Academia, Bizarre, Free Speech, Politics, Society

A Pinch of Satire: Bake Sale Causes Uproar at Berkeley

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.

The Associated Students of the University of California, held an emergency Senate meeting late Sunday to pass a resolution that “condemns the use of discrimination whether it is in satire or in seriousness by any student group.”

I have difficulty with a condemnation (and certainly physical threats by some individuals) over satire. There is a good faith disagreement over race criteria in admissions. This group found a way to dramatize the unfairness and arbitrariness of such policies. It is not actual discrimination but a satire to drive home their point. What do you think?

UPDATE: if the bake sale was not a hit with some people as a political idea, it proved a great marketing ideal. The bake sale sold out.

Source: CNN

121 thoughts on “A Pinch of Satire: Bake Sale Causes Uproar at Berkeley”

  2. anon:

    That bold face shouting sort of fits doesn’t it. HTML mistake? Well, maybe, or just another Freudian slip to discuss with your newest therapist. Maybe we should get some quotes from some of them on your mind-set. Fascinating stuff, i’m sure.

  3. Roco:

    “you dont know anything about me little Lord Fauntleroy.”

    ***********************

    I know quite a bit about you, Roco. For example, I know you can read and write coherently. That tells me you have benefit of an education. I know you got that education through the efforts of some persons or through your own initiative, telling me that you have persons who loved and cared for you and who valued an education or that you have been taught the value of hard work to improve yourself. Was that through self-revelation? I know you care about issues and can use evidence to make your points, and while we disagree quite often, you rarely stoop to personal attack or obsess over a irrelevant prior remarks. That tells me you have been raised to believe you have a responsibility to make the world better and can use logic in your work. That learned talent came from someone in your life as empathy and rationality are rarely the product of the genes. I know you are drawn to dialog, have computer proficiency, and have no fear in espousing your views in a forum not always recptive to your commentary. That tells me you have the courage of your convictions and that someone has served as your role model in that character trait. Finally, I know you take criticism to heart, telling me you have some recognition that you don’t know it all and recognize that everyone can learn from another. That takes some degree of scholarship and dimunition of ego which is the product of a contemplative life. Given that, I must assume you have made your way in the world finnacially and need not work every waking hour just to make ends meet. So, you see, you are not quite the mystery you claim to be.

    Now imagine for a moment you had none of these advantages. Imagine you were raised by persons who had no regard for these values. Think about your likely station in life. Still think you would have pulled yourself up by your bootstraps? Wonderful image, unless you have no bootstraps to begin with. I may be Lord Fauntleroy, who rose from poverty through no merit of his own save his bloodline yet had genuine compassion for those less advantaged and worked to impress that compassion on his grandfather, Earl of Dorincourt. His method was so simple as be genius. By assuming the curmudgeonly old man was a great benefactor, he compelled him to become one so as not to disappoint his admiring grandson. Were I to accomplish as much as that fictional character, I would consider mine a worthwhile life. I therefore thank you for the compliment — whether intended or not.

  5. Elaine,

    That has also been the story of my life. Yet, through some twist of fate, a lucky break perhaps, I became acutely aware of the disparate conditions within this society at a very early age and, as soon as I was able, began to work to correct those conditions. Most within my social-economic circle were not as fortunate as I and remained totally unaware and blind to the disparity that was all around them.

    What I do, I do not out of a sense of guilt or, god forbid, pity, but out of a sincere desire to bring fairness and equality to every citizen. What some call a level playing field.

    In all honesty that bake sale made me angry as hell but I learned a long time ago that anger accomplishes nothing. Ridicule, however, occasionally does work with the ignorant, which is why JonnyC’s post appealed to me.

    And then, of course, there is karma … karma accepts no excuses … even ignorance doesn’t mitigate the karmic chain. In every philosophy, religious or secular, reaping what one sows is acknowledged.

  6. Upholding the Traditions….Indeed…lol…selectively…

    Swarthmore mom
    1, September 26, 2011 at 5:19 pm
    We were friends once but not any more. …………..

    ……………Sometimes it takes awhile to get to know someone especially if you only see them in cyberspace. ……..

    I could not agree more….

    Poof……..

  8. It is amazing that memory has been reduced…Hint: 1) Republican; 2) Misogynistic; 3) Askance….and You refuse to apologize…

    ……Upholding the Traditions…Indeed….

  9. “born on third base and braggin you hit a triple”

    That really sounds to me like Molly Ivins, but the googles tell me it’s from Barry Switzer, football coach, and referenced by Jim Hightower and Ann Richards and apparently never said by Molly Ivins. Oh well, up yours Googles.

    Regardless, it’s bullshit in this context, because the original context from Switzer, and the later contects about George are about the born rich.

    And there is nothing in the article to indicate this group of students is any richer or poorer than any other group of students.

    I don’t see these students bragging they hit a triple.

    I read about them saying this form of remedy is itself discriminatory. I don’t read them saying that other forms of remedies would be bad. I don’t see them denying their is or was discrimination or that other minorities don’t still have it rough.

    There is absolutely nothing in the article that describes the policies the campus republicans favor, or what their views on discrimination are.

    ALL OF THAT by anyone in this thread is projection and stereotyping.and says much more about your own beliefs than it does about theirs.

  10. i believe the expression is “born on third base and braggin you hit a triple”.

    what were they sellin at the bake sale, wonder bread?

  11. I have absolutely no problem with the bake sale. Indeed, I have been more bothered by efforts on university campuses to regulate speech which is deemed offensive or hurtful to identifiable groups.

    Having said that, it does not appear that the Young Republicans have changed much since my college days in the late ’60s. In this instance, they are following in lockstep the “whites as victims” meme popularized by the right in recent years. Children of privilege frequently have a hard time understanding the fact that the starter’s gun fires earlier for some than for others.

  12. I think that the bake sale, as structured, is a good idea, has redeeming value
    1) has no effect on interstate commerce – an insubstantial infringement.
    2) encourages discussion – redeeming value
    3) can people self-identify their race? That would be perfect.

  13. http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/onepercent/2011/04/software-works-out-whether-tha.html

    That’s what she said: Software that tells dirty jokes

    Double entendres have been making us laugh since the days of Chaucer and Shakespeare, but up until now computers weren’t in on the joke. Chloé Kiddon and Yuriy Brun, two computer scientists at the University of Washington, have developed a system for recognising a particular type of double entendre – the “that’s what she said” joke, in which seemingly innocent sentences can be transformed into lewd utterances by appending just four short words.

    The pair describe the “TWSS problem” as recognising when it is funny to follow a sentence with “that’s what she said” – they give “Don’t you think these buns are a little too big for this meat?” as one example. The equivalent in the UK is appending sentences with “as the actress said to the bishop” and is used in the same way.

  16. Oh mespo, you’re so silly,

    Nice try there, anon. Since you don’t give any consistent identifier on the blog, as I requested, there is no way to pin down the real “you” or “your comments.” However, not wishing to pass up the challenge to prove your real mind-set, I’ll just submit this little ditty you ostensibly penned today:

    My pseudonym is 99.9998% as identifiable as yours. Quit whining.

    First you call me an oppressor and I point out that historically I am part of the oppressed group. So then you say, it’s what I write here that tells you that I am an oppressor. So I say, fine, point to what I’ve written that tells you that I am an oppressor.

    And so now you say, it’s not what I’ve written as “anon” that marks me as oppressor, but what I’ve presumably written as other people that tells you that “anon” is an oppressor. And you can’t even find things that other people have written that mark anon as an oppressor. NEITHER OF THOSE make any sense whatsoever.

    Jesus Christ mespo, pound the law, pound the table, stop pounding your lap.

    So your next tactic is a bit of ad hominem, projection, and internet psychoanalyzing from a few throw away sentences about the various marriage counselors my ex dragged us to.

    Honestly mespo, are you a lawyer? Because though I think most lawyers are the scum of the earth, I generally respect them for their ability to argue coherently within a single thread.

  17. SM:

    no worries. Mums the word. I am not making any insinuations. All I know is that you were cyber friends and had a falling out. I thought you 2 got along. I dont even know what sex AY is.

  19. Roco, Because I uphold the program’s traditions I won’t be talking about it anymore. You don’t need to make insinuations about things you know nothing about.

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