Dinesh D'Souza
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Dinesh D'Souza (born April 25, 1961 in Mumbai, India) is an American conservative author. He is the author of numerous New York Times best seller books.
Career
D'Souza is the Robert and Karen Rishwain Fellow at the Hoover Institution. He served previously as senior domestic policy analyst in Ronald Reagan's White House from 1987 to 1988 and, previously, as a member of the editorial staff of Policy Review magazine.
Conservatism
D'Souza is a noted conservative, and defines conservatism in the American sense as "conserving the principles of the American Revolution". He argues that it is a blend of classical liberalism and ancient virtue, in particular, "the belief that there are moral standards in the universe and that living up to them is the best way to have a full and happy life." He also argues against what he calls the modern liberal belief that "human nature is intrinsically good," and thus that "the great conflicts in the world…arise out of terrible misunderstandings that can be corrected through ongoing conversation and through the mediation of the United Nations." (Letters to a Young Conservative)
Affirmative action
D'Souza challenges liberal (left-wing) beliefs and projects such as affirmative action, and social welfare programs. His first and second books, Illiberal Education and The End of Racism, came under critical attack from many liberals but were widely supported by conservatives. In the first, he argued that the ostensible tolerance practiced by many universities was actually an intolerance of any conservative view, and this theme has been continued by university professors such as Mike Adams in Welcome to the Ivory Tower of Babel: Confessions of a Conservative College Professor. D'Souza's denial of the existence of institutionalized racism in modern American society (especially since he is an immigrant and member of a minority race himself) has made him an enemy of many civil rights groups and leaders, including Jesse Jackson.
D'Souza has often stated that he believes idealizing the rebellion against slavery is a source of disability among African Americans wanting to reintegrate into the new "non-racist" society. He believes that slaves, to preserve a sense of dignity, in the circumstances of cruel slavery, would by nature tend to be defiant. This defiance, exemplified in the archetype of the "bad nigger", would become the central hero for African slaves, restoring a degree of pride and dignity to all. But, he continues, the price of this would be the habitually engrained attitude of defiance that was ultimately self-destructive. These self-destructive habits still have a legacy today, D'Souza contends, and serve to explain, in a large part, the degree to which slave descendants suffer from social and self-esteem issues, inheritors of an ideal that heralded a bad attitude.
As an immigrant of Luso-Goan heritage, descended from converts made by Catholic missionaries under Portuguese auspices, culturally assimilated to Portuguese culture, D'Souza has admitted that he believes his race has worked to his political advantage. As a critic of the role of racism in American society, he frequently denounces the actions of his fellow minorities, often with frank language that could be perceived as racist if spoken by a white. For example, he argues that racial preferences "devalue black achievements, and they intensify doubts about black capacity."
Virtues of America
The theme of D'Souza's book What's So Great About America is that the freedoms of America offer much to immigrants, which is why there have been so many. He argues that the success of immigrants historically is due to their assimilation of American values while keeping their heritage, i.e. the "melting pot", E pluribus unum. Conversely, he is critical of the twin extremes of cultural ghettos, in particular due to multiculturalism, and Theodore Roosevelt's denunciation of hyphenated Americans. D'Souza also argues against what he perceives as a blame-America-first attitude of many American liberals, who underestimate the great benefits he says America offers compared to other countries.
This book, some of his articles, and many of his speeches make the following point: "Indeed, newcomers to the United States are struck by the amenities enjoyed by poor people. This fact was dramatized in the 1980s when CBS television broadcast a documentary, People Like Us, intended to show the miseries of the poor during an ongoing recession. The Soviet Union also broadcast the documentary, with a view to embarrassing the Reagan administration. But by the testimony of former Soviet leaders, it had the opposite effect. Ordinary people across the Soviet Union saw that the poorest Americans have TV sets, microwave ovens and cars. They arrived at the same perception that I witnessed in an acquaintance of mine from Bombay who has been unsuccessfully trying to move to the United States. I asked him, Why are you so eager to come to America? He replied, I really want to live in a country where the poor people are fat. [Dinesh D'Souza]" This quote about America's poor being fat has become quite a successful meme.
Feminism
After his 1983 graduation from Dartmouth College, D'Souza moved to Princeton, New Jersey, where he worked for Concerned Alumni of Princeton, a conservative organization strongly critical of coeducation, affirmative action, and campus access to birth control. As writer and editor-in-chief for Prospect, the organization's magazine, D'Souza wrote a March 1984 cover story identifying a Freshman undergraduate who had begun a sexual relationship with another student against her mother's wishes. D'Souza offered details of the woman's sex life, and criticized Princeton University for paying the student's tuition fees after the student's mother withdrew financial support. The ensuing scandal was reported in The New York Times.[link] D'Souza claimed that the woman's name had been published as the result of a "proofreading error" and that he "care[s] about the girl; that's why [he] wrote the story."
D'Souza also denounced feminism in Letters to a Young Conservative:
- "The feminist error was to embrace the value of the workplace as greater than the value of the home. Feminism has endorsed the public sphere as inherently more constitutive of women’s worth than the private sphere. Feminists have established as their criterion of success and self-worth an equal representation with men at the top of the career ladder. The consequence of this feminist scale of values is a terrible and unjust devaluation of women who work at home." (pp. 105–106).
Social issues
D'Souza is also a commentator on various social issues. He has suggested that many modern social problems result from a decline in belief in a universal moral order.
Speaking circuit success
One of the country's most successful conservative authors and speakers, D'Souza routinely is paid $10,000 or more for his lectures and has made millions from his books and conservative commentary. The San Diego Reader reported in April 2005:
- "Since Dartmouth, the conservative fray has been quite remunerative for D'Souza. Six years ago, he and his wife bought their home in Fairbanks Ranch. The nearly 8000-square-foot house has six bedrooms, seven and a half baths, and a four-car garage, where they keep their maroon 1992 Jaguar XJS."[link].
Television appearances
D'Souza does not make many television appearances, but has he has appeared a few times on CNN [link], [link]. Other media appearances include ABC's Nightline, CBS's Face the Nation, FOX News Channel's Hannity & Colmes, MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews, and CNBC's Dennis Miller.
Personal
A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Dartmouth College, D'Souza was an editor of The Dartmouth Review.
D'Souza is married to Dixie D'Souza, with whom he has a daughter who attends the prestigious La Jolla Country Day School.
Prior to his marriage, he reportedly dated conservative author Ann Coulter and conservative radio host Laura Ingraham, to whom he was engaged but never married[link].
D'Souza is a practicing Roman Catholic. On October 15, 1990, he became a naturalized citizen of the United States.
Writings
Books
Books authored by Dinesh D'Souza include:- 1984: Falwell, Before the Millennium: A Critical Biography, Regnery Publishing (ISBN 0895266075)
- 1986: The Catholic Classics
- 1991: Illiberal Education
- 1995: The End of Racism
- 1997: Ronald Reagan: How An Ordinary Man Became an Extraordinary Leader
- 2000: The Virtue of Prosperity
- 2002: What's So Great About America, Regnery Publishing (ISBN 0895261537)
- 2002: Letters to a Young Conservative
Articles
Articles written by Dinesh D’Souza include:- Moon's Planet: The Politics and Theology of the Unification Church
- Ten Great Things About America
- How Ronald Reagan Won The Cold War
- Technology And Moral Progress
- We the Slaveowners: In Jefferson's America, Were Some Men Not Created Equal?
- The Self Esteem Hoax
- Two Cheers For Colonialism
- Reagan Versus The Intellectuals
- 10 things to celebrate: Why I'm an anti-anti-American [available here]
External links
- [Official D'Souza web site].
- [Dinesh D'Souza profile, NNDB].
- ["The Controversialist"], April 14, 2005.
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