods at different prices based on race and gender to oppose Gov. Jerry Brown (D) signing a bill allowing California public schools to consider affirmative action.
The Berkeley College Republicans (BCR) are hosting the "Increase the Diversity" bake sale, with pastries being sold for 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.
The group indicates that their bake sale is intentionally racist to counter an event that they feel is racist itself: the Associated Students of the University of California's (ASUC) rally on Tuesday to support the bill inviting its sponsor, State Senator Ed Hernandez (D).
"We agree that the event is inherently racist, but that is the point," BCR President Shawn Lewis wrote in response to complaints about the bake sale. "It is no more racist than giving an individual an advantage in college admissions based solely on their race (or) gender."
Other students, like Devonte Jackson, have felt completely different about the issue, telling the San Francisco Chronicle that the Republican campus group is "attacking underrepresented communities by reducing their communities to a cheaply priced good."
UC Berkeley's student senators voted unanimously against the bake sale, passing a resolution that "condemns the use of discrimination whether it is in satire or in seriousness by any student group." The 19-0 vote was held at an emergency special meeting of the ASUC.
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