The Diversity Hoax: Law Students Report from Berkeley [Paperback]

David Wienir (Editor), Marc Berley (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1999

The Diversity Hoax is a book about diversity on campus, written by those who know it best - students. Does diversity of ideas prevail? A remarkable collection of essays on the subject of intellectual freedom and free speech by students at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law, this book reveals many "student secrets" that universities have been doing their best to keep quiet. These essays by UC Berkeley law students from across the political spectrum will motivate students nationwide to exercise their right to free speech and express their diverse opinions on various topics, including what "diversity" really means.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"The Diversity Hoax is required reading for anyone concerned about legal education in America. These intriguing essays show how the illiberal orthodoxy of "political correctness" is stifling debate at an institution that should be an open marketplace of ideas. By describing the problem so clearly and candidly, this excellent book may be the beginning of its resolution." -- Edwin Meese, III former U.S. Attorney General, Boalt Hall Alumnus

"A frightening look at how the left wing thought-police have invaded one of America's most prestigious law schools." -- David Horowitz, author of Radical Son and The Politics of Bad Faith

"David Wienir and Marc Berley are to be congratulated both for their principles and this illuminating book. They believe in true diversity of ideas, including those that disagree with the main premise of this extraordinary collection. An indispensable follow-up to The Shadow University, The Diversity Hoax bears moral witness to a scandal of immense proportions: freedom of speech and conscience are being trampled at American college and university campuses. Bravo for an essential job well done!" -- Harvey A. Silverglate, co-author with Alan Charles Kors of The Shadow University: The Betrayal of Liberty on America's Campuses

"David Wienir, Marc Berley, and the contributors to The Diversity Hoax are profiles in courage." -- Dennis Prager, author of Think a Second Time and Happiness Is a Serious Problem, syndicated radio talk show host (KABC)

"The publication of The Diversity Hoax shows students aren't going to acquiesce to such tactics anymore." -- Forbes

"This fascinating and powerful collection of thoughtful young voices is eye-opening even to those versed in the machinations of diversity in higher education. It is a book of experiences more than abstractions, and it opens us to the inner lives of those usually too young and too busy to speak for themselves. I was disturbed and yet also moved as I read the stories of people so young already fighting so hard for their integrity. No one can read this book without admiration for its writers and horror at the situation they find themselves in. There is no other book like it." -- Shelby Steele, author of The Content of Our Character and A Dream Deferred: The Second Betrayal of Black Freedom in America

"Vital...insiders' perspective on the culture wars." -- Boston Book Review

About the Author

David Wienir is a second-year student at University of California, Berkeley School of Law. Marc Berley is president of the Foundation for Academic Standards & Tradition (FAST), a not-for-profit student organization.

Product Details

• Paperback: 184 pages
• Publisher: Foundation for Academic Standards & Tradition (April 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0966994000
• ISBN-13: 978-0966994001
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (31 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,339,844 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

BIOGRAPHY: David Wienir is a business affairs executive at United Talent Agency (UTA). In 2009 and 2010, he was named a rising star in entertainment law by Super Lawyers Magazine, and in 2005 he received the Outstanding Volunteer of the Year Award from Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts. He has taught entertainment law at various universities including UCLA, NYU and the New York Institute of Technology, and is admitted to practice law in both New York and California.

He began his entertainment law career as a litigator in New York at the international law firm Coudert Brothers, where he specialized in intellectual property, music, book publishing and First Amendment litigation. He then practiced law as a transactional talent lawyer at two of the top talent boutiques in the world, Grubman Indursky & Shire in New York, and Gang Tyre Ramer & Brown in Beverly Hills, where he represented many prominent clients and A List celebrities in the film, television, book and music industries. Before becoming an entertainment lawyer, he worked within the Governor of California's legal affairs office in Sacramento and was assigned to the Menendez murder trial while interning with the Los Angeles District Attorney's Office.

He is the co-author of three books:

Making It on Broadway: Actors' Tales of Climbing to the Top (New York: Allworth Press, 2004, foreword by Jason Alexander) (12,500+ copies sold),

The Diversity Hoax: Law Students Report from Berkeley (New York: Foundation for Academic Standards and Tradition, 1999, afterword by Dennis Prager), and

Last Time: Labour's Lessons from the Sixties (London: Bellew Press, 1997) with Austin Mitchell, Member of Parliament.

Before beginning his career as a lawyer, he was the host of the talk radio show Estonia Today on Estonia National Radio in the former Soviet Union during the early 1990s, worked as a speechwriter for a Member of Parliament within the British House of Commons, worked as a researcher for The Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation, and worked as a statistician at CBS Sports for NFL Today and Major League Baseball.

He is a graduate of ARTA's professional whitewater river rafting school in Idaho and worked as a river guide for several years in California and Oregon. He is a classically trained pianist and a singer, has performed in piano bars in Europe and America, and is a founder and former musical director of The Oxford Alternotives, Oxford University's oldest rock a cappella close harmony group.

He earned a J.D. from Berkeley Law (Boalt Hall), an M.Sc. from the London School of Economics, and a B.A. (cum laude and departmental honors) while studying as an Oxford-Cambridge Scholar at Columbia University. Additionally, he earned a certificate from the faculty of law at the Vrije University in Amsterdam, was a visiting scholar at the University of Oxford (Harris-Manchester College), and was an Eesti Fellow at the University of Tartu in the former Soviet Republic of Estonia. He earned his diploma from The Harvard School and attended The Mirman School in Los Angeles.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

37 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Thought control in the name of diversity., May 8, 1999

By 

[e-mail] "[e-mail]" (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Diversity Hoax: Law Students Report from Berkeley (Paperback)

It must have taken a lot of courage for David Wienir and his contributors to bare their stories before the eyes of their fellow students and administration at Boalt Hall. You can read it in the writing style contained in these essays. Many of the students are tentative, defensive, overly careful in their prose and in their choice of words. It is possible to infer much anguish in the authors of these chapters.

Recently there have been some exposes of the direction our elite universities have taken. The Shadow University, by Kors and Silverglate; The Killing of History, by Windschuttle; Beyond All Reason, by Farber and Sherry; Literature Lost, by Ellis; and Fashionable Nonsense, by Sokal and Bricmont each seeks to expose the destructive trends of thought control in places formerly dedicated to the pursuit of truth above that of political correctness. David Wienir's book is the first account I know of coming directly from the students' point of view. As such it presents a tragic picture of the decline of a once great institution.

I was an undergraduate at Berkeley during the early sixties. What the students fought for in those heady days is a bygone dream overtaken by anti-intellectual tactics. Read the reviews in Amazon carefully. And read this book to decide for yourself.

34 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Worthwhile reading; not a right-wing tract, September 12, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Diversity Hoax: Law Students Report from Berkeley (Paperback)

As a Boalt Hall law school graduate from the mid-1980s, I enjoyed reading this book.

One of the more interesting facts about The Diversity Hoax is external to it--namely:

You can't find it at the Berkeley Public Library.

You can't find it at the Oakland Public Library.

And you can't find it at the San Francisco Public Library.

To the Boalt Hall law library's credit, however, you can find it there.

I do not know, of course, whether the public libraries' failure to carry The Diversity Hoax stems from political correctness or is an oversight. In any case, it's unfortunate, because many of the student essays are thoughtful and interesting.

The least persuasive essays are those that complain about fear of being silenced for having conservative views. If one fears speaking out at a genteel place like Boalt, it's going to be hard to do so in the hard-boiled environments many lawyers occupy. When I attended Boalt, it was quite p.c., but overall the environment was polite. Reading the essays as a whole, it doesn't sound as though much has changed--some essays suggest or observe that differently minded students are able to speak out. It helps that the faculty is fairly conservative.

The most persuasive essays are those that describe the narrow-mindedness of some liberal or leftist students and the contradictions in their own points of view. To those who have been made uncomfortable by those students' intolerance or rudeness, I can offer this consolation: you'll eventually have the satisfaction of witnessing a notable display of hypocrisy, as some of the most self-righteous bitter pills in your class meekly accept work defending toxic-waste dumpers and the like.

It's refreshing to see that most of the essay writers, though conservative, have avoided the kind of pompous writing that marks a young fogey. The essays tend to be plain-spoken and thoughtful. Here's an example: "[W]hen a majority of California voters approved the demise of racial quotas in the government and education sectors, what happened next? Liberals got mad because the entitlement program that made everything look better was suddenly extinguished. Conservatives were overjoyed because now the state didn't officially sanction injustice. But what about the fact that so many minority students are still finding it so hard or lack the desire to compete on their own?"

One other note: during one's three years in law school, it's easy to acquire an exaggerated sense of the importance of academic life. Some professors are cloistered in their own law-school-centric world, and it's natural to follow suit. (As an example of such self-absorption, retiring Boalt Hall dean Herma Hill Kay told the San Francisco Daily Journal that "[s]he expects to take a sabbatical during the 2000-01 school year to finish a book on women law professors . . . ." Perhaps Kay thinks that's an interesting topic, but personally I'd rather read about Amelia Earhart. I have to wonder who she thinks will read a book about law professors, other than other law professors.) Whatever travails the tensions at Boalt present will fade after graduation.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A "must read" for anyone who cares about true diversity, May 31, 1999

By 

Jacob L.([e-mail]) (Bellevue, WA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Diversity Hoax: Law Students Report from Berkeley (Paperback)

Wienir and Berley's "Diversity Hoax" provides a disheartening glimpse into the state of American higher education. It illustrates the hyperbole and closed mindedness that passes for free thought and reasoned discourse at Berkeley. But more importantly, "The Diversity Hoax" exposes the current gilded notion of "diversity" for what it is. Berkeley students, professors, and administration evidently celebrate diversity of skin while shunning diversity of thought. Currently a senior in high school and aspiring lawyer, I will soon face the seemingly Sisyphian task of standing up to the radical liberalism so prevalent on college campuses. I only hope that I will have the same courage as Wienir and Berley to speak my mind and fight for true diversity.