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 is 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 complaint with the US Department of Education 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,” said William Trachman, general counsel for the group.
“Preventing Caucasians from accessing Berkeley’s College of Natural Resources Farm on Saturdays is a clear violation of Title VI, which bars educational institutions from engaging in or allowing race discrimination,” added Trachman, a UC-Berkeley alumnus himself.
He said the feds should open a sweeping audit of every 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 surrounding neighborhoods. 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.
The complaint includes an email from a farm program manager telling someone, “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,” the farm manager said.
A UC-Berkeley rep said it had not be aware of the discrimination complaint until contacted by The Post, which provided a copy of it.
“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,” 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 will contact the appropriate people on campus in an effort to determine 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 colleges’ race-conscious or “affirmative action” admissions policies were unconstitutional and had 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 complaint was filed against a Minnesota college scholarship named after George Floyd that is only available to black students.
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.
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