Ron Unz

Ronald Keeva Unz (; born September 20, 1961) is an American technology entrepreneur, conservative political activist, writer, and publisher. A former businessman, Unz became a financial software multi-millionaire before entering politics. and the Southern Poverty Law Center has labeled it a white nationalist publication. Unz has also drawn criticism for funding VDARE and other publications accused of white supremacism. to a Ukrainian family of Jewish descent. His family migrated to America in the 20th century and was raised household in North Hollywood. His mother was an anti-war activist who raised her son as a single mother. Unz has said that his childhood as a fatherless child in a single-parent household which received public assistance, was a source of "embarrassment and discomfort". He attended Harvard University, graduating in 1983 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in physics and ancient history. In 1985, he published a note in The Journal of Hellenic Studies arguing that that Alexander the Great had younger brothers whom he murdered when he came to the throne. He then took graduate courses in physics at the University of Cambridge and began a Ph.D. at Stanford University before abandoning the program.

Political career Unz made an unsuccessful bid for the Republican nomination in the 1994 California gubernatorial election, challenging incumbent Pete Wilson. He ran as a conservative alternative to the more moderate Wilson and was endorsed by the conservative California Republican Assembly. Newspapers referred to Unz's candidacy as a Revenge of the Nerds and often quoted his claim of a 214 IQ. despite opposition from language education researchers. Proposition 227 did not seek to end bilingual education since special exemptions were made for students to remain in an English immersion class if a parent so desires. However, there were limits (such as age restrictions) for the exemptions, and there were provisions to discipline teachers who refused to teach solely or predominantly in English. Proposition 227 was approved in 1998, but repealed by Proposition 58 in 2016. In 2002, Unz backed a similar initiative, the Massachusetts English Language Education in Public Schools Initiative, which was approved by 61.25% of the voters. He also supported ballot initiatives in other states including Arizona Proposition 203 and Colorado Amendment 31.

In early 1999, Unz introduced a campaign-finance reform ballot initiative known as the California Voters Bill of Rights (Proposition 25). Co-sponsored by California Democrat Tony Miller and endorsed by Senator John McCain, In late 1999, Unz briefly entered the U.S. Senate race to challenge incumbent Dianne Feinstein, declaring his candidacy in October and dropping out by December to focus on fundraising for Proposition 25, which was ultimately defeated in the March 2000 primary election.

In 2012 and 2014, Unz worked on a ballot initiative to raise the California minimum wage from $10 to $12, but his campaign failed. His proposal was supported by economist James K. Galbraith. None of the five candidates were elected to the 30-person board.

Unz campaigned on a Republican ticket in California in the 2016 primaries for election to the US Senate intending to succeed Democrat Barbara Boxer. Having previously supported immigration, he now proposed it "should be sharply reduced, probably by 50% or more." Though not hoping to win the nomination, he put himself forward in an attempt to challenge the then proposed repeal of Proposition 227. In the final result, he gained 64,698 votes (1.3%).

Writing and publishing The American Conservative and the "Asian quota" controversy An investor in The American Conservative, he was its publisher from 2007 to 2013. He also contributed opinion articles on topics such as immigration, the minimum wage, and urban crime.

In 2012, Unz published an article in The American Conservative entitled "The Myth of American Meritocracy". He argued Ivy League universities held an unspoken Asian quota limiting spots granted to Asian students similar to earlier Jewish quotas, and that Jewish students were over-represented at a greater rate than merit would suggest. The article said that the "massive apparent bias" could be attributed to unconscious bias from Jewish administrators at those universities. His argument that an Asian race-based quota existed in the Ivy League was reproduced in a subsequent New York Times special debate feature, "Fears of an Asian Quota in the Ivy League". Unz's admissions analysis was contested by academics at Yale, who showed that his data "grossly underestimates the proportion of Asian-Americans". Unz's writings on Ivy League admissions were praised by white supremacist David Duke who said it confirmed Harvard was "now under powerful Jewish influence". The noted antisemite Kevin B. MacDonald said it was similar to his own view that Jews are "at odds with the values of the great majority of non-Jewish White Americans." Nick Gillespie of Reason called it "one of the Web's great archive projects".

The Unz Review

In November 2013, Unz launched the website The Unz Review for which he serves as editor-in-chief and publisher.

The Unz Review describes itself as presenting "controversial perspectives largely excluded from the American mainstream media." Unz says he mostly posts articles that have already been published, and "I don't even read most of the articles I publish, and I certainly don't edit them. I'm busy." and by the New York Times as "far right". According to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) in 2014, the webzine is an "outlet for certain writers to attack Israel and Jews". In addition, the Unz Foundation has given grants to Alison Weir, founder of If Americans Knew. while Unz himself defended David Irving, who lost his libel case against Deborah Lipstadt. Unz also implied that Mossad was involved in the murders of President John F. Kennedy and his brother Robert.

Collection of essays In 2016, Unz self-published The Myth of American Meritocracy and Other Essays, a hardcover collection of most of his writings, including nearly all of his print articles.

Other Unz provided a $600,000 grant for research in evolutionary biology to Gregory Cochran, an anthropologist who argued that homosexuality may be caused by a "gay germ". Ralph Nader, while running with Unz for Harvard Board of Overseers called him "a very nuanced guy. He should not be stereotyped as a lot of the world of identity politics does."