Amid an ongoing tempest of public backlash, Shawn Lewis calmly looked into the camera as he confronted a state politician on national television.
It was the day before the Berkeley College Republicans’ “Increase Diversity Bake Sale” — an event that had elicited cries of racism as it garnered international media attention.
Lewis, a UC Berkeley junior and president of the group, found himself toe-to-toe on CNN with state Senator Ed Hernandez, D-West Covina — the author of the affirmative action-like SB 185 the bake sale protested — defending his group’s event and ideals against repeated allegations of racism and insensitivity.
“If it wasn’t for the attention that (the bake sale) got, we wouldn’t be having this really, really serious conversation about the policy,” Lewis said in an interview Wednesday.
Appearances like this — including other interviews on NPR, Fox News and Glenn Beck TV, among others — vaulted Lewis and his student group to national prominence.
Lewis expected people to get upset about the bake sale, which used a tiered pricing structure based on race and sex. Even he admitted the pricing structure was racist. However, he did not anticipate the magnitude of attention his group’s event received.
“Some people think that (the campus Republicans) did this publicity stunt, but the fact is if people didn’t react in the way and the volume that they did, this would have gone totally unnoticed,” Lewis said. “If the event went up and a couple (college Republicans) sold some cupcakes … it would not have become an international story as it has.”
But despite the point Lewis and his group were trying to convey through the bake sale, reaction from the campus community has been overwhelmingly negative.
Cal Berkeley Democrats President Anais LaVoie, speaking personally and not on behalf of her group, said if she had been in Lewis’ position, she would have stopped the bake sale in its tracks.
“I don’t know Shawn, but … I’ve seen him monopolizing off an experience that hurt a lot of people, and that troubles me,” she said. “I hope that other folks have learned from that and will understand that that behavior is not acceptable.”
In addition to the hundreds of students who have added their critical voice to LaVoie’s, official organizations including the ASUC Senate and the campus administration also publicly criticized the campus Republicans’ — and, by extension, Lewis’ — actions.
Because of the overwhelming negative outcry, Lewis got far more than his 15 minutes of fame — although he denies this was ever the goal.
“We’re not looking for attention; we’re not looking for meaningless controversy — it was very timely, and it got people talking,” he said on Wednesday.
Lewis said he had never thought about hosting such a bake sale for the sole reason of stirring up controversy. But with SB 185 awaiting Brown’s signature and an ASUC phone bank in support of the bill already planned, he and the rest of the group’s executive board decided to insert their voice into the debate.
As the event tested the campus community, it also tested Lewis’ commitment to his conservative ideals. UC Berkeley was his dream school, despite its reputation as a bastion for liberal thought.
Still, he did not expect the level of backlash he and his student group received, which reached the point of violent threats, he said.
In fact, Lewis maintains that adhering to his beliefs within the campus’s liberal climate serves as a good indicator of his commitment to that ideology. So far, he said he has become more conservative on some issues, but also more moderate on others.
He said the bake sale tested how far he was willing to go in order to stand up for what he believed in.
“This is the first time in the past two years I’ve been here that I’m actually really face to face with people who strongly disagree with me, and I think that was really an enlightening and kind of a learning moment,” he said.
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University
of California Berkeley:
the need for transparency has never been so clear. Chancellor Robert J Birgeneau
($500,000 salary) displaces qualified for public university education at Cal. instate
Californians for a $50,600 payment and a foreign passport.
UC Berkeley, ranked # 70 Forbes, is not increasing
enrollment. Birgeneau accepts $50,600
FOREIGN students at the expense of qualified Californians.
UC Regent Chairwoman Lansing and President Yudof agree to discriminating
against instate Californians for foreigners. Birgeneau, Yudof, Lansing need to answer to Californians.
Your opinion makes a difference; email UC Board of
Regents [email protected]
wouldn’t it have been more appropriate to bake a limited number of cookies (representing the finite number of admissions) and either sell or refuse to sell based on the percieved racial appearance of the buyer? if you’re going to display a huge gap in logic might as well get it right.
There’s no gap in logic. The cupcakes represented acceptance into Cal if race were a factor. Whites and Asians have to work harder to get the prize, while Blacks and Latinos don’t have to work quite so hard. Cal would not refuse admission altogether to an entire race under SB 185 so refusing to sell a cupcake AT ANY PRICE does not follow. The BCR made their point crystal clear, and it’s too bad liberals either didn’t understand the analogy or chose to complain about racism because they were clueless about how to respond to the clever analogy.
Notoriety ain’t fame and acknowledging to the world that yo9u are a racist pig is nothing to be proud of. No doubt, the swine who raised this pig would disagree…although their goose-stepping and swastika flags kinda put things in perspective.
And along comes Jack to hurl unsubstantiated accusations and invective at the BCR and their leader. Funny how lefties call everyone ELSE “hateful” and “intolerant” as they launch into full-froth character assassination mode at anyone who dares hold an opposite point of view. It should be quite clear by now that Narcisssistic Personality Disorder is a common trait among lefties. Not only do their require constant attention and affirmation, and handle criticism poorly, but they become jealous with rage should someone else manage to gain attention in the political arena of which they feel entitled to dominate…
Cal Berkeley Democrats President Anais LaVoie, speaking personally and not on behalf of her group, said if she had been in Lewis’ position, she would have stopped the bake sale in its tracks.“I don’t know Shawn, but … I’ve seen him monopolizing off an experience that hurt a lot of people, and that troubles me,” she said.
The word you’re looking for is ‘capitalizing.’ I’ve noticed that liberal activists at Cal are barely literate. Not a reflection on liberals nationwide–there’s plenty of illiterate liberals and conservatives–but at Cal, the conservatives are a cut above intellectually, it seems.
Well said.
Interesting that the republican student group acted to spark debate and give attention to an important issue that affects every single member of our society, and the leader of the democratic student group would shut down the debate and cover it up.
But I do agree with Ms. LaVoie on one point: she is indeed a troubled person, and in more ways than she is aware.
Good for him! Like the leftists who were opposed to the bake sale weren’t spouting off to the media…
It’s always fun to see Libs play the race card….yawn, how quaint.
I hope conservatives keep sticking it to these clowns. Stand up for your right to be heard and show these narrow minded Libs how stupid this policy is.
When does US history begging for you?
Are you an AA admit? Next time, please construct a coherent sentence.
Wow, did you just become disheveled and disoriented, or is your teleprompter acting up again?
You should try to be a little more original and so should the user of the “libtard”.
I was quite original, which is why I didn’t take the easy approach and use the L-word to describe you.
yawn
Let me guess. You’re a white male?
Shawn Lewis is a hypocrite. He is receiving The Achievement Award scholarship from the Cal Alumni Association, which is given to a majority of students of color, AB 540 students, and students whose average annual income barely peaks over $19,000. How can he do something so downright hurtful and still have the audacity to receive that scholarship?
He must either be a confused kid, or a kid with shitty morals.
I don’t see your point. It sounds to me like he is even more deserving of that scholarship, he and his group have managed to change the entire discussion on a piece of legislation. Even if you don’t agree with him, that’s the definition of a leader and someone the Alumni Association should be supporting.
If you mean by leader as someone who ridicules the experience of his fellow students down to cupcakes, then takes money from a program that was created to support those very students, then yeah…”great” leadership.
Bottom line is: Shawn Lewis is ridiculing the very community that he comes from. What an idiot.
The Achievement Award Program was not created to support minorities, but rather: ” highly qualified and community-minded students with a proven track record of academic success.”
The Equity Scholarship is the Alumni Association scholarship that was created to support preferred minorities and is only available to Blacks, Latinos/Chicanos and Native Americans. The family income to qualify for the Equity Scholarship must be between $40,000 and $99,999.
The bake sale did not ridicule anyone. Affirmative action ridicules students of color who do not need racial preferences to be admitted to a university or attain a position, causing them to be considered as not having met the same standards as those not afforded racial preferences.
Shawn Lewis is hardly ridiculing the very community he comes from but is in fact standing up for that community. His high school with an API(Academic Performance Index) of 8( above average) had 1 out of 17 applicants admitted to Berkeley in 2008-2009, the last year for which statistics are available.
http://statfinder.ucop.edu/reports/schoolreports/school_uc_enrollment_report.aspx?atpCode=50915&Year=2008-09&Type=highschool
In contrast, Richmond High School with an API of 1(well below average) had 11 of 26 applicants admitted to Berkeley with an average Sat (Cr+Math) of 1051, and all 11 enrolled. The average Sat of Berkeley enrollees, significantly less than that of admits, in 2008-9 was 1316.
http://statfinder.ucop.edu/reports/schoolreports/school_uc_enrollment_report.aspx?atpCode=52636&Year=2008-09&Type=highschool
There are already massive backdoor affirmative action preferences through Comprehensive Review, how much more does the Diversity crowd want? Will they only be satisfied if all Diverse applicants meeting minimum UC requirements are admitted?
If you think that students coming from schools such as Richmond High School have such a great advantage over “above average” API high schools then why don’t you encourage people to go to Richmond High School and apply to Berkeley from there? Try living in those neighborhoods and actually place yourself in their situation before you can judge what is fair.
The point is that 1 of 17 far more academically qualified middle class applicants were admitted from Del Campo HS while 11 of 26, on average, marginally academically qualified lower class applicants were admitted from Richmond HS. That is an extraordinary level of socio-economic preference and part of the reason why the middle class is extremely underrepresented in the UC system. There would be less of an issue if 8 of 17 well qualified applicants were admitted from Del Campo and 4 of 26 marginally qualified applicants were admitted from Richmond. Socio Economic class is not just one factor in the admissions decision. It has become the primary factor when comparing middle class versus lower class applicants. Students at an uncompetitive high school already have an advantage due to a higher Gpa than they would have at a competitive high school. If that Gpa is not supported by standardized test scores, the Gpa should be adjusted down accordingly. Instead, the unsupported Gpa is not adjusted to compensate for the uncompetitive nature of the high school and the student is instead given even more of an advantage under comprehensive review by having the test scores ignored. Admissions at one of the world’s great universities should not be part of a grand social engineering experiment that benefits the lower class at the expense of the middle class and at the expense of society. There are plenty of other public and private universities that lower class students eligible for grant type financial aid and not up to Berkeley standards can attend and do magnificently. In the graphic at the link…
http://i55.tinypic.com/9kmtkk.jpg
…0nly 8% of UC students come from families making between $80,000 and $120,000 even though over 50% of UC eligible students are members of families in said income range.
If you are suggesting that students of lower income families have an advantage over higher income students when applying to Berkeley because their schools are worst off than schools from places of higher income, it seems completely ridiculous. Like I said before don’t just look at how it affects you but also try to put yourself in their situation. I went to a pretty bad high school and met really smart people there much smarter than myself, but most of them didn’t end up taking AP classes like I did or sometimes even graduate. They didn’t have someone to guide them through high school or teachers that expected them to do well in their class. I guarantee that no high school student from a higher income area would want to attend a school in a lower income area precisely because of the inequalities which are unfortunately there. Just as you take issue with what you believe affects people of your economic level when applying to colleges, try to look at things from a perspective other than your own and realize the difficulties students of different economic backgrounds have to face before they even get a chance to apply to college. The conditions between the two different scenarios are not the same, and it is not a level playing field.
Students at lower class schools have an advantage because UC uses an admissions model that does not correct for inflated GPA’s at academically uncompetitive high schools or comparatively deflated GPA’s at academically competitive high schools and then ignores very low standardized test scores of students at uncompetitive high schools, and rewards class rank without regard to the competitive level of the high school. It is only going to become much worse with the top 10% as opposed to the previous top 4% now being eligible for admission in each school without regard to standardized test scores or any measure of the competitive level of the high school and with no Sat Subject test requirement.
The numbers speak for themselves. The students admitted from Richmond HS were not as academically qualified as the students not admitted from Del Campo HS and for your information, no one from UC Berkeley holds information sessions for students at lower middle class predominantly white high schools. Almost none of the teachers at such schools have been to elite private or public universities, so there really are no mentors, and it is not like Berkeley high which has representatives from every elite private university coming to the school to offer an information session. Scroll halfway down the page and click on College Visits:
http://www.sanjuan.edu/DelCampo.cfm?subpage=52585
If you cannot find the link, here it is:
http://www.sanjuan.edu/DelCampo.cfm?subpage=90395
Compare that to Berkeley High:
http://bhs.berkeley.net/index.php?page=finding-a-college
or the elite Menlo School:
http://www.menloschool.org/calendars/index.aspx?ModuleID=70
The faculty at Del Campo does not have the credentials of the faculty at elite private schools such as Menlo, SF University, College Prep(Oakland) or even Berkeley High; there are very few faculty mentors. UC’s outreach programs have no concern whatsoever with trying to increase the rate of admission of white working and lower middle class students, many of whom qualify for Blue and Gold. According to their extremely distorted world view, all whites are privileged and at least upper middle class if not upper class. If anything, they want to keep the rate of admission of far more academically qualified white lower middle class students down to allow more of their less academically qualified but preferred diverse students to be admitted along with upper middle class/upper class students to finance the diverse students education.
Ooh, Robert believes that awards should not be given to those who don’t toe the Politically Correct party line. You would be right at home in places like Cuba, Venezuela, or North Korea, Robert. Why don’t you move to one of those places instead?
The cup cake fiasco may not have been politically corrected but it was not correct politically.
The base Republicans may be happy and energized but the the less politically inclined middle of the road people were not swayed by the cup cake antics
I ecourage all Republicans to act out publicaly in petty ways just Ike the Berkeley College Republicans did.
Excuse me, but I’m smack in the middle of the road, and I was quite swayed by the cupcake satire. It focused attention on very poor legislation (yes, I actually found the bill and bothered to read it this past week). The legislation is racist. You don’t have to be an extremist (left or right) to be politically inclined.
Any action that promotes or diminishes people based on the color of their skin or their gender is racist/sexist (and demeaning, and unfair, and backwards, and, and, and, and). Promoting Whites over blacks is racist. Diminishing asians in favor of Blacks is racist. Promoting males over females is sexist. It’s plain, it’s simple and it’s undeniable, no matter how loud you yell for or against from your extreme end of the spectrum.
Oliver, you must be confused about the scholarship. It is not reserved for minorities. Shawn is to be commended for standing up for fairness and merit despite the fact that he is not rich and could not afford private consultants for college coaching.
test
Sounds like you’re most upset because you believe that people who don’t share your views should not win awards. Typical left-wing autocratic control freak, wishing to punish people who don’t toe the PC party line.
Nothing Shawn said or did was intentionally hurtful to minorities. The minorities convinced themselves to be hurt by the comparison to the cupcakes because they just didn’t understand the analogy at all. Birgeneau should force all the students who felt insulted by the bake sale to take an English class and learn basic analogies.
I’d like to note that any allegations Shawn Lewis is milking this for personal gain or fame are completely unfounded. Shortly after the story broke, the board made a decision that we needed to stay ahead of the story by responding to allegations against us in the media. As president, Shawn has the job of representing the club to the public, and that means doing most of the interviews. We never sent out a single press release seeking coverage of this story, they came to us. About the only thing Shawn has gotten out of this is sleepless nights, threats, and a boatload of hw he hasn’t been able to do.
-Andy Nevis, Executive Director, Berkeley College Republicans (speaking individually, not on behalf of group)
They don’t send out press releases for train wreck either.
Looks like you’re 0 for 3 when it comes to writing a grammatically correct, coherent post today. Maybe you should hold back on the recreational substances until AFTER you post?
Do they?
0 for 5 now. You should consider quitting while you are only moderately behind…
Deflection.