In California, the concept of “food justice” can include illegal discrimination against white people. “The University of California at Berkeley is under fire for allegedly banning white residents from using a community farm on Saturdays in a move one critic slammed as “systemic racism'”, reports The New York Post.
The “Gill Tract Community Farm” owned by the University limits access to “Black, Indigenous, and People of Color” on Saturdays. That triggered a complaint with the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights filed by the Mountain States Legal Foundation.
“UC-Berkeley thinks that racial segregation is progressive now, but it’s no different than segregation of the past,” says William Trachman, general counsel of Mountain States Legal Foundation.
“Preventing Caucasians from accessing Berkeley’s College of Natural Resources Farm on Saturdays is a clear violation of Title VI [of the Civil Rights Act], which bars educational institutions from engaging in or allowing race discrimination,” Trachman notes. He argues that the Education Department should audit every UC-Berkeley program to eliminate what he describes as “systemic racism.”
The farm is a partnership between UC-Berkeley and community members. “Students and faculty conduct urban farming research and grow crops to prepare healthy meals as part of the “food justice” movement, according to the farm’s website”, says the New York Post. UC-Berkeley states, “The 1.5-acre UC Gill Tract Community Farm is a university-community farming partnership jointly managed by a diverse team of community members, UC researchers, staff and students.”
The complaint includes an email from a farm program manager telling a person, “Saturdays are exclusively BIPOC. Exceptions have only been made for events that are BIPOC-centered and with plenty of advance notice and planning. I trust you stand in solidarity with upholding boundaries around that safe and sacred space.”
UC-Berkeley spokesman Dan Mogulof claimed the University was not aware of the discrimination complaint until notified of it by The New York Post. He said, “The anonymous texts attached to the complaint have no specific information about time or place. And, as you can see, the Gill Tract’s website and calendar make no mention whatsoever of any program or activity of the sort described in the complaint. Having said that, the university takes complaints like this extremely seriously and I can assure you that on Monday I will contact the appropriate people on campus in an effort to determine what the facts are.”
As the New York Post notes, “The challenge to alleged UC-Berkeley’s segregated farming practice comes after the US Supreme Court ruled last June that colleges’ race-conscious or “affirmative action” admissions policies were unconstitutional and had to be scrapped.”
On March 25, a discrimination complaint was filed against a Minnesota college scholarship named after George Floyd that is restricted to blacks.
“The complainant in that case, the Equal Protection Project of the Legal Insurrection Foundation, has also filed claims of discrimination against other race-based exclusionary or preference programs, including against the SUNY Buffalo Law School and Medical School,” notes the New York Post.
