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Monday, September 26, 2011

An Incomplete Picture

Campus Republicans at the University of California Berkeley have reportedly received threats after creating a novel form of protests against California schools considering race in admissions. The students created a sale of baked goods priced according to their race: 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.
~ from A Pinch of Satire: Bake Sale Causes Uproar at Berkeley by Jonathan Turley ~
What galls me about this so-called "satire" is that it presents an incomplete picture of the overall situation. Before the advent of certain civil rights remedies -- like Affirmative Action -- many non-whites were not allowed entry into many aspects of society regardless of their standing, educational background, skill set or wealth. The color of their skin or ethnicity barred them from active participation.

Consequently, under the guise of a "bake sale" in say, the 1920s, the pricing scheme would be altogether different. There would be a price for whites and no one else would have been allowed to purchase anything or the non-whites would have been allowed to purchase woefully substandard products at inflated prices!

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