Earlier this afternoon, my oldest boyhood friend, a distinguished international lawyer who received his doctorate at Cambridge, called me to share the tragic news that Jason Arday, the Black British academic, had been found dead.
Except for the rhetorical flourish of “who killed”—more accurately, “who is to blame”—this is a recommended read. Refreshingly balanced.
Some will note that you omit Arday's own role--agency--in this affair: that he plagiarised, that he was a fabulist, that he used the police and lawyers to suppress criticism, that he had questionable teaching ability etc, but I take that you acknowldge this and it is in this case secondary because all the weaknesses he had were in fact instrumentalized in the mechanisms you describe.
Maybe it would be better for the essay if you could recognize Arday's place in this sorry story--give him his agency back and point out that in addition to his own shortcomings, it these factors all contributed to his death.
I fear that otherwise this is just another contribution to one side of the culture war. And as we have just discovered, the culture war is real: it has real consequences in the loss of life.
His "weaknesses", as you so coyly put it, are the point. None of this would have happened in the absence of his relentless, narcissistic pursuit of self-esteem at the expense of self-respect. The only truly innocent victims in all of this are his children, the abandonment of whom he made his final, repulsively self-regarding act.
Rubbish, case in point Paul Elliot, similar fantastical fabrication and he was treated in much the same way by the press, however he was found out in 14 months whereas Jason Arday was in post for 3 and a half years.
I totally agree with you: two things conspired. He was a diversity hire (that much is clear to the whole of the profession) and he was black. Now, my guess is of he was white and also not qualified he would probably would not have been hounded. The reason is that he was caught up in the culture wars.
I deal with plagiarism issues nearly on a weekly basis, and what JA did was a clear a case by any standard. Cambridge acted irresponsibly and allowed the whole thing to spill into public.
Is there such a thing as a "diversity hire"? Thats mealy mouthed. What you mean to type is that he was a black man promoted above his abilities. Just say that, because that's what you mean. You even hint at it yourself, if he was a white man promoted beyond his abilities it would hardly register. It is all about his race. I don't mean to hector, the written word does always allow nuance but please, say what you truly think
If you are asking me do I believe that the person who pushed the trip switch if Arday was one of his own? That is had all the features of Arday except for his skin colour? The answer is: I doubt it? That person had every incentive to cause trouble in Cambridge and cause trouble over EID hires and in particular a black person. That fitted his own political agenda to a T.
But that aside the following can be true:
a) JA had committed academic misconduct
b) The reason for revealing the misconduct may/was because he was black.
c) Whites have also engaged in misconduct and were not forced out or hounded.
d) JA was not deserving of what happened to him.
I myself have been posting everywhere I can to warn people of Cofnas’s race realism agenda.
Is a) true? Liverpool JMU investigated the allegations and dismissed them. In the end I think we both agree that Mr Arday was hounded to his death because of his race. His fragile mental state and tendency to embellish on his life story was a big factor undoubtedly. But if he was white he'd quite likely be with us now
By “diversity hire” I mean exactly that: hiring someone for their protected characteristics independent of their fit (qualification). I have just argued against such a practice in my own university.
I agree that white incompetents are hired all the time. Once you make a token hire in a febrile environment in a high status place like Cambridge and then engage the media circus yourself, the disaster is pre-programmed. That’s not rocket science.
I don't think we disagree, I just think we have a difference of emphasis. You live in Germany, so I suspect you're familiar with the travails of Der Mannshaft. Would you say the players of foreign extraction are held to the same standards of more typically German players?
In all likelihood, yes. And that indicates the whole problem. He would not, and should not have been hired. Which means that JA was selected out for reasons other than merit. Then having been selected he was treated in a way that had he been white would have been less harsh … maybe not? We have this case as a comparison: Marie Sophie Hingst.
Let me enlighten you. Sir Cyril Burt was a white professor of educational psychology at University College London. He was responsible for the theoretical underpinning of the tripartite system of education in the UK - grammar schools, secondary modern schools and technical schools. He "found" that by the age of 11 you could tell with certainty whether a child had an academic, non-academic or practical mind. In 1976 he was found to have fabricated his data and his exposure was all over the newspapers and other media. I remember it very well.
I'm enlightened. Might I ask. Was Sir Cyril (obviously he was knighted at some point. Befire any of this I suspect) on the front page of the Daily Telegraph for over two weeks? This whole farrago is about race. Just admit it
Yes, white men commit exactly the same crimes too to scale the ladder of fame and fortune. He was posthumously discredited. The correct counterfactual is to find a similar white person case among the living. Maybe the Elisabeth Holmes case or James Watson being stripped of his titles for making racist remarks.
We sit around discuss this stuff Matt and pretend race doesn't matter. Trust me, I really don't throw that stuff around, because racism covers a huge spectrum, from my uncle making a silly joke at a family wedding to neo-nazis. We all have to maintain a sense of perspective. But race is still a thing (mad I know). And this whole thing is about race
It is unlikely that a white professor would have been pushed through the ranks as JA was, in the first place.
This is the cruel side of DEI placements: they destroy more than they assist black lives. Furthermore, the JA case strips value away from the achievements of black academics who have rightfully earned their posts.
King Charles went to an Oxbridge college despite being a hopeless student. Do you honestly (honestly) believe what you have just written. We live i England for God's sake. We invented tge old biys network. A white woman, well you might have a point
Toby Young got into Oxford “by mistake” and the grace of his father. A nepo if any. And he has followed his father’s footstep’s into the Lords, although I am sure his father would frown on his son’s views. This is just evidence of the divide. But it affects “whites” as well. I literally left the UK because of all this.
I know Matthew. I've come to terms with (its kind of a tsx worth paying to live in what is basically a good Country). I just ask people to be honest. I watched the whole Jason Arday story with dismay. I knew it would just be turn into a culture war. He was an academic promoted above his abilities. Somebody needed to be taken to task for that. Nobody needed to die
Thats ok then. White boy gets swept into an esteemed place of learning nobody bats an eyelid. Its the fact you don't see the breathtaking hypocrisy that stuns me. Mr Arday's case is a tragedy on every level. Strangely I'm sure if he'd been a white man educated a public school and with a privileged background he would just brush this all off with an insouciance those of us less fortunate find staggering
Yes, I believe all these to be valid points. In fact, in one interview JA actually says he hopes that in five years down the line he is not seen as the token appointment.
TBH, I do not think that the hope could have been built. That has less to do with JA than with the subject matter he was in and the institutional structures of HE. This is not systemic racism. Its the reality of how long educational reform takes. 5 years was unrealistic. What he and Cambridge did was to try and and do it through hype rather than substance.
I do not deny this. These two things can be true: A has characteristic c and A was enabled to occupy position p for which c was a hindrance to the performance of tasks t in position p.
What sort of fool would place any trust whatsoever in any bureaucratic institution anywhere to do the right thing? By definition and constitutionally they exist to serve their own, often tawdry, interests. One can't do much of anything about Cambridge University or the media but one can strive never to cede an ounce of sovereignty over one's own soul.
Yes. And I would suggest that he was no doubt failed during his undergraduate studies where he was negligently allowed to get away with his plagiarism and poof academic habits.
So you believe he deserved what was thrown at him? Academics have these accusations thrown at them all the time. But most don't find themselves on the front pages for weeks. Ask yourself honestly. And be honest. What was different about Mr Arday?
Not at all. My point was only that Arday had agency. I have argued over and over again on line that Cambridge and the press are responsible for this. When the first problems arose more than a year ago it was for Cambridge to deal with this internally, as they have done with every other case. This is incompetence to the highest degree. And the fact that Cofnas made Arday a cause célèbre for the culture wars is disgusting and part of it.
No, I disagree. All of us, as a society are responsible. Mr Arday's colleagues assert that the first freedom of information request over his appointment was made in February 2023. On the day he was appointed. Who would be so interested in his appointment to do that? And why? What is the the thing that separated Mr Arday from the 99%+ of other Cambridge professors? Asking for a friend.
Well I do not know what it means to say that “we as a society” are responsible. I live in Germany. My mother who is 89 in Devon. Is she responsible? Is it all members of the academic profession world wide?
I can say that who is responsible is the entire hiring committee for engaging in such an act of recklessness and not doing their due diligence. And everyone before that in the chain of hires.
I live in Liverpool. Im 66 so I'd guess around your age. Im mixed race, black West Indian father and white English/Irish mother. So I feel kind of in the middle of debates about race (I truly do). But I have an understanding of how difference can put pressure on you. I was in the local pub watching Everton last year and somebody who I know (not a friend, a local) shouted a racial epithet at a player. I felt everyone look at me (they probably weren't but at that moment I felt it). I made a joke of it. The point is, even now, race still crops up in my very English life. Why? Because we all, as a society, recognise it as a point of difference. Sorry about the length of my reply
I am 59. We share something in common. My mother is German, my father was English Jewish. I was born in Montreal. When we moved to England when I was 6, I came home from school one day and asked my father: "what's a Nazi Yid?" Up to that point I knew nothing. My parents were entirely post-war secular and my father broke with his Jewish roots in the 1950s after he was in Isreal and was forced to engage in ethnic cleaning. His father disinherited him for marrying a German. In school as a teenager I would be called "foreskin". I know all about what you saying. My father was told in school around 1940: "Braham, your name is mud". I have no jewish heritage whatsoever. I was glad to move to Germany because no one recognized my name. Braham is a knock of Abraham, which the Eastern European Jews did when they arrived and we asked: "Name? Jewish? OK, Abraham".
Black and other minority academics working in the Global West, including those who are native-born citizens, often face disproportionate expectations, scrutiny, and suspicion regarding their academic credentials, intellectual capacity, and ability to produce legitimate knowledge. These burdens are rarely imposed to the same extent on their White counterparts, whose qualifications and scholarly authority are more often taken for granted.
Such persistent scrutiny can have profound personal and professional consequences. The constant need to prove one’s competence, defend one’s credentials, and overcome implicit assumptions about intellectual ability can create significant psychological and emotional strain and, in some cases, contribute to mental health challenges.
In the twenty-first century, academic institutions should be spaces in which scholarship is evaluated on the basis of intellectual merit, methodological rigour, originality, and contribution to knowledge—not on the basis of race or preconceived assumptions about who is capable of producing knowledge. Black scholars deserve to work, teach, research, and contribute to academic life without the additional burden of continually having to prove that they belong.
This is not merely an issue of individual fairness; it is a matter of institutional integrity and the credibility of knowledge itself. Universities that genuinely value diversity, equity, and academic excellence must confront these structural and cultural biases and create environments in which every scholar can pursue knowledge with dignity, confidence, and equal recognition.
I certainly agree that no one should face discrimination or have their abilities questioned because of their race. However, I struggle with the implication that White academics simply have their qualifications and intellectual abilities “taken for granted.” As a White, middle class woman, I have had to work extremely hard for every educational and professional opportunity I have earned. I have had to prove my competence, establish my credentials, overcome setbacks, and work to be taken seriously as well.
Acknowledging the existence of racial bias should not require minimizing the struggles, sacrifices, or barriers experienced by people who happen to be White. Race can absolutely affect someone’s experience, but it is not the only factor that determines whether a person has had an easy or difficult path.
I would rather see the conversation focus on ensuring that every person is evaluated as an individual- on their work, qualifications, character, and accomplishments without making assumptions about either their privilege or their disadvantage based solely on the color of their skin.
Race very much has everything to do with this. You can look up the examples of white academics mentioned in the article where their actual plagiarism barely got notice.
You are a white woman. So you miss out on some of this. You do need to prove yourself more than white men need to. That does not lead to the conclusions you're drawing nor does it validate the ethics you're pontificating. Pretending we are equal when we're not is oppression. And it is a big mechanism through which racism operates.
There's actually a wonderful white lady academic who gave a Ted talk on racism because she heard such things and then went and researched them. Be a great idea to watch her Ted talk. Her starting point before she embarked on this research was the same as yours. This is how white people are socialised by a racist system to perceive such issues. It keeps the systemic racism invisible.
“Pretending that we’re equal when we’re not is oppression”. That viewpoint is precisely the reason why we’re in this mess. Don’t you see the racism in what you’ve just said? Black and white people aren’t equal now? And this is being promoted as a kind thing to say? It is oppression to say that we aren’t equal! Gosh.
Way to deliberately misunderstand me. Of course we're equal in that sense. We're not equal in a racist system. And pretending that we are erases the struggles and oppressions. France implemented this and we saw what it did. It did not create equality on the ground. The racism and discrimination was able to continue with greater impunity and just be came invisible under the false pretense that equality has been achieved. Lots written about this.
I never knew there were tiers and levels to racism. Racism is racism, is racism. “Pretending” that we’re equal in a racist system doesn’t erase any struggle or oppression. All acts of racism and oppression must be dealt with equally, and treated with same degree of severity. A black person’s experience of racism is no different to a white person’s experience of racism. It’s all the same - it is all just racism. And obviously not all acts of racism can be wiped out completely in society. Government and institutions can prevent this in their processes, but on an individual level, racism can still happen. You can’t control a person’s tongue. But what you can control is racism happening on an institutional level. This, I’m sure we can agree, has significantly decreased over the years.
Interpersonal colourism sure, any act of violence is not okay. That's not what we're talking about.
We're talking about systemic racism here. Look up the French example.
It's strange to me that you're not noticing some key things. The example of the white professor's plagiarism that got barely any media notice and was more severe. This isn't individual journalists it's the whole media enterprise which articles get featured and where, how the headings are framed. Like come on! And this case exposed exactly that institutional racism hasn't decreased it has just become more insidious.
illustrates that point. And perhaps it may help clarify why people are pointing to the race issue. Your hard work as a white woman is recognised and not dismissed, but that does not invalidate the argument about the reality of white privilege and how it gives benefits to white people in general that black people are denied. Jason is a case in point when you compare him with another Cambridge professor, Dr William O’Reilly, who passed twelve pages of his students' work as his own. Twelve pages, and yet he kept his job, while Ardey was force to resign.
May be you should then you would have basis for your assessment if it’s nonsense. This is a conversation entered into freely but I respect your decision but disagree with your opinion about what you describe as “nonsense”.
There was a British politician who once said, People are tired of experts, I guess some people are tired of being reminded of systematic racism and White privilege. There is book I highly recommend “ White Fragility.
Isn't literally blaming everyone and everything else for his death just another form of elitist white patronizing racism and tokenization? Isn't it a racial infantilization of sorts? Wow! I just recalled an interview he had done. Jason was discussing how educators of a Black child, who wanted to be an astrophysicist, would see the child's Blackness and say 'Well you should probably focus on sport.'. This man (Jason) fabricated to an absolutly ridiculous degree so much about his life, got found out, and took his own life. And the response for many here is: 'Oh, he's Black. It's not his fault because he is Black.'
I am not sure. What is true is death did not happen in the vacuum, it happened within a contxt and that context matters, and to attempt to dismiss that is disingenous. And part of that context is White privildge and double standards. The case of plagarism of William O’Reilly, Cambridge is a perfect illustration of both. Found guilty of copying students’ work, but he kept his job and there were no 249 articles about him for three weeks in British press. This has nothing to do with academic standard and scrutiny of Jason, it has everything to do with a push back against DEI and Jason was just a vehicle for that.
I'm not dismissing the concern about race. But a lot of his defenders are dismissing the fantastic level of fabrication of his entire life story. Arday was held up as an extraordinary superstar who overcame incredible odds to achieve seemingly impossible things. It wasn't just the plagerism. The other white faculty members were accused of plagerism. You read their stories and that was about it. Problematic, yes. But page-turning stories? Nope. Empirically not that interesting. Ardays story was compelling for media interest because of the fantastic audacity of his claims. 30 marathons in 35 days and no one in elite running had ever heard of him. Come on!
I possibly couldn’t🤣🤣. We can share our perspective on these important issues, each contribution adds a shade of meaning to the conversation which contributes to the idea of building a decent society. So I hope you will still go ahead share your views still. Thank you.
This is exactly the opposite of what occurred here. This guy faced zero scrutiny and was whisked right to the top. He deserved none of what he got, which he not only stole from more deserving people but which he used to sing the same racist, gaslighting song you are.
You should be ashamed of yourself. But you won’t be.
Jason Arday killed Jason Arday. It was suicide and his was the agency in this, as in all other decisions he made. Can we please stop treating grown black men as children? What is this?
Of course his death is a tragedy. Of course the institutions that aided and abetted his lies should be held to account. Still, he was the chief actor in his own life and his choices. Give the man at least that amount of respect.
Suicide results from mental illness. It is — excluding perhaps assisted suicide in the context of extreme terminal illness — unnatural and illogical. Mental illness can be exacerbated by, for example, external pressures, but it is no more caused by “white privilege” or “racism” than divorce is caused by difficult children. If it were, there would be far more cases of suicide in various disadvantaged communities then in white communities, but the statistics don’t bear that.
Things that can help reduce the incidence of suicide? Support communities. Mental health professionals. That sort of thing.
We must therefore ask where was Jason’s personal support network? And where would the professional support network come from if not from the vast DEI infrastructure at Cambridge? I know nothing about his personal life but it’s pretty clear that at the institutional level Cambridge failed him.
Please don't refer to suicide as "illogical and unnatural". Having lost both my siblings to suicide, I can assure you that - as much as it still breaks my heart - they both made very logical decisions.
Suicide is also the result of a rational decision based on deciding to live a life under unbearable disgrace and shame or die on your terms and relieved of self inflicted indignities. To say all suicides are from mental illness, is like saying only the mentally deranged commit homicides. Many a Roman general, Japanese officer or woman in a town overrun by the enemy died from their own hand than be at the mercy of their enemies or live in shame. If Arday reasoned he could not endure the epic shame he brought upon himself, how is he mentally challenged?
Thank you for this article. I am a working-class white woman who didn’t receive my PhD until I was 75. I open my comment with this statement because although not a sociologist I have written and taught extensively about the impacts of power and privilege in the arts as well as academia where I have worked extensively. Raising one individual to assuage criticism of racism, classism or any other form of privilege while refusing to engage with systemic change is meaningless and, as you say, often cruel. My heart breaks for this young man’s family and all those who cared for him.
Racism killed him. Whenever a Black person ascends to a place typically occupied by the White elites, he/she will always be subjected to every form of attempted devaluation and delegitimization. This time it ended very tragically.
Well, if you’re telling the truth about your academic credentials and your abilities, you should have no problem, right? Meritocracy has nothing to do with race and everything to do with Merit. The problem with this young man, was he had no credentials of worth or merit, that would elevate him to a position as a professor at Cambridge. The system let him down, the system of DEI and non-vetting and desire to have a youngest black professor at Cambridge worked against him.
The article’s central argument seems to have passed you by. It **explicitly condemns Arday’s embellishments and Cambridge’s catastrophic failure to vet him**.
The point is that a white academic’s failings remain individual; a Black academic’s failings become evidence against DEI and Black advancement generally. You have just done exactly that.
And “meritocracy has nothing to do with race” simply assumes away the article’s other central argument: that elite academia has never been a pure meritocracy, but has always been shaped by patronage, networks and inherited advantage.
This article stated that Jason Arday was given less scrutiny because the University of Cambridge wanted someone with his biography. Therefore this case is related to the concept of DEI.
A white academic with the same conduct as Arday would probably have been weeded out a long time ago, before becoming a national laughingstock.
Jason was exploited by both left and white wing media and activists. His implausible stories created intense public interest and they capitalised on it, not moving on after his resignation. When the media storm is still raging 9 days after his resignation, it’s little wonder his mental health failed.
Activists who claimed to support him were little better than right wing media, using blame language aimed at white people which doesn’t solve anything and probably intensified the pain he felt with one extreme villainising him, the other telling him white people hated him, and in between a myriad of voices conducting a more genteel DIE debate that was simplistic and ignored the pertinent issues as raised in this substack.
Those of us who treated this as an interesting news story and forget there was a human being at the heart of it also need to reflect on our own role in this, because if we hadn’t clicked on the link, the newspapers would have stopped writing about it.
Our colonial guilt paradigm brought Arday to this point, Cambridge and all universities are in bondage to DEI policy, they are blinded, they are stupid. Arday was a cheat don’t forget that, but he was enable by the wokerati because of the colour of his skin. Inverted racism. Sad, pathetic.
You are right: racism and white privilege killed Jason. A white professor, Dr William O’Reilly, was found to have copied one of his undergraduate’s supervision essays, twelve pages in total, in one of his publications, and the professor kept his job his The two-year investigation of the tribunal ruled that the offence was “the product of negligent acts but was not deliberate.”
When a Black person enters the intellectual establishment, questions that frequently follow are: Was it merit or was it diversity? Were they really good enough? Do they really belong there? The questions are often dressed up in the respectable language of standards like upholding academic standards. But the underlying suspicion is remarkably old-fashioned and familiar racism.
The Black person must prove their legitimacy. Again and again and again. And if they make a mistake, the mistake is not simply a mistake. It becomes evidence that perhaps they never belonged in the first place. That is one of the ways racism survives in sophisticated societies.
I am an Autistic person of colour I was too mute until my teens. I have been through this many times not in the public arena many neurotypicals praise our brilliance but then tear us down when we dont play their games and let them steal our ideas and take credit for our work. I didnt know him but I feel the loss of someone like me. How this disgusting bullying and racism could be allowed?? Nobody thought about his mental health in my eyes everyone murdered him even his own community mocking him.
One of the problems though is that most of his claims don't appear to have been true. I think it's likely he was a fantasist with a mental health issue.
the work of Nathan Cofnas should be scrutinized in the same manner ... You will see he is a complete fraud. Making hugely unscientific claims about matters that are not at all his field of work. He does not belong at a university seen the crap he is declaring, and he gets away with. But unlike others, he is given the peace and rest to stay appointed at Ghent University (BE) - while being guilty of what he blames to his victims. Who takes up this task ?
You’ll find he was merely relaying Harvard’s own data. That they do indeed discriminate against students of merit in order to fulfil the black quota! Ironically, they also admit that this doesn’t affect other white students in the main either, but Asian kids. This is ALL laid out in the work of Cofnas if you cared to read it!
To my knowledge Nathan Cofnas' stated belief was that the proportion of blacks in many non-athletic top positions would have been very low in a strict meritocracy, and that this probably has a genetic component. To my knowledge he has not stated that "non whites are inferior."
I think it is intellectually dishonest to strawman people you disagree with.
The most dangeous among us are smart people who quote data and then slide seamlessly into a “probable” reason. There are zero zip race markers in genetics for race. You can't get from any genetics data to a race theory. That's theory, not data…and to slip it into a previously data-based discussion without noting it's no longer data is the deceptive, dangerous part.
My interpretation is that races are genetical clusters of people, and there is different proportion of various genetical variants in different population clusters ("races").
For instance no-one will deny that people with a lot of ancestry from Sub-Saharan Africa in general have darker skin color than people with predominantly North European ancestry, and that the difference is genetical. The same with differences in height between e.g Italians and Dutch.
The question is whether there are differences in intelligence (there is strong data regarding the existence of different averages) and whether the differences is at at least partially caused by genetics (this is more controversial, but in my personal opinion the difference is at least partially caused by genetics).
How is that when he has specifically stated that it is Asian kids who are being discriminated against at Harvard University? You have merely made your mind up already about him without reading his whole thesis.
So you would shut down a thesis based on data because of some fear about racism? Race is a construct - we are all individual in ability and all part of the same human race and to not discuss the differences between us is like saying the science is settled.
For example, we now know that the 6 mothers in Africa theory is wrong and that the rise of modern Homo sapiens was likely caused by a slow development of different hominid types all over the world that eventually coalesced and joined together. It is certain that Europeans are part Neanderthal for example. Like how ice freezes on a lake - it doesn’t freeze out from a centre point but starts as spots all over the surface that eventually join up. This is not a certainty either - the science cannot be shut down because people feel squeamish about the truth. It’s a very childish viewpoint.
I know Cofnas well enough. He is a fraud ! He calls himself a professor while he is not. And uses pseudoscience to promote racist ideas on intelligence, genetics, etc... Absolute ascientific
You confuse genetics with eugenics. There is absolutely no genetic marker for race. Eugenics, of course, is all about race, and has zero foundation in genetics.
Mike listen to what is being said. As a public health specialist with some expertise in genetics, biology, reproduction, hereditary ... it is clear in the field that something as race just does not exist. There are no gene combinations that code for something like what we are used to call "race". There is often more genetic variety within a group seen as belonging to the same race, as between individuals seen as belonging to different races. It is scientifically proven that race does not biologicaly exist, it is a social, human construct. There is absolute no genetic code that transcribes for intelligence, intelligence is not causaly associated with "something as race". That is the science, Mike. There is no discussion about it. Pretending that there still is discussion or non-consensus is actually the pseudoscientific tactic that I am accusing Cofnas of. We know him and his statements very well, as he based at a university around the corner. He is spreading complete nonsensical things about a field in which he does not hold a single drop of expertise. He is not a geneticist, biologist, specialist in reproduction, ... he is just a junior philosopher with a clear racist prejudice. He is not a professor, just a temporary project collaborator.
Nathan Cofnas has probably been very heavily scrutinized during the process when he was hounded from Cambridge. If he had academic skeletons in the closet, they would have been public by now.
listen to what is being said. As a public health specialist with some expertise in genetics, biology, reproduction, hereditary ... it is clear in the field that something as race just does not exist. There are no gene combinations that code for something like what we are used to call "race". There is often more genetic variety within a group seen as belonging to the same race, as between individuals seen as belonging to different races. It is scientifically proven that race does not biologicaly exist, it is a social, human construct. There is absolute no genetic code that transcribes for intelligence, intelligence is not causaly associated with "something as race". That is the science. There is no discussion about it. Pretending that there still is discussion or non-consensus is actually the pseudoscientific tactic that I am accusing Cofnas of. We know him and his statements very well, as he based at a university around the corner. He is spreading complete nonsensical things about a field in which he does not hold a single drop of expertise. He is not a geneticist, biologist, specialist in reproduction, ... he is just a junior philosopher with a clear racist prejudice. He is not a professor, just a temporary project collaborator.
listen to what is being said. As a public health specialist with some expertise in genetics, biology, reproduction, hereditary ... it is clear in the field that something as race just does not exist. There are no gene combinations that code for something like what we are used to call "race". There is often more genetic variety within a group seen as belonging to the same race, as between individuals seen as belonging to different races. It is scientifically proven that race does not biologicaly exist, it is a social, human construct. There is absolute no genetic code that transcribes for intelligence, intelligence is not causaly associated with "something as race". That is the science. There is no discussion about it. Pretending that there still is discussion or non-consensus is actually the pseudoscientific tactic that I am accusing Cofnas of. We know him and his statements very well, as he based at a university around the corner. He is spreading complete nonsensical things about a field in which he does not hold a single drop of expertise. He is not a geneticist, biologist, specialist in reproduction, ... he is just a junior philosopher with a clear racist prejudice. He is not a professor, just a temporary project collaborator.
"They know from bitter experience that when a white person makes mistakes, it is processed as an individual matter, but when a Black person makes mistakes, it is treated as collective and used to undermine the legitimacy of Black presence in elite institutions." 😞
Very few have argued against black presence in elite institutions if the black persons have faced the same scrutiny and have the same qualifications. The debate has been if it is a good idea to have lower quality standards in order to hire/promote "enough" black persons in elite positions, and whether fear of accusations of racism and racial preferences played a role in this case where a complete fraud managed to get a very high academic and social position.
Hmm! This is a very interesting perspective, but it lacks nuance. Where does Arday’s responsibility and accountability fit into this narrative?
Arday was a grown man, capable of making his own choices. Yet, he appeared to adopt a self-aggrandising attitude towards success while remaining largely oblivious to the consequences of his actions.
It is easy to blame his employers and the media, and they may indeed deserve criticism. However, the fact remains that Arday ultimately reaped the consequences of actions he may have assumed he could get away with, only for them to backfire.
Who, then, should bear the blame? Unless we are prepared to argue that he was so psychologically impaired that he fabricated events and stories that never occurred, it is difficult to absolve him entirely of responsibility.
I feel deeply sorry for him, but I would not exonerate him from culpability in this whole shenanigan.
Your title is clickbait worthy of the tabloids. That's a shame because you do raise some valid issues and try to be balanced, even if you come down firmly on the side of social justice/progressivism. To be clear, I'm not on the right, and I've read widely on this case trying to cut through all the noise and find some semblance of truth. The problem of course is that most commentators see it through an ideological lens, leaving little room for critical thinking. By that, I mean the capacity to step back and scrutinise claims in an effort to move the debate forward. Let's hope the inquiry achieves that, and we can indeed begin to address any structural issues with DEI and academia. As for Arday himself, I think he got caught up in a tangled web. Whether that was down to mental health and other issues or conscious intent, who can say at this stage. I suspect the truth, as is often the case, may well be a complex combination of both.
Jason Arday was a flawed academic, his work was sub-standard, he was a plagiarist, his credentials were invented, he lied about his medical history, he lied about his athletic prowess, he lied about his employment history. His students complained about him. His colleagues expressed doubts and when the ramifications of his deceit finally came home to roost he was unable to face them so he killed himself (or so it seems). Zeleza cites at least seven “killers” of Arday, including the media, the university and Arday’s publishers. This is utter nonsense. While it is certainly true that the authorities at Cambridge did an appalling job of checking up on his spurious credentials (and they should certainly be held to account for that), his lies, inventions, specious claims and deceptions were entirely his own and so was the responsibility for their consequences. Arday committed suicide because he couldn’t bear the justifiable ridicule, censure and ignominy he was subjected to after being revealed as a liar and a fraud. No one was to blame but himself. I have met scores of black, brown, Asian, and other non-white academics who have risen to the highest echelons of Academia. In fact I number several of them among my personal friends. None of them achieved their positions because of their colour or their race. They achieved them by dint of hard work, original thinking, rigorous attention to detail, scholarship and dedication to the progress of their students. Arday displayed none of these qualities. He was a charlatan, an imposter and a fraudster too cowardly to face up to the consequences of his actions.
Except for the rhetorical flourish of “who killed”—more accurately, “who is to blame”—this is a recommended read. Refreshingly balanced.
Some will note that you omit Arday's own role--agency--in this affair: that he plagiarised, that he was a fabulist, that he used the police and lawyers to suppress criticism, that he had questionable teaching ability etc, but I take that you acknowldge this and it is in this case secondary because all the weaknesses he had were in fact instrumentalized in the mechanisms you describe.
Maybe it would be better for the essay if you could recognize Arday's place in this sorry story--give him his agency back and point out that in addition to his own shortcomings, it these factors all contributed to his death.
I fear that otherwise this is just another contribution to one side of the culture war. And as we have just discovered, the culture war is real: it has real consequences in the loss of life.
His "weaknesses", as you so coyly put it, are the point. None of this would have happened in the absence of his relentless, narcissistic pursuit of self-esteem at the expense of self-respect. The only truly innocent victims in all of this are his children, the abandonment of whom he made his final, repulsively self-regarding act.
Bollocks. None of this would've happened if he was a white professor, like 99%+ of them are. The story is a tragedy we all are complicit in
Be as complicit as you want to be. I don't mind. But speak for yourself and no one else.
Wash your hands Simon. The blood still won't come off
Rubbish, case in point Paul Elliot, similar fantastical fabrication and he was treated in much the same way by the press, however he was found out in 14 months whereas Jason Arday was in post for 3 and a half years.
What is the Elliot case?
I totally agree with you: two things conspired. He was a diversity hire (that much is clear to the whole of the profession) and he was black. Now, my guess is of he was white and also not qualified he would probably would not have been hounded. The reason is that he was caught up in the culture wars.
I deal with plagiarism issues nearly on a weekly basis, and what JA did was a clear a case by any standard. Cambridge acted irresponsibly and allowed the whole thing to spill into public.
Is there such a thing as a "diversity hire"? Thats mealy mouthed. What you mean to type is that he was a black man promoted above his abilities. Just say that, because that's what you mean. You even hint at it yourself, if he was a white man promoted beyond his abilities it would hardly register. It is all about his race. I don't mean to hector, the written word does always allow nuance but please, say what you truly think
If you are asking me do I believe that the person who pushed the trip switch if Arday was one of his own? That is had all the features of Arday except for his skin colour? The answer is: I doubt it? That person had every incentive to cause trouble in Cambridge and cause trouble over EID hires and in particular a black person. That fitted his own political agenda to a T.
But that aside the following can be true:
a) JA had committed academic misconduct
b) The reason for revealing the misconduct may/was because he was black.
c) Whites have also engaged in misconduct and were not forced out or hounded.
d) JA was not deserving of what happened to him.
I myself have been posting everywhere I can to warn people of Cofnas’s race realism agenda.
Is a) true? Liverpool JMU investigated the allegations and dismissed them. In the end I think we both agree that Mr Arday was hounded to his death because of his race. His fragile mental state and tendency to embellish on his life story was a big factor undoubtedly. But if he was white he'd quite likely be with us now
By “diversity hire” I mean exactly that: hiring someone for their protected characteristics independent of their fit (qualification). I have just argued against such a practice in my own university.
I agree that white incompetents are hired all the time. Once you make a token hire in a febrile environment in a high status place like Cambridge and then engage the media circus yourself, the disaster is pre-programmed. That’s not rocket science.
So I agree with you all along!
I don't think we disagree, I just think we have a difference of emphasis. You live in Germany, so I suspect you're familiar with the travails of Der Mannshaft. Would you say the players of foreign extraction are held to the same standards of more typically German players?
I would say that if he had been white and equally unqualified, he would not have been hired in the first place.
In all likelihood, yes. And that indicates the whole problem. He would not, and should not have been hired. Which means that JA was selected out for reasons other than merit. Then having been selected he was treated in a way that had he been white would have been less harsh … maybe not? We have this case as a comparison: Marie Sophie Hingst.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Sophie_Hingst
It’s probably a mistake to make this primarily about race. It plays a role, but is not all.
Ever heard of Professor Sir Cyril Burt?
No Geoff. That's the whole point. You've just hit the nail on the head
Let me enlighten you. Sir Cyril Burt was a white professor of educational psychology at University College London. He was responsible for the theoretical underpinning of the tripartite system of education in the UK - grammar schools, secondary modern schools and technical schools. He "found" that by the age of 11 you could tell with certainty whether a child had an academic, non-academic or practical mind. In 1976 he was found to have fabricated his data and his exposure was all over the newspapers and other media. I remember it very well.
This is a perfect example of the danger of genetic-politics! What is wrong with all the race realism etc. Than you for this example
I'm enlightened. Might I ask. Was Sir Cyril (obviously he was knighted at some point. Befire any of this I suspect) on the front page of the Daily Telegraph for over two weeks? This whole farrago is about race. Just admit it
Yes, white men commit exactly the same crimes too to scale the ladder of fame and fortune. He was posthumously discredited. The correct counterfactual is to find a similar white person case among the living. Maybe the Elisabeth Holmes case or James Watson being stripped of his titles for making racist remarks.
We sit around discuss this stuff Matt and pretend race doesn't matter. Trust me, I really don't throw that stuff around, because racism covers a huge spectrum, from my uncle making a silly joke at a family wedding to neo-nazis. We all have to maintain a sense of perspective. But race is still a thing (mad I know). And this whole thing is about race
It is unlikely that a white professor would have been pushed through the ranks as JA was, in the first place.
This is the cruel side of DEI placements: they destroy more than they assist black lives. Furthermore, the JA case strips value away from the achievements of black academics who have rightfully earned their posts.
King Charles went to an Oxbridge college despite being a hopeless student. Do you honestly (honestly) believe what you have just written. We live i England for God's sake. We invented tge old biys network. A white woman, well you might have a point
Toby Young got into Oxford “by mistake” and the grace of his father. A nepo if any. And he has followed his father’s footstep’s into the Lords, although I am sure his father would frown on his son’s views. This is just evidence of the divide. But it affects “whites” as well. I literally left the UK because of all this.
I know Matthew. I've come to terms with (its kind of a tsx worth paying to live in what is basically a good Country). I just ask people to be honest. I watched the whole Jason Arday story with dismay. I knew it would just be turn into a culture war. He was an academic promoted above his abilities. Somebody needed to be taken to task for that. Nobody needed to die
King Charles was hardly offered a professorship, so I'm not sure what analogy you're trying to draw here.
Thats ok then. White boy gets swept into an esteemed place of learning nobody bats an eyelid. Its the fact you don't see the breathtaking hypocrisy that stuns me. Mr Arday's case is a tragedy on every level. Strangely I'm sure if he'd been a white man educated a public school and with a privileged background he would just brush this all off with an insouciance those of us less fortunate find staggering
Yes, I believe all these to be valid points. In fact, in one interview JA actually says he hopes that in five years down the line he is not seen as the token appointment.
Pity he did nothing to build that hope. Au contraire ...
TBH, I do not think that the hope could have been built. That has less to do with JA than with the subject matter he was in and the institutional structures of HE. This is not systemic racism. Its the reality of how long educational reform takes. 5 years was unrealistic. What he and Cambridge did was to try and and do it through hype rather than substance.
I do not deny this. These two things can be true: A has characteristic c and A was enabled to occupy position p for which c was a hindrance to the performance of tasks t in position p.
What sort of fool would place any trust whatsoever in any bureaucratic institution anywhere to do the right thing? By definition and constitutionally they exist to serve their own, often tawdry, interests. One can't do much of anything about Cambridge University or the media but one can strive never to cede an ounce of sovereignty over one's own soul.
Yes. And I would suggest that he was no doubt failed during his undergraduate studies where he was negligently allowed to get away with his plagiarism and poof academic habits.
My first and overwhelming though was this!
I agree
So you believe he deserved what was thrown at him? Academics have these accusations thrown at them all the time. But most don't find themselves on the front pages for weeks. Ask yourself honestly. And be honest. What was different about Mr Arday?
Not at all. My point was only that Arday had agency. I have argued over and over again on line that Cambridge and the press are responsible for this. When the first problems arose more than a year ago it was for Cambridge to deal with this internally, as they have done with every other case. This is incompetence to the highest degree. And the fact that Cofnas made Arday a cause célèbre for the culture wars is disgusting and part of it.
No, I disagree. All of us, as a society are responsible. Mr Arday's colleagues assert that the first freedom of information request over his appointment was made in February 2023. On the day he was appointed. Who would be so interested in his appointment to do that? And why? What is the the thing that separated Mr Arday from the 99%+ of other Cambridge professors? Asking for a friend.
Well I do not know what it means to say that “we as a society” are responsible. I live in Germany. My mother who is 89 in Devon. Is she responsible? Is it all members of the academic profession world wide?
I can say that who is responsible is the entire hiring committee for engaging in such an act of recklessness and not doing their due diligence. And everyone before that in the chain of hires.
I live in Liverpool. Im 66 so I'd guess around your age. Im mixed race, black West Indian father and white English/Irish mother. So I feel kind of in the middle of debates about race (I truly do). But I have an understanding of how difference can put pressure on you. I was in the local pub watching Everton last year and somebody who I know (not a friend, a local) shouted a racial epithet at a player. I felt everyone look at me (they probably weren't but at that moment I felt it). I made a joke of it. The point is, even now, race still crops up in my very English life. Why? Because we all, as a society, recognise it as a point of difference. Sorry about the length of my reply
I am 59. We share something in common. My mother is German, my father was English Jewish. I was born in Montreal. When we moved to England when I was 6, I came home from school one day and asked my father: "what's a Nazi Yid?" Up to that point I knew nothing. My parents were entirely post-war secular and my father broke with his Jewish roots in the 1950s after he was in Isreal and was forced to engage in ethnic cleaning. His father disinherited him for marrying a German. In school as a teenager I would be called "foreskin". I know all about what you saying. My father was told in school around 1940: "Braham, your name is mud". I have no jewish heritage whatsoever. I was glad to move to Germany because no one recognized my name. Braham is a knock of Abraham, which the Eastern European Jews did when they arrived and we asked: "Name? Jewish? OK, Abraham".
Black and other minority academics working in the Global West, including those who are native-born citizens, often face disproportionate expectations, scrutiny, and suspicion regarding their academic credentials, intellectual capacity, and ability to produce legitimate knowledge. These burdens are rarely imposed to the same extent on their White counterparts, whose qualifications and scholarly authority are more often taken for granted.
Such persistent scrutiny can have profound personal and professional consequences. The constant need to prove one’s competence, defend one’s credentials, and overcome implicit assumptions about intellectual ability can create significant psychological and emotional strain and, in some cases, contribute to mental health challenges.
In the twenty-first century, academic institutions should be spaces in which scholarship is evaluated on the basis of intellectual merit, methodological rigour, originality, and contribution to knowledge—not on the basis of race or preconceived assumptions about who is capable of producing knowledge. Black scholars deserve to work, teach, research, and contribute to academic life without the additional burden of continually having to prove that they belong.
This is not merely an issue of individual fairness; it is a matter of institutional integrity and the credibility of knowledge itself. Universities that genuinely value diversity, equity, and academic excellence must confront these structural and cultural biases and create environments in which every scholar can pursue knowledge with dignity, confidence, and equal recognition.
Thank you, Paul for penning this reflection.
Rest in Peace, young brother! 🙏
I certainly agree that no one should face discrimination or have their abilities questioned because of their race. However, I struggle with the implication that White academics simply have their qualifications and intellectual abilities “taken for granted.” As a White, middle class woman, I have had to work extremely hard for every educational and professional opportunity I have earned. I have had to prove my competence, establish my credentials, overcome setbacks, and work to be taken seriously as well.
Acknowledging the existence of racial bias should not require minimizing the struggles, sacrifices, or barriers experienced by people who happen to be White. Race can absolutely affect someone’s experience, but it is not the only factor that determines whether a person has had an easy or difficult path.
I would rather see the conversation focus on ensuring that every person is evaluated as an individual- on their work, qualifications, character, and accomplishments without making assumptions about either their privilege or their disadvantage based solely on the color of their skin.
Race very much has everything to do with this. You can look up the examples of white academics mentioned in the article where their actual plagiarism barely got notice.
You are a white woman. So you miss out on some of this. You do need to prove yourself more than white men need to. That does not lead to the conclusions you're drawing nor does it validate the ethics you're pontificating. Pretending we are equal when we're not is oppression. And it is a big mechanism through which racism operates.
There's actually a wonderful white lady academic who gave a Ted talk on racism because she heard such things and then went and researched them. Be a great idea to watch her Ted talk. Her starting point before she embarked on this research was the same as yours. This is how white people are socialised by a racist system to perceive such issues. It keeps the systemic racism invisible.
“Pretending that we’re equal when we’re not is oppression”. That viewpoint is precisely the reason why we’re in this mess. Don’t you see the racism in what you’ve just said? Black and white people aren’t equal now? And this is being promoted as a kind thing to say? It is oppression to say that we aren’t equal! Gosh.
Way to deliberately misunderstand me. Of course we're equal in that sense. We're not equal in a racist system. And pretending that we are erases the struggles and oppressions. France implemented this and we saw what it did. It did not create equality on the ground. The racism and discrimination was able to continue with greater impunity and just be came invisible under the false pretense that equality has been achieved. Lots written about this.
I never knew there were tiers and levels to racism. Racism is racism, is racism. “Pretending” that we’re equal in a racist system doesn’t erase any struggle or oppression. All acts of racism and oppression must be dealt with equally, and treated with same degree of severity. A black person’s experience of racism is no different to a white person’s experience of racism. It’s all the same - it is all just racism. And obviously not all acts of racism can be wiped out completely in society. Government and institutions can prevent this in their processes, but on an individual level, racism can still happen. You can’t control a person’s tongue. But what you can control is racism happening on an institutional level. This, I’m sure we can agree, has significantly decreased over the years.
Interpersonal colourism sure, any act of violence is not okay. That's not what we're talking about.
We're talking about systemic racism here. Look up the French example.
It's strange to me that you're not noticing some key things. The example of the white professor's plagiarism that got barely any media notice and was more severe. This isn't individual journalists it's the whole media enterprise which articles get featured and where, how the headings are framed. Like come on! And this case exposed exactly that institutional racism hasn't decreased it has just become more insidious.
100%!!!
You're really going to erase the complicity of all those that were supposed to verify and vet and were too busy tokenising him? Wow
Lol 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽🫶🏽
America was a country, it is built on the deaths of its indigenous population.
go to a reservation and then revisit this comment
There is a concept called White privilege, and this story https://www.varsity.co.uk/news/26105
illustrates that point. And perhaps it may help clarify why people are pointing to the race issue. Your hard work as a white woman is recognised and not dismissed, but that does not invalidate the argument about the reality of white privilege and how it gives benefits to white people in general that black people are denied. Jason is a case in point when you compare him with another Cambridge professor, Dr William O’Reilly, who passed twelve pages of his students' work as his own. Twelve pages, and yet he kept his job, while Ardey was force to resign.
You obviously have never had to suffer this…..I can’t believe that you have little human sympathy for this man….
"The Crucifixion of a Black Professor: Jason Arday, Race, Britain’s Culture War and the Silence That Kills", check my reflections on this tragic story of bias rooted in racism and white privilege. https://substack.com/@ntatechris/note/p-211245688?utm_source=notes-share-action&r=3k7x8l.
May be you should then you would have basis for your assessment if it’s nonsense. This is a conversation entered into freely but I respect your decision but disagree with your opinion about what you describe as “nonsense”.
There was a British politician who once said, People are tired of experts, I guess some people are tired of being reminded of systematic racism and White privilege. There is book I highly recommend “ White Fragility.
Isn't literally blaming everyone and everything else for his death just another form of elitist white patronizing racism and tokenization? Isn't it a racial infantilization of sorts? Wow! I just recalled an interview he had done. Jason was discussing how educators of a Black child, who wanted to be an astrophysicist, would see the child's Blackness and say 'Well you should probably focus on sport.'. This man (Jason) fabricated to an absolutly ridiculous degree so much about his life, got found out, and took his own life. And the response for many here is: 'Oh, he's Black. It's not his fault because he is Black.'
I would like to invite you to this conversation here because I think it articulate better than I do what the issue. https://lnkd.in/p/dMx5izQn
I am not sure. What is true is death did not happen in the vacuum, it happened within a contxt and that context matters, and to attempt to dismiss that is disingenous. And part of that context is White privildge and double standards. The case of plagarism of William O’Reilly, Cambridge is a perfect illustration of both. Found guilty of copying students’ work, but he kept his job and there were no 249 articles about him for three weeks in British press. This has nothing to do with academic standard and scrutiny of Jason, it has everything to do with a push back against DEI and Jason was just a vehicle for that.
I'm not dismissing the concern about race. But a lot of his defenders are dismissing the fantastic level of fabrication of his entire life story. Arday was held up as an extraordinary superstar who overcame incredible odds to achieve seemingly impossible things. It wasn't just the plagerism. The other white faculty members were accused of plagerism. You read their stories and that was about it. Problematic, yes. But page-turning stories? Nope. Empirically not that interesting. Ardays story was compelling for media interest because of the fantastic audacity of his claims. 30 marathons in 35 days and no one in elite running had ever heard of him. Come on!
99%. That huge number. Could they possibly all be wrong? Seems unlikely.
You took a lot of words out my mouth
I possibly couldn’t🤣🤣. We can share our perspective on these important issues, each contribution adds a shade of meaning to the conversation which contributes to the idea of building a decent society. So I hope you will still go ahead share your views still. Thank you.
This is exactly the opposite of what occurred here. This guy faced zero scrutiny and was whisked right to the top. He deserved none of what he got, which he not only stole from more deserving people but which he used to sing the same racist, gaslighting song you are.
You should be ashamed of yourself. But you won’t be.
Are you seeking equity or meritocracy? Its not the same thing and will not lead to the same outcome.
Someone died!!
Someone killed themselves.
Jason Arday killed Jason Arday. It was suicide and his was the agency in this, as in all other decisions he made. Can we please stop treating grown black men as children? What is this?
Of course his death is a tragedy. Of course the institutions that aided and abetted his lies should be held to account. Still, he was the chief actor in his own life and his choices. Give the man at least that amount of respect.
💯
Suicide results from mental illness. It is — excluding perhaps assisted suicide in the context of extreme terminal illness — unnatural and illogical. Mental illness can be exacerbated by, for example, external pressures, but it is no more caused by “white privilege” or “racism” than divorce is caused by difficult children. If it were, there would be far more cases of suicide in various disadvantaged communities then in white communities, but the statistics don’t bear that.
Things that can help reduce the incidence of suicide? Support communities. Mental health professionals. That sort of thing.
We must therefore ask where was Jason’s personal support network? And where would the professional support network come from if not from the vast DEI infrastructure at Cambridge? I know nothing about his personal life but it’s pretty clear that at the institutional level Cambridge failed him.
Please don't refer to suicide as "illogical and unnatural". Having lost both my siblings to suicide, I can assure you that - as much as it still breaks my heart - they both made very logical decisions.
Suicide is also the result of a rational decision based on deciding to live a life under unbearable disgrace and shame or die on your terms and relieved of self inflicted indignities. To say all suicides are from mental illness, is like saying only the mentally deranged commit homicides. Many a Roman general, Japanese officer or woman in a town overrun by the enemy died from their own hand than be at the mercy of their enemies or live in shame. If Arday reasoned he could not endure the epic shame he brought upon himself, how is he mentally challenged?
Thank you for this article. I am a working-class white woman who didn’t receive my PhD until I was 75. I open my comment with this statement because although not a sociologist I have written and taught extensively about the impacts of power and privilege in the arts as well as academia where I have worked extensively. Raising one individual to assuage criticism of racism, classism or any other form of privilege while refusing to engage with systemic change is meaningless and, as you say, often cruel. My heart breaks for this young man’s family and all those who cared for him.
Racism killed him. Whenever a Black person ascends to a place typically occupied by the White elites, he/she will always be subjected to every form of attempted devaluation and delegitimization. This time it ended very tragically.
Well, if you’re telling the truth about your academic credentials and your abilities, you should have no problem, right? Meritocracy has nothing to do with race and everything to do with Merit. The problem with this young man, was he had no credentials of worth or merit, that would elevate him to a position as a professor at Cambridge. The system let him down, the system of DEI and non-vetting and desire to have a youngest black professor at Cambridge worked against him.
@ Trevor Gleason
The article’s central argument seems to have passed you by. It **explicitly condemns Arday’s embellishments and Cambridge’s catastrophic failure to vet him**.
The point is that a white academic’s failings remain individual; a Black academic’s failings become evidence against DEI and Black advancement generally. You have just done exactly that.
And “meritocracy has nothing to do with race” simply assumes away the article’s other central argument: that elite academia has never been a pure meritocracy, but has always been shaped by patronage, networks and inherited advantage.
This article stated that Jason Arday was given less scrutiny because the University of Cambridge wanted someone with his biography. Therefore this case is related to the concept of DEI.
A white academic with the same conduct as Arday would probably have been weeded out a long time ago, before becoming a national laughingstock.
Baloney. Be responsible for your actions and stop blaming others and race.
Is there anything racism didn't do,?
Of course it is real
If course there have been and still are horrific prices paid
But the man had agency
I think it's awful. But not "whenever". That' hyperbole, and it doesn't help.
Jason was exploited by both left and white wing media and activists. His implausible stories created intense public interest and they capitalised on it, not moving on after his resignation. When the media storm is still raging 9 days after his resignation, it’s little wonder his mental health failed.
Activists who claimed to support him were little better than right wing media, using blame language aimed at white people which doesn’t solve anything and probably intensified the pain he felt with one extreme villainising him, the other telling him white people hated him, and in between a myriad of voices conducting a more genteel DIE debate that was simplistic and ignored the pertinent issues as raised in this substack.
Those of us who treated this as an interesting news story and forget there was a human being at the heart of it also need to reflect on our own role in this, because if we hadn’t clicked on the link, the newspapers would have stopped writing about it.
Seems like everyone was at fault except him
And btw
Pretty sure his family knew he was lying
Where were they?
He lied about everything and then killed himself
Our colonial guilt paradigm brought Arday to this point, Cambridge and all universities are in bondage to DEI policy, they are blinded, they are stupid. Arday was a cheat don’t forget that, but he was enable by the wokerati because of the colour of his skin. Inverted racism. Sad, pathetic.
Seriously? His claims would have been fodder for an SNL skit....if only he was white.
You are right: racism and white privilege killed Jason. A white professor, Dr William O’Reilly, was found to have copied one of his undergraduate’s supervision essays, twelve pages in total, in one of his publications, and the professor kept his job his The two-year investigation of the tribunal ruled that the offence was “the product of negligent acts but was not deliberate.”
When a Black person enters the intellectual establishment, questions that frequently follow are: Was it merit or was it diversity? Were they really good enough? Do they really belong there? The questions are often dressed up in the respectable language of standards like upholding academic standards. But the underlying suspicion is remarkably old-fashioned and familiar racism.
The Black person must prove their legitimacy. Again and again and again. And if they make a mistake, the mistake is not simply a mistake. It becomes evidence that perhaps they never belonged in the first place. That is one of the ways racism survives in sophisticated societies.
I am an Autistic person of colour I was too mute until my teens. I have been through this many times not in the public arena many neurotypicals praise our brilliance but then tear us down when we dont play their games and let them steal our ideas and take credit for our work. I didnt know him but I feel the loss of someone like me. How this disgusting bullying and racism could be allowed?? Nobody thought about his mental health in my eyes everyone murdered him even his own community mocking him.
One of the problems though is that most of his claims don't appear to have been true. I think it's likely he was a fantasist with a mental health issue.
the work of Nathan Cofnas should be scrutinized in the same manner ... You will see he is a complete fraud. Making hugely unscientific claims about matters that are not at all his field of work. He does not belong at a university seen the crap he is declaring, and he gets away with. But unlike others, he is given the peace and rest to stay appointed at Ghent University (BE) - while being guilty of what he blames to his victims. Who takes up this task ?
You’ll find he was merely relaying Harvard’s own data. That they do indeed discriminate against students of merit in order to fulfil the black quota! Ironically, they also admit that this doesn’t affect other white students in the main either, but Asian kids. This is ALL laid out in the work of Cofnas if you cared to read it!
Give me a break. Cofnas' main belief is that anyone not white us inferior. Proudly identifies as a "race realist," AKA bigot in normal English.
To my knowledge Nathan Cofnas' stated belief was that the proportion of blacks in many non-athletic top positions would have been very low in a strict meritocracy, and that this probably has a genetic component. To my knowledge he has not stated that "non whites are inferior."
I think it is intellectually dishonest to strawman people you disagree with.
The most dangeous among us are smart people who quote data and then slide seamlessly into a “probable” reason. There are zero zip race markers in genetics for race. You can't get from any genetics data to a race theory. That's theory, not data…and to slip it into a previously data-based discussion without noting it's no longer data is the deceptive, dangerous part.
I am not sure what you mean.
My interpretation is that races are genetical clusters of people, and there is different proportion of various genetical variants in different population clusters ("races").
For instance no-one will deny that people with a lot of ancestry from Sub-Saharan Africa in general have darker skin color than people with predominantly North European ancestry, and that the difference is genetical. The same with differences in height between e.g Italians and Dutch.
The question is whether there are differences in intelligence (there is strong data regarding the existence of different averages) and whether the differences is at at least partially caused by genetics (this is more controversial, but in my personal opinion the difference is at least partially caused by genetics).
There is no race marker in any genetics data. You can't get from genetics data to a race theory. Period. Check it out.
How is that when he has specifically stated that it is Asian kids who are being discriminated against at Harvard University? You have merely made your mind up already about him without reading his whole thesis.
The data are not the racist part. The racist part is when he jumps from data to his theory of causation.
So you would shut down a thesis based on data because of some fear about racism? Race is a construct - we are all individual in ability and all part of the same human race and to not discuss the differences between us is like saying the science is settled.
For example, we now know that the 6 mothers in Africa theory is wrong and that the rise of modern Homo sapiens was likely caused by a slow development of different hominid types all over the world that eventually coalesced and joined together. It is certain that Europeans are part Neanderthal for example. Like how ice freezes on a lake - it doesn’t freeze out from a centre point but starts as spots all over the surface that eventually join up. This is not a certainty either - the science cannot be shut down because people feel squeamish about the truth. It’s a very childish viewpoint.
I know Cofnas well enough. He is a fraud ! He calls himself a professor while he is not. And uses pseudoscience to promote racist ideas on intelligence, genetics, etc... Absolute ascientific
So genetics and facts are pseudoscience now? At least he didn’t tell a pack of lies and steal other people’s work to get into academia.
You confuse genetics with eugenics. There is absolutely no genetic marker for race. Eugenics, of course, is all about race, and has zero foundation in genetics.
Thank you.
Mike listen to what is being said. As a public health specialist with some expertise in genetics, biology, reproduction, hereditary ... it is clear in the field that something as race just does not exist. There are no gene combinations that code for something like what we are used to call "race". There is often more genetic variety within a group seen as belonging to the same race, as between individuals seen as belonging to different races. It is scientifically proven that race does not biologicaly exist, it is a social, human construct. There is absolute no genetic code that transcribes for intelligence, intelligence is not causaly associated with "something as race". That is the science, Mike. There is no discussion about it. Pretending that there still is discussion or non-consensus is actually the pseudoscientific tactic that I am accusing Cofnas of. We know him and his statements very well, as he based at a university around the corner. He is spreading complete nonsensical things about a field in which he does not hold a single drop of expertise. He is not a geneticist, biologist, specialist in reproduction, ... he is just a junior philosopher with a clear racist prejudice. He is not a professor, just a temporary project collaborator.
Nathan Cofnas has probably been very heavily scrutinized during the process when he was hounded from Cambridge. If he had academic skeletons in the closet, they would have been public by now.
listen to what is being said. As a public health specialist with some expertise in genetics, biology, reproduction, hereditary ... it is clear in the field that something as race just does not exist. There are no gene combinations that code for something like what we are used to call "race". There is often more genetic variety within a group seen as belonging to the same race, as between individuals seen as belonging to different races. It is scientifically proven that race does not biologicaly exist, it is a social, human construct. There is absolute no genetic code that transcribes for intelligence, intelligence is not causaly associated with "something as race". That is the science. There is no discussion about it. Pretending that there still is discussion or non-consensus is actually the pseudoscientific tactic that I am accusing Cofnas of. We know him and his statements very well, as he based at a university around the corner. He is spreading complete nonsensical things about a field in which he does not hold a single drop of expertise. He is not a geneticist, biologist, specialist in reproduction, ... he is just a junior philosopher with a clear racist prejudice. He is not a professor, just a temporary project collaborator.
"He even lost his job " You make the point. 😉
listen to what is being said. As a public health specialist with some expertise in genetics, biology, reproduction, hereditary ... it is clear in the field that something as race just does not exist. There are no gene combinations that code for something like what we are used to call "race". There is often more genetic variety within a group seen as belonging to the same race, as between individuals seen as belonging to different races. It is scientifically proven that race does not biologicaly exist, it is a social, human construct. There is absolute no genetic code that transcribes for intelligence, intelligence is not causaly associated with "something as race". That is the science. There is no discussion about it. Pretending that there still is discussion or non-consensus is actually the pseudoscientific tactic that I am accusing Cofnas of. We know him and his statements very well, as he based at a university around the corner. He is spreading complete nonsensical things about a field in which he does not hold a single drop of expertise. He is not a geneticist, biologist, specialist in reproduction, ... he is just a junior philosopher with a clear racist prejudice. He is not a professor, just a temporary project collaborator.
"They know from bitter experience that when a white person makes mistakes, it is processed as an individual matter, but when a Black person makes mistakes, it is treated as collective and used to undermine the legitimacy of Black presence in elite institutions." 😞
Very few have argued against black presence in elite institutions if the black persons have faced the same scrutiny and have the same qualifications. The debate has been if it is a good idea to have lower quality standards in order to hire/promote "enough" black persons in elite positions, and whether fear of accusations of racism and racial preferences played a role in this case where a complete fraud managed to get a very high academic and social position.
Hmm! This is a very interesting perspective, but it lacks nuance. Where does Arday’s responsibility and accountability fit into this narrative?
Arday was a grown man, capable of making his own choices. Yet, he appeared to adopt a self-aggrandising attitude towards success while remaining largely oblivious to the consequences of his actions.
It is easy to blame his employers and the media, and they may indeed deserve criticism. However, the fact remains that Arday ultimately reaped the consequences of actions he may have assumed he could get away with, only for them to backfire.
Who, then, should bear the blame? Unless we are prepared to argue that he was so psychologically impaired that he fabricated events and stories that never occurred, it is difficult to absolve him entirely of responsibility.
I feel deeply sorry for him, but I would not exonerate him from culpability in this whole shenanigan.
Your title is clickbait worthy of the tabloids. That's a shame because you do raise some valid issues and try to be balanced, even if you come down firmly on the side of social justice/progressivism. To be clear, I'm not on the right, and I've read widely on this case trying to cut through all the noise and find some semblance of truth. The problem of course is that most commentators see it through an ideological lens, leaving little room for critical thinking. By that, I mean the capacity to step back and scrutinise claims in an effort to move the debate forward. Let's hope the inquiry achieves that, and we can indeed begin to address any structural issues with DEI and academia. As for Arday himself, I think he got caught up in a tangled web. Whether that was down to mental health and other issues or conscious intent, who can say at this stage. I suspect the truth, as is often the case, may well be a complex combination of both.
Jason Arday was a flawed academic, his work was sub-standard, he was a plagiarist, his credentials were invented, he lied about his medical history, he lied about his athletic prowess, he lied about his employment history. His students complained about him. His colleagues expressed doubts and when the ramifications of his deceit finally came home to roost he was unable to face them so he killed himself (or so it seems). Zeleza cites at least seven “killers” of Arday, including the media, the university and Arday’s publishers. This is utter nonsense. While it is certainly true that the authorities at Cambridge did an appalling job of checking up on his spurious credentials (and they should certainly be held to account for that), his lies, inventions, specious claims and deceptions were entirely his own and so was the responsibility for their consequences. Arday committed suicide because he couldn’t bear the justifiable ridicule, censure and ignominy he was subjected to after being revealed as a liar and a fraud. No one was to blame but himself. I have met scores of black, brown, Asian, and other non-white academics who have risen to the highest echelons of Academia. In fact I number several of them among my personal friends. None of them achieved their positions because of their colour or their race. They achieved them by dint of hard work, original thinking, rigorous attention to detail, scholarship and dedication to the progress of their students. Arday displayed none of these qualities. He was a charlatan, an imposter and a fraudster too cowardly to face up to the consequences of his actions.