The UC Berkeley College Republicans are planning a bake sale — where the price of a cupcake depend on your race.I'm sure it hurts some feelings :-) Can anyone explain to me what's wrong with this bake sale, and/or the point it makes?
The “Increase Diversity Bake Sale” is meant to satirize an affirmative action-like bill in California that would let the university system consider ethnicity in student admissions.
“Just like the CA Senate Bills 185 and 387 the phone bank supports, we will be considering race, gender, ethnicity, national/geographic origin and other relevant factors to ensure the equitable distribution of baked goods to our diverse student body,” the College Republicans wrote in a Facebook announcement publicizing the event, set for Tuesday. “Hope to see you all there! If you don’t come, you’re a racist!”
But with a price structure that includes $2 for “White/Caucasian,” $1.50 for “Asian/Asian American” and $.0.75 for “Black/African American,” some aren’t finding it very funny.
Update, 9/26/11: You had to know this was coming:
UC Berkeley student senators voted Sunday to condemn discriminatory behavior on campus - even if done in satire - in response to a Republican student group's plans for an "Increase Diversity Bake Sale," with pastries labeled according to race and gender...Who gets to decide. That's really important when your goal is to limit free speech.
The bake sale has students quarrelling not only about race-based college admissions but about the nature of political commentary - what is fair and what is offensive, and who gets to decide.
"Can anyone explain to me what's wrong with this bake sale, and/or the point it makes?"
ReplyDeleteIt should have been $2.00 for the Asians and $1.50 for the Caucasians, not the reverse that they had :-)
-Mark Roulo