The president of the Tech College Republicans said he supports the reasoning behind the controversial “Increase Diversity Bake Sale” that was held Sept. 27 on University of California, Berkeley’s campus.
The bake sale charged differential prices to consumers based on ethnicity and gender. White students were charged $2, while Asians were charged only $1.50, Hispanics $1, African Americans were charged 75 cents, and Native Americans were charged 25 cents. Women of all races received a 25-cent discount on those prices.
The race-based pricing was intended to protest California Senate Bill 185, which has since been passed by the state legislature and now awaits Governor Jerry Brown’s approval. The bill will allow the state university system to consider race and gender when making admissions decisions.
Berkeley College Republicans president Shawn Lewis said the whole point was for the event to seem racist, but he said he believes the bake sale is no more racist than the bill that would give an individual an advantage in college admissions based solely on their gender or race.
Tech College Republicans president Clay Stubblefield said he agrees with Lewis and thinks the bake sale wouldn’t have been news if it hadn’t been discriminatory.
“No purpose would have been served by the bake sale being mundane and uncontroversial,” Stubblefield said. “They want the sale to incite as much outrage as the bill they are protesting should.”
Colleges across the country have held similar events. Generally, College Republicans organizations host these events. In some cases—such as Berkeley—the plan sparked controversy and protests.
Other times, however, university officials stepped in.
At Bucknell University in Pennsylvania, officials stopped a similar bake sale on campus. Officials at The College of William and Mary in Virginia said they were appalled at a race-based cookie sale on campus, and shut it off. A bake sale at Southern Methodist University in Texas was shut down after 45 minutes because of what officials called an “unsafe environment,” according to local reports.
