Racist Protest Crosses Satirical Line

The Guardian
UC San Diego
Monday October 03, 2011 - 10:58AM

College Republicans at the University of California at Berkeley held an inherently racist bake sale last Tuesday, where priced baked goods were sold at different prices for different ethnicities.
The primary purpose was to mock Senate Bill 185, a bill that would allow California’s university systems to consider gender, race and ethnicity in admission decisions. While the bill is undoubtedly contentious, the bake sale’s intended racism went over the top, muddling the organizer’s intended message of promoting critical thought. SB 185’s attempt to increase diversity in California’s university systems is an obvious subject of debate. But simplifying the concept of affirmative action into a bake sale with differential pricing is not comparable to the issue at hand. The mission of SB 185 — which is surely debatable — is to make the student bodies of California state universities more representative of the state’s population in terms of gender, race and ethnicity — not to charge students varying tuition prices or to impose value judgments on others.

Full Story: http://www.ucsdguardian.org/component/k2/item/24984-quick-takes-uc-berkeleys-affirmative-action-bake-sale

Why No One Is Right in California’s Affirmative Action Debate

The New Republic
Why No One Is Right in California’s Affirmative Action Debate

John McWhorter

John McWhorter

Contributing Editor

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• Dreaming and Not Believing
• Crimes and Punishments
• The Integration Jitters

October 7, 2011 | 12:00 am

The protests against the Berkeley College Republicans’ mock “Diversity bake sale” last week, in which minorities were charged lower prices than whites, are illustrating that history is all about taking a step backwards for every two steps forward.
Back in the day, when I started speaking out about affirmative action in 2000, to even question racial preference policies was to be tarred as a moral degenerate.

Full Story:

http://www.tnr.com/article/politics/95876/berkeley-diversity-bake-sale-affirmative-action