Category Archives: Meritocracy

Asian Quotas in the Ivy League? “We See Nothing! Nothing!”

Posted on May 27, 2014 by Ron Unz - 1516 Words

Republished from The Unz Review Last week I was invited to speak at the annual conference of the Education Writers Association, with the topic of my panel being the perspective of Asian-Americans on Affirmative Action policies in college admissions. Despite having the only … Continue reading →

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English and Meritocracy: The Gullibility of Our Political and Media Elites

Posted on May 15, 2014 by Ron Unz - 1764 Words

Republished from The Unz Review Last week I noted in a column that the California Republicans in the Education Committee of the State Senate had joined an 8-to-0 vote to repeal Proposition 227 and restore Spanish-almost-only “bilingual education” in our schools. The academic … Continue reading →

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The Sidewalk Marriage Crusade

Posted on April 11, 2013 by Ron Unz - 908 Words

Given the unprecedented peace and prosperity currently enjoyed by nearly all Americans, it’s hardly surprising that a symbolic issue such as Gay Marriage has now moved to the forefront of the public debate, not least among the contributors to my … Continue reading →

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Unz on Meritocracy: The College Admissions Season

Posted on April 9, 2013 by Ron Unz - 1133 Words

The season of college admissions is now upon us, weeks of envelopes fat and thin. With so many teenagers now discovering their future life-prospects as dealt out by our academic gatekeepers, discussions of the selection process are appearing in our … Continue reading →

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Unz on China: Debating the “Clark-Unz Model”

Posted on March 29, 2013 by Ron Unz - 722 Words

As an individual who often regrets his decades-old defection from the academic community, I was remarkably pleased to see anthropologist Peter Frost very generously discuss my recent China article under the rubric “the Clark-Unz Model.”  The senior researcher identified is obviously economist … Continue reading →

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Unz on Meritocracy: Dangerous Cancer Statistics

Posted on March 16, 2013 by Ron Unz - 1104 Words

About the only detailed public criticism of my Meritocracy article by an academic has come from Prof. Janet Mertz, a Wisconsin cancer researcher.  Since her analysis draws so heavily upon her own 2008 academic paper on top performing math students, I … Continue reading →

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Unz on Meritocracy: Almost as Wrong as Larry Summers

Posted on March 9, 2013 by Ron Unz - 2069 Words

Several years ago, Harvard President Larry Summers spoke at an academic conference on diversity issues, and casually speculated that one of the possible reasons there were relatively few female mathematics professors might be that men were just a bit better … Continue reading →

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Unz on Meritocracy: Gelman’s Sixth Column

Posted on March 1, 2013 by Ron Unz - 1524 Words

For reasons best known to himself, Columbia University statistics professor Andrew Gelman has now seen fit to publish his sixth(!)  lengthy blogsite column discussing or sharply critiquing my analysis of Ivy League university admissions.  Just like most of his previous ones, … Continue reading →

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Unz on Meritocracy: Admitting My Mistakes

Posted on February 19, 2013 by Ron Unz - 2182 Words

In publishing a 30,000 word article covering such a broad range of complex and controversial topics, I was certain that my work would necessarily contain at least a few factual errors or omissions.  The hundreds of individuals examining my material over … Continue reading →

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Unz on Meritocracy: Response to Prof. Gelman on Jewish Elite Overrepresentation

Posted on February 13, 2013 by Ron Unz - 2811 Words

One noticeable disappointment in the ongoing discussion of my Meritocracy article has been the relative lack of critical commentary.  Both my previous Hispanic Crime and Race/IQ series had unleashed vast outpouring of harsh attacks, thereby assisting me in sharpening and refining my analysis. … Continue reading →

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The Minimum Wage, Immigration, and Affirmative Action

Posted on February 9, 2013 by Ron Unz - 2210 Words

Earlier this week Washington Post Columnist Matt Miller published an excellent piece making the case for a large increase in the federal minimum wage, including arguments drawn from a wide range of prominent business and political figures, as well as … Continue reading →

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Racial Quotas, Harvard, and the Legacy of Bakke

Posted on February 5, 2013 by Ron Unz - 811 Words

Racial Quotas, Harvard, and the Legacy of Bakke National Review Online, February 5, 2013 For almost 35 years, college-admissions decisions in America have been governed by the continuing legacy of University of California v. Bakke, in which a fragmented U.S. Supreme … Continue reading →

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Unz on Meritocracy: The Yale Debate and Surname Analysis

Posted on February 1, 2013 by Ron Unz - 1821 Words

I just returned from attending a couple of events at Yale University, all in connection with the controversial issues raised by my Meritocracy article. On Tuesday, I participated in a large public debate organized by the Yale Political Union on the … Continue reading →

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Unz on Meritocracy: “Asians as the New Jews, Jews as the New WASPs”

Posted on January 24, 2013 by Ron Unz - 766 Words

As all writers know, a good title should be both descriptive and provocative, and both these considerations certainly apply to Russell Nieli’s very detailed 2200 word review of my Meritocracy article “Asians as the New Jews, Jews as the New … Continue reading →

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Unz on Meritocracy: A Science Perspective and More University Data

Posted on January 17, 2013 by Ron Unz - 566 Words

Although my Meritocracy article focused primarily on public policy issues—the admissions systems of our elite academic institutions—it necessarily touched on some scientific ones as well. Therefore, it is quite heartening to see that a detailed 1500 word summary and discussion of … Continue reading →

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Unz on Meritocracy: “Endangered Jewish Genius”

Posted on January 9, 2013 by Ron Unz - 686 Words

As I had previously mentioned, the length and range of topics covered in my Meritocracy package resulted in a wide dispersion of responses, many of which seemed to contain almost no overlap in their discussions.  Just as in the fable … Continue reading →

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Unz on Meritocracy: Picking Our Elites at Random?

Posted on January 3, 2013 by Ron Unz - 2141 Words

Given the enormous length of my Meritocracy package—over 35,000 words including sidebar, endnotes, and appendices—it’s hardly surprising that certain parts have received a great deal of discussion, while others have not. For example, my suggestion that our top universities now … Continue reading →

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Unz on Meritocracy: David Brooks’ Sidney Award and Other Reactions

Posted on December 26, 2012 by Ron Unz - 694 Words

Late Monday night I received a most remarkable and unexpected Christmas present delivered straight from august offices of the New York Times, as David Brooks, one of America’s most prominent center-right journalists, named my recent piece “The Myth of American … Continue reading →

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New York Times: Asian-American Quotas in the Ivy League?

Posted on December 20, 2012 by Ron Unz - 762 Words

The New York Times, America’s national newspaper of record, has published a forum debating the existence of Asian-American quotas in the Ivy League.  My own contribution, drawn from my recent article The Myth of American Meritocracy, focused on the statistical evidence: Statistics … Continue reading →

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Statistics Indicate an Ivy League Asian Quota

Posted on December 19, 2012 by Ron Unz - 464 Words

Statistics Indicate an Ivy League Asian Quota by Ron Unz The New York Times, Wednesday, December 19, 2012 Just as their predecessors of the 1920s always denied the existence of “Jewish quotas,” top officials at Harvard, Yale, Princeton and the … Continue reading →

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Harvard as Hedge Fund: Harvard Replies

Posted on December 11, 2012 by Ron Unz - 1579 Words

The reaction to my long Meritocracy cover story followed a very unusual pattern. On the one hand, the piece received just a fraction of the major links and web discussions which several of my previous articles have attracted, and many of these … Continue reading →

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Paying Tuition to a Giant Hedge Fund

Posted on November 28, 2012 by Ron Unz - 1322 Words

Now read “Paying Tuition to a Giant Hedge Fund” at The Unz Review From its 1636 foundation Harvard had always ranked as America’s oldest and most prestigious college, even as it gradually grew in size and academic quality during the first three centuries … Continue reading →

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The Myth of American Meritocracy

Posted on November 28, 2012 by Ron Unz - 22574 Words

The Myth of American Meritocracy The American Conservative, December 2012, Cover Story Just before the Labor Day weekend, a front page New York Times story broke the news of the largest cheating scandal in Harvard University history, in which nearly … Continue reading →

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No Quotas, No Elite Public High School

Posted on October 30, 2012 by Ron Unz - 1169 Words

No Quotas, No Elite Public High School The American Conservative, November 2012 In late September I attended a memorial service for William M. Fitz-Gibbon, a retired public school teacher who had passed away a few weeks earlier, just short of … Continue reading →

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The Third Greatest Genius in Human History

Posted on September 23, 2012 by Ron Unz - 369 Words

Although we hear endless complaints about the overly rich compensation of our corporate elite, the front page of this morning’s New York Times Business Section provided a glowing portrait of an obvious exception to this pattern, namely Viacom CEO Philippe … Continue reading →

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