The Berkeley College Republicans have followed the lead of their UCLA compeers: yesterday, they held a bake sale to protest affirmative action. Chocolate chip cookies were available on a sliding race-based fee scale: $1.50 for whites, $1.25 for Asians, $1.00 for Latinos, 75 cents for Chicanos, 50 cents for Native Americans, and 25 cents for blacks. Only thirty cookies sold, but the group made its point: it offended strong supporters of racial preferences and amused opponents.

State Democratic Party Chairman Art Torres repeated the condemnation he made when UCLA students held a similar sale, saying that it "is a shame Republican students at Berkeley and UCLA have chosen to mimic the extreme views of their Republican leaders .... Once again we see hard-working students of color subjected to racist Republican rhetoric for simply seeking a good education and equal opportunity."

Anti-affirmative action activist and UC Regent Ward Connerly, most famous at Cal as the man who spearheaded Proposition 209 (which made it illegal to make race a factor in UC admissions), applauded the sale: "I think that it highlights the absurdity of preferences on the basis of race or gender or ethnicity," he said. "I commend them for piercing through the clutter and getting to the heart of what is really wrong with preferences."

The UCLA sale, which took place weeks ago, continues to cause controversy: in today's Daily Bruin, the leaders of the Bruin Democrats denounce the sale as racist, segregationist, and characteristic of the racism built into the Republican Party, closing with the following food for thought: "Events like the Bruin Republicans' bake sale oppose equal opportunity, just like Trent Lott did in 1962 when he opposed the integration of the first black student into the University of Mississippi."

UPDATE: The Daily Californian has more.

I am a 22 year-old African-American college student attending a small private college in Central California, and I believe that the bake sale demonstration by UC Berkeley's College Republicans clearly presented the unfair advantages minority students are given when it comes to college admissions and job placement. I am against affirmative action in some aspects of what it stands for.
As a college student, I would like to believe that I was accepted because of my educational background. And as a working citizen, I would like to believe that I was hired by a company that believed that I was truely qualified for the position that I applied for. With affirmative action, how will I ever know the truth?
By continuing to allow affirmative action to be used in school admissions and job placement, people that support affirmative action are sending a message that minorities need a 'boost' over whites or qualified applicates just because they are minorities. Sending a message like that makes it harder for minorities to prove that they are qualified and they truely deserve to be where they are.
On the other hand, prejudice still exist in our unperfect world. Thou affirmative action may give minorities an unfair advantage over whites, it is still giving minorities a chance to prove themselves in an environment that was mostly dominated by whites.
Now, more minorities are applying to universities and corporate jobs, becasue they know that affirmative action will protect them from prejudices and discrimiation that would have kept them out.
Until someone presents an alternative to affirmative action in a non-colorblind society, people that are totally against it can not completely whitewash everything that it represents. I may have mixed feelings about affirmative action, but I also know that I have to work just as hard, if not harder, to prove that I am just as smart and qualified as the next person. Just because I am black doesn't mean that I don't deserve all that I have achieved.
When I apply to law school next fall, I want the universities that I apply to to know that I have worked just as hard to get where I am, and I deserve a chance. Not becasue I am a minority and looking for a hand out, but becasue I earned it.