[Update 9/28/11] Bakes sale day!!!!! Campus Republicans held their sale and made their point.
Video below post.
California legislators seem to think that race or national original should be part of the college admissions process for California universities and Campus Republicans at the University of California Berkeley have come up with their own controversial form of protest.A bake sale!!!
Not your every day type bake sale, no, a sale that lets race or national origin determine the price of the baked goods being sold instead of their actual worth.
Just as a person's academic achievements should determine their eligibility instead of where they are from or what color their skin is.
During the sale, scheduled for Tuesday, baked goods will be sold to white men for $2.00, Asian men for $1.50, Latino men for $1.00, black men for $0.75 and Native American men for $0.25. All women will get $0.25 off those prices.
"The pricing structure is there to bring attention, to cause people to get a little upset," Campus Republican President Shawn Lewis, who planned the event, told CNN-affiliate KGO. "But it's really there to cause people to think more critically about what this kind of policy would do in university admissions."
Lewis says it's a way to make a statement about pending legislation that would let the California universities consider race or national origin during the admission process.
15 years ago voters overwhelmingly passed Proposition 209 which prohibited using affirmative action in admitting students to colleges and universities. SB 185 would effectively change that state law which voters passed.
Text of Prop 209
- Prohibits the state, local governments, districts, public universities, colleges, and schools, and other government instrumentalities from discriminating against or giving preferential treatment to any individual or group in public employment, public education, or public contracting on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin.
- Does not prohibit reasonably necessary, bona fide qualifications based on sex and actions necessary for receipt of federal funds.
- Mandates enforcement to extent permitted by federal law.
- Requires uniform remedies for violations. Provides for severability of provisions if invalid.
Proposition 209 passed by 54.55 percent.
15 years later, SB 185 was introduced by Sen. Ed Hernandez (D-Los Angeles)
This bill would authorize the University of California and the California State University to consider race, gender, ethnicity, and national origin, along with other relevant factors, in undergraduate and graduate admissions, to the maximum extent permitted by the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution, Section 31 of Article I of the California Constitution, and relevant case law.
SB185 Could See Affirmative Action Back at California Universities: MyFoxLA.com
Considering the controversy surrounding this bake sale, I would say the Campus Republicans at the University of California Berkeley have made their point and achieved their goal of starting the discussion and bringing the issue to attention of the public.
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