The Affirmative Action Hoax: Diversity, the Importance of Character And Other Lies [Paperback]

Farron Steven (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 30, 2005

Debate surrounding affirmative action has raged for years. In his book, Professor Farron examines the history of affirmative action and exposes the fraudulent nature of its justifications. The Affirmative Action Hoax centers on universities, where ability and achievement can be clearly compared, but it also examines the damage that affirmative action causes throughout American society.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Steven Farron received his BA and PhD from Columbia University in New York. From 1974 to 2000 he taught in the Classics Department of the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa. His specialty is ancient Greek and Latin epic poetry on which he published a book and over twenty articles. Dr. Farron resigned from his teaching post in 2000 in order to devote his time to writing a trilogy of related books of which this is one.

Product Details

• Paperback: 405 pages
• Publisher: Seven Locks Pr (June 30, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1931643628
• ISBN-13: 978-1931643627
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.9 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,246,963 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Comprehesive, factual and to the point, February 3, 2006

By 

W. Ford (Delaware Ohio) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Affirmative Action Hoax: Diversity, the Importance of Character And Other Lies (Paperback)

Steven Farron sets out to comprehensively document how affirmative action has changed and distorted our society from college admission, college grading, job applications, and job performance. His style is very readable and not at all pedantic. I started the book and couldn't put it down until it was finished. The subject is divided into various chapters, each relating to another form of affirmative action as applied by our federal and academic bureaucracies. The result is a thorough and informative recount of how affirmative action has changed the structure of our society, for good or evil. Farron is obviously on the side of less affirmative action but he gives his reasons for this stance and relates the price we all pay for our progressive social policies.
Mr. Farron's style is straight forward and easy to comprehend. Although he has done significant research into the numbers related to affirmative action the reader never gets inundated with cold facts.
His arguments are succinct and to the point, never verbose and obscure. I thoroughly enjoyed the book
And will use it as a road map as I navigate our new society.

36 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Liars Exposed, October 24, 2005

By 

Hugh Murray - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: The Affirmative Action Hoax: Diversity, the Importance of Character And Other Lies (Paperback)

It is sad to read how leaders of American universities have consistantly lied over the years - lied, covered up, punished those who dissented, and finally led an assault on free speech. They pretended that there were no major differences between Blacks in Whites in admissions to unis. For years they hid just how great is the gap between Blacks and whites in scores on SAT and ACT and grad & profession exams, tests that regularly predict how well a student will do in academia. Because Blacks were ill equipped to partake in elite uni classes, profs were pressured to pass them, eventually lowering standards for all. Farron shows that all the talk of considering qualities other than race in admissions is a scam; uni administrators want quotas, even if they cannot call them such. Consequently, children of wealthy Blacks and Hispanics recieve many scholarships, summer study programs, tutors, other help, from high school on through retirement. Poor whites pay the price by being denied basic equal opportunity. Unlike most critics, Farron sees Asians as benificiaries of affirmative action, espeically in Small Business Adm. grants.

I disagree with him when he asserts that John Kennedy basically believed in the quotaized approach. I think that in the early 1960s Kennedy and King simply wanted equal opportunity for all. They assumed that equal opportunity would bring about equal results. Only when testing showed that many Blacks would be unable to make the grade, or get the job or promotion, was there a major demand for discrimination against white males, i.e. affirmative action. Surely, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 would never have been passed if it were meant to create the institutionalized racism we have today under the Orwellian phrases "equal opportunity" and "affirmative action."

Farron also fails to note that the 1964 law also forbid religious discrimination, and if implemented in the same manner as it now applies to race, ethnos, and sex, Jews would be limited to 2% of posts in medicine, law, the media etc. (See my "White Male Privilege" in J. of Libertarian Studies)

Still, Farron has written a courageous book that exposes the lies of the academedia complex, which is alligned with the power of the government and corporate elite. His book includes many useful quotes, lengthy appendices, and he writes clearly. One hopes it will be read widely.
----------Hugh Murray

31 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An unapologetic, no-holds barred indictment of affirmative action especially in university admission, February 8, 2006

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Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Affirmative Action Hoax: Diversity, the Importance of Character And Other Lies (Paperback)

The Affirmative Action Hoax: Diversity, The Importance Of Character And Other Lies by academician Steven Farron is an unapologetic, no-holds barred indictment of affirmative action especially in university admission, and also the less widely publicized practices of affirmative grading and graduation. Vehement in its denouncements, The Affirmative Action Hoax is unafraid to label defenses of affirmative action as "shameless frauds" and "blatant lies"; it declares, in unambiguous terms, that affirmative action is a blatant form of discrimination against white people and Asian people, and that if racial discrimination must be enacted then by far the most efficient and fair means is through quotas. Debunking the non-academic admissions criteria of "diversity", "importance of character", etc. often used to defend anti-white affirmative action by revealing that the same concepts were first introduced to discriminate in favor of white students who could not compete with the children of Jewish immigrants, The Affirmative Action Hoax is sharp-tongued yet serious minded in its call to reexamine a facet of university admissions policies all too easily taken for granted.