The Diversity Delusion: How Race and Gender Pandering Corrupt the University and Undermine Our Culture

As in my “intro”, this book should be required reading for ALL faculty and administrators on US campuses. I literally read it in one sitting - a rarity for me to do with a non-fiction book. A cliché most certainly but I have an interest in this sector for several reasons. One is as part of a past multi-career life, I served as a tenured professor at a large US SE university. Second I just revisited my own effete New England campus for my 50th reunion that was prefaced with my letters to fund raisers “why” my donations have and will remain minimal citing many of the author’s themes along with attending alumni lectures that attempted to justify so much of what is examined in this book.Ms Mac Donald adroitly puts “facts” to the fiction, failures and misdirection of so much of the nonsense now occurring on campuses (and very expensive failures too) instead of the actual work of education. Included are data driven critiques of the never ending quest for diversity (and THE big business of this venture), the often destructive nature of these policies, the extrapolations to society at large of this non-stop emphasis, examining the “rape culture” that is said to be pervasive and so forth. And sadly in many ways it is a poignant eulogy for higher education in our country with nostalgic remembrances and allusions to the loss of what is now discarded from curricula given its centuries of formulations of bodies of academic work by a “ patriarchy of white heteronormative males ( I think I got the nomenclature right ?). The writer certainly has a strong base for this comparative lament given her own personal education pedigree of elite universities - Yale, Cambridge and Stanford.I have a friend who is now a trustee at my old college and I will recommend that he do just this - ask the faculty and administrators that he meets in those lofty interactions. But the predictable reaction ? I say they’ll recoil with crossed fingers and garlic cloves around their necks with a silver spike ready to go In fact I would expect THE same type of reaction to this book “on campus” as Ms Macdonald received in her attempts to speak in the University of California system as she describes. She too will be “Amy Wax-ed” or whacked ( read the book ) but this time with book burnings of her work on campus. It would be so consistent of current campus times and the hypocritical respect for diversity of thought and tolerance supposedly resident in these environments.PS - Heck I bet I get “censored” by the Amazon reviewers frankly for this review. That too is a manifestation of the carry overs from current education directions on campus creeping outside the ivy walls. I would imagine I have “micro aggressive” words and thought so push the “delete” button.

As a knowledge worker, I have seen first-hand the effects of the diversity industry. Everything it touches is denuded. Mac Donald marshalls the facts and evidence to make the case that there is no substance to the claims of Implicit Bias and that the "diversity" crowd is a rent-seeking collection of phonies. I fear purging this nonsense will take more than this courageous book.

Mac Donald’s book addresses the impact that “Diversity” has on the Universities and American culture. Universities are diverting more and more money and power to useless diversity programs. As with any bureaucracy, once these departments are set up they are almost impossible to discard. Mac Donald points out that Universities such as Yale and UCLA are the safest spot for minority students and women in the world, yet they are often accused of permitting horrible crimes against each group. Mac Donald skewers the left’s arguments for more racial and gender-based diversity on campuses.Her book is also a defense of the western canon and civilization. In an interesting chapter she discusses the success of the Great Courses program. There clearly is a desire for classical liberal arts education in the United States and private companies are filling the void. Nonfiction bestseller lists are full of biographies of great men and accounts of the Revolution, the Civil War, WWI, WWII and other topics that are rarely taught at the University.Mac Donald’s sharp, opinionated, often Menckenesque prose is on target and also a delight to read.

Having had six kids and countless nieces and nephews go through or currently attending college, Heather, one of the best authors currently writing by the way, hits it on the head! Liberal agendas and viewpoints are shoved down the throats of young impressionable kids. My daughter literally had to sit through a "white privilege" lecture and argued with the instructor to the point of tears. Most of the kids I talk to about such forced indoctrination just "get through it." That said, too many kids believe this type of "training" is the real truth. Heather breaks this down perfectly and accurately exposes the dangers of such climates on college campuses. It's impossible to argue that the libs only believe in free speech when it is their speech. Heather points out the absurdity of the overwhelming numbers of liberal professors and their sanctioning of the victim mentality such as "safe spaces." Everyone should read this book, especially those with kids ready for college.

I was inspired to purchase this book after having come upon a YouTube video in which the author, Heather Mac Donald, detailed some of the ideologically inspired lunacy that was taking place in modern academia. Now, this was not altogether new to me as I had been aware of such madness in universities for more than two years, but the stories she told made me wonder if the academic world was beyond saving, and, by extension, Western culture and civilisation, for this disease has spread way beyond the university campus and infects almost every institution and workplace in the West. In this wonderful book, Heather examines the many false narratives of the left - microaggressions; implicit bias training; campus rape culture - and exposes them to the light of reason. We can only hope that reason wins out...

It's about time counter-points were presented. Refreshing that not everyone has jumped on the P.C. bandwagon. There is hope yet!

A frightening tout d'horizon of the ongoing assault on Western culture. The author takes particular aim at the takeover of academia by professors and masked hooligans who hurl accusations of racism and sexism at anyone who champions traditional liberal values. A well-documented eye-opener...

ein wirklich wichtiger Insiderbericht ist hier zu lesen - so überauß politisch korrekt geht es an amerikanischen Universitäten zu, ob UCLA, Berkely, Yale, Harvard, Columbia - wo das Matratzenmädel Emma S. ihre Show abzog, wie McDonald zu berichten weiss, oder ihre eigene Denunzierung als "Faschistin", als sie einer Uni-Einladung zu einer Rede folgt und von der Polizei geschützt werden musste. Wir sollten lernen und aufpassen, dass unsere Universitäten noch Orte zum Austausch freier Meinungen bleiben und nicht des "pampering", wie McDonald schreibt, des Verwöhnprogramms, mit dem privilegierte Studentengruppen umsorgt werden, sobald sie einen Verdacht auf "Diskriminierung" äußern. Für mich als ehemaligen Anti-Apartheid-AKtivisten hat sich die Spirale von einem schlechten Extrem zum anderen gedreht. Unbedingt lesen!

Another excellent book from Heather MacDonald. Buy extras as gifts.

As an old guy I'm glad I read the book as it was interesting to see how the 'fruit" was maturing so many decades later. Only Tom Wolfe could have written better on the topic than the authoress.

appreciation from Canada

Great book!

images and videos more helpful than text alone.

The author certainly knows the topic, I have seen many of the issues.

Powerful and alarming

Front-footed and solidly referenced academic argument on a subject that makes this a thoroughly depressing read.

super:))