The "Increase Diversity" bake sale planned by a group of Republican students in Berkley, Calif., will still be happening Tuesday despite anger and criticism from fellow students who have called the event racist – a reaction that the organizers say they hoped for.
At the University of California, Berkeley, College Republicans have scheduled a bake sale where the price of items depends on your gender and race. Baked goods will cost $2 for white people, $1.50 for Asians, $1 for Latinos, 75 cents for African Americans and 25 cents for Native Americans. Women get a 25-cent discount.
Club members say the sale is a way of taking a stand against pending legislation that would let the University of California consider a student's race or national origin during the admissions process.
A posting on the event's Facebook page laid out that the sale was to draw attention to SB 185, a bill currently being considered by Gov. Jerry Brown, which would authorize California public universities admissions to consider race and background.
Affirmative action in public college admissions was banned in California when voters approved Proposition 209 in 1996.
"The Berkeley College Republicans firmly believe measuring any admit's merit based on race is intrinsically racist. Our bake sale will be at the same time and location of a phone bank which will be making calls to urge Gov. Brown to sign the bill," the statement read. "The pricing structure of the baked goods is meant to be satirical, while urging students to think more critically about the implications of this policy."
Medal of Honor Winner Rejects Special Treatment
Watch Video Man Attacked by Shark, Friends Jump In to Help
Watch Video Berkeley College Republicans club president Shawn Lewis said that the message that they are trying to get across has been misconstrued.
"It certainly is stirring emotions, and that's what we want," Lewis said. "But we certainly don't want people to think we are making fun of racial issues or laughing at them, because that's not the message of the bake sale."
In response to the planned event, Associated Students of the University of California approved a resolution that "condemns the use of discrimination whether it is in satire or in seriousness by any student group."
UC Berkeley's Chancellor Robert Birgeneau, Vice Chancellor for Equity & Inclusion Gibor Basri, and Vice Chancellor Harry LeGrande sent out a campus-wide letter early Tuesday condemning the bake sale and endorsing the ASUC resolution.
"The administration firmly endorses [the ASUC] sentiments. It is our sincere hope that the strong reactions generated by the proposed bake sale provide a vivid lesson that issues of race, ethnicity, and gender are far from resolved, and very much a part of lived experience here and now," the letter said.
The letter also said that the "event has moved the campus community into dialogue, because it was hurtful or offensive to many of its members."
Campus Democrats President Anais Lavoie says she isn't impressed with the College Republicans' method.
"The way that they made the statement, the words that they used, the fact that they humorized and mocked the struggles of people of color on this campus is very disgusting to me," she said.
According to the original event page, the pricing structure was put in place "to ensure the fairest distribution, and make sure that there are a DIVERSE population of races of students getting BCR's delicious baked goods."
"Hope to see you all there! If you don't come, you're a racist!" the original event page read.
The page has since been taken down and replaced with less controversial text.
The student body association of the famously liberal UC Berkeley has held up the campus Republican group's right to hold the bake sale, though spokesman Joey Freeman expressed his distaste for the event.
"It is very offensive to many communities on campus," Freeman told The Associated Press. "We try to promote a healthy campus climate. Events like this bake sale get in the way of respect for one another."
沒有留言:
張貼留言