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BY MEGAN NOE

You're watching multisource politics news analysis from Newsy.

College bake sales are usually about as uncontroversial as it gets. But as KGO explains, when the price of a cupcake depends on the color of your skin, people tend to get fired up.

“It’s two dollars for white people, a dollar fifty if you’re Asian, a buck for Latinos, seventy-five cents for African Americans, and a quarter for Native Americans. Women get twenty-five cents off. Club president Shawn Lewis planned the event.
LEWIS: ‘The pricing structure is there to bring attention, to cause people to get a little upset. But it’s really there to cause people to think more critically about what this kind of policy would do in university admissions.’”

The UC Berkeley College Republicans have scheduled their Increase Diversity bake sale in opposition to Affirmative Action-like legislation sitting on the Governor’s desk, says The Daily Californian.

 

“The bake sale is in protest of SB 185, which, if signed by [California Gov. Jerry] Brown, would allow California public universities to consider a number of non-academic factors such as race, gender and nationality in the admissions process in order to increase campus diversity. California public universities stopped considering race in admissions in 1997 after California voters passed Proposition 209.”

But author Tim Wise tells CNN, the students are ignoring a key point with their-- quote –“sarcastic, rather smarmy slap at people of color.”

“By the time anyone steps on a college campus, whether it’s Berkeley or any other school in the UC system or any college in this country, there has already been 12 to 13 years of institutionalized affirmative action for white folks. That is to say, racially embedded inequality which has benefited those of us who are white, and it’s only at the point of college admission that these folks seem to get concerned with color consciousness.”

The announcement has created a social media firestorm, with some students taking to Facebook to express their negative response.

“This is really sad. I'm ashamed to know that I go to the same school with people who would say stuff like this. I'm really trying to figure out how someone can be this hateful.”

But amidst the threats, still others have posted in support.

“If I lived within 500 miles of your event I would be there. Well done ladies and gentlemen. You have created a buzz about a topic that needs to be addressed head on.”

The San Francisco Chronicle reports the timing of the event might be hitting a sensitive spot, as it comes in light of a series of allegedly racially-charged and anti-Semitic incidents across UC campuses.

“In March at UCLA, a student posted a video of herself ranting about Asians. In 2010, UC San Diego students posted racial slurs and caricatures on Facebook, and used campus TV to belittle black students. Someone also hung a noose from light fixture in the library.”

A special meeting of the student senate has been called for Sunday, but the club says the bake sale will go on Tuesday as planned — controversial price list and all.

Transcript by Newsy.