The sale, by the Berkeley College Republicans, charged customers different prices for cupcakes and cookies based on race and gender. White males paid $2, black men paid 75 cents, and Native American men paid 25 cents. Women got 25 cents off. The group sold 300 cupcakes.
“There were some aggressive people who came up with angry things to say, but there was no violence,” Shawn Lewis, president of the Republican student group, told CNN.
The sale resembled events that have taken place or have been blocked at other campuses across the country. But the Berkeley event captured national media attention, in part because it was timed to protest recent California legislation that, if signed into law by Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr., would allow state universities to consider race, gender, ethnicity, and national origin in their admissions decisions.