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.”
The university told The Post it’s investigating claims that the “Gill Tract Community Farm” in nearby Albany offered its space on Saturday exclusively to “Black, Indigenous, and People of Color,” after a criticism with the US Department of Education by the Mountain States Legal Foundation.
“UC-Berkeley thinks that racial segregation is progressive now, however it’s no different than segregation of the past,” said William Trachman, general counsel for the group.
“Stopping Caucasians from accessing Berkeley’s College of Natural Resources Farm on Saturdays is a transparent violation of Title VI, which bars educational institutions from engaging in or allowing race discrimination,” added Rachman, a UC-Berkeley alumnus himself.
He said the feds should open a sweeping audit of each UC-Berkeley program to ferret out what he claimed was “systemic racism.”
Launched in 2013, the farm is a partnership between UC-Berkeley and the encircling neighborhoods. Students and school conduct urban farming research and grow crops to organize healthy meals as a part of the “food justice” movement, in keeping with the farm’s website.
The criticism includes an email from a farm program manager telling someone, “Saturdays are exclusively BIPOC. Exceptions have only been made for events which are BIPOC-centered and with loads of advance notice and planning.”
“I trust you stand in solidarity with upholding boundaries around that protected and sacred space,” the farm manager said.
A UC-Berkeley rep said it had not concentrate on the discrimination criticism until contacted by The Post, which provided a replica of it.
“The anonymous texts attached to the criticism don’t have any specific details about time or place. And, as you’ll be able to see, the Gill Tract’s website and calendar make no mention in any respect of any program or activity of the type described within the criticism,” said UC-Berkeley spokesman Dan Mogulof.
“Having said that, the university takes complaints like this extremely seriously and I can assure you that on Monday I’ll contact the suitable people on campus in an effort to find out what the facts are,” he said.
The challenge to alleged UC-Berkeley’s segregated farming practice comes after the US Supreme Court ruled last June that schools’ race-conscious or “affirmative motion” admissions policies were unconstitutional and needed to be scrapped.
More college race-conscious and “diversity, equity and inclusion” programs created to advance opportunities for black students and other minorities have come under legal scrutiny, amid complaints they amount to reverse discrimination.
Last week, a federal discrimination criticism was filed against a Minnesota college scholarship named after George Floyd that is just available to black students.
The complainant in that case, the Equal Protection Project of the Legal Rebellion 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.
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.”
The university told The Post it’s investigating claims that the “Gill Tract Community Farm” in nearby Albany offered its space on Saturday exclusively to “Black, Indigenous, and People of Color,” after a criticism with the US Department of Education by the Mountain States Legal Foundation.
“UC-Berkeley thinks that racial segregation is progressive now, however it’s no different than segregation of the past,” said William Trachman, general counsel for the group.
“Stopping Caucasians from accessing Berkeley’s College of Natural Resources Farm on Saturdays is a transparent violation of Title VI, which bars educational institutions from engaging in or allowing race discrimination,” added Rachman, a UC-Berkeley alumnus himself.
He said the feds should open a sweeping audit of each UC-Berkeley program to ferret out what he claimed was “systemic racism.”
Launched in 2013, the farm is a partnership between UC-Berkeley and the encircling neighborhoods. Students and school conduct urban farming research and grow crops to organize healthy meals as a part of the “food justice” movement, in keeping with the farm’s website.
The criticism includes an email from a farm program manager telling someone, “Saturdays are exclusively BIPOC. Exceptions have only been made for events which are BIPOC-centered and with loads of advance notice and planning.”
“I trust you stand in solidarity with upholding boundaries around that protected and sacred space,” the farm manager said.
A UC-Berkeley rep said it had not concentrate on the discrimination criticism until contacted by The Post, which provided a replica of it.
“The anonymous texts attached to the criticism don’t have any specific details about time or place. And, as you’ll be able to see, the Gill Tract’s website and calendar make no mention in any respect of any program or activity of the type described within the criticism,” said UC-Berkeley spokesman Dan Mogulof.
“Having said that, the university takes complaints like this extremely seriously and I can assure you that on Monday I’ll contact the suitable people on campus in an effort to find out what the facts are,” he said.
The challenge to alleged UC-Berkeley’s segregated farming practice comes after the US Supreme Court ruled last June that schools’ race-conscious or “affirmative motion” admissions policies were unconstitutional and needed to be scrapped.
More college race-conscious and “diversity, equity and inclusion” programs created to advance opportunities for black students and other minorities have come under legal scrutiny, amid complaints they amount to reverse discrimination.
Last week, a federal discrimination criticism was filed against a Minnesota college scholarship named after George Floyd that is just available to black students.
The complainant in that case, the Equal Protection Project of the Legal Rebellion 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.
