The Jason Arday scandal

I'm not trying to be offensive, but why do you feel the need to capitalize the words white and black? Do you also capitalize other words used to describe intrinsic characteristics like male, female, homosexual, heterosexual? Grammatically it's really weird and jarring.

So because he’s black he’s a DEI hire? Wow

So, you think Arday is in Bryan Cox’s league? I attach a screen shot of just the abstract for his PhD thesis. Feel free to compare to Arday’s. There is a very distinct difference between explaining complex concepts in simple language for the lay person - usually a skill only achievable by those who have a profound understanding of the concepts they are explaining - and not being able to use that language at all.

The reason he got to his role as ridiculously quickly as he did is because he was subject to LESS scrutiny than his white middle class peers (and the female ones from disadvantaged and NON-middle class backgrounds who were passed over to give him this role). In fact, when the THE/Grover approached him in 2025 to ask questions in the line of his job - to do the professional scrutiny into Arday’s qualifications as required of his job - Grover was accused of racially motivated harassment and ordered to stop. Less scrutiny, not more.

And ‘AI’ didn’t make a mistake. Plagiarism detection software is what is used, not AI - and it has been in use in universities for years - you are required to run your assignments and essays through it (eg Turnitin) prior to submitting in for marking, address any errors, and then tick a box to say you have done so. That is what was used to screen his work. Erm, and you do know that these people were able to refer to the original thesis that he plagiarised to corroborate the findings of the plagiarism detection software, don’t you? They didn’t draw their conclusions on a ‘hunch’ like you? After all, freedom of speech is a very fragile right and is counter-balanced by laws of defamation and libel in the UK, one which journalists and newspapers are very careful to protect themselves being prosecuted for… usually by double and triple checking their facts before going to press.

And the truth? Perhaps you should take a look at the videos of former class mates and Sunday School compatriots who state very clearly that this guy was not mute or learning disabled and was in mainstream school along side them, chatting and singing away on the Sunday school bus. They are furious at the way he has besmirched the reputations of black people and the impact this may have on others aspiring to be university professors. Just as I am livid that he has pretended to have overcome mutism, global developmental delay, had multiple brain tumours so ‘forgot’ his thesis, when I have watched a best friend die from his brain tumour and also watched the year long recovery my step mother went through with hers. And for him to blame his autism - or YOU to conjure up some autistic savant level text-memorising skill as a hypothesis for fuck knows what, as you do in another of your posts - is frankly despicable.

I could absolutely not give a flying fuck about his skin colour. But I do care about the potential damage he has done to the perception and inclusion of autistic people in academia, about the impact this will have on future autistic/ND, black and disadvantaged students gaining access, about the way it may devalue the PhD I have been preparing for submission - and for what it reveals about the erosion of professional standards and lack of robust recruitment processes that have arisen out of DEI driven policies that have created a climate of silence around people like Arday.

So no, it hasn’t been a witch hunt. No, he is not undeserving of every bit of ridicule and derision that comes his way - as loudly from members of his own black community - and no, he was not set up.

One thing this whole scandal has taught me is some White people are loving this just to put one over Black people. Your racism is showing loud and clear! I won't be surprised if some White people are popping champagne over Arday being a fraud.

Regarding George Abaraonye, he did get into Oxford with ABB. But if you actually do your research, you would find out that it is common for Oxbridge to let in candidates who didn't meet their grade requirements for reasons such as them performing extremely well in the interview or tests they set. This doesn't necessarily mean that Abaraonye got in because of DEI, as much as White people want to claim. A white boy in my sixth form got into Cambridge with A*BB because he did extremely well in the interview.

Be careful, your racism is showing. You do know that people of all colours like a bit of Moet, don’t you? I prefer Veuve Clicquot, myself, but won’t be drinking it to celebrate a scammer who has done immeasurable harm to the perception of and academic opportunities available to autistic kids.

One thing this whole scandal has taught me is some White people are loving this just to put one over Black people. Your racism is showing loud and clear! I won't be surprised if some White people are popping champagne over Arday being a fraud.

Regarding George Abaraonye, he did get into Oxford with ABB. But if you actually do your research, you would find out that it is common for Oxbridge to let in candidates who didn't meet their grade requirements for reasons such as them performing extremely well in the interview or tests they set. This doesn't necessarily mean that Abaraonye got in because of DEI, as much as White people want to claim. A white boy in my sixth form got into Cambridge with A*BB because he did extremely well in the interview.

Maybe. But there is some reason to think that widening access can just mean more failure for weaker students. Who would do well or even excell in a less challenging program.

I don't think universities are in much position to help past seeking out some really strong academic kids who might otherwise not apply. And I think maybe they are doing what can be done there already.

The real problems are earlier in life.

He was a student not an academic. It was later revealed he had much lower grades than you'd usually expect to get in

The problem for universities is that academic careers develop over decades, there is no quick fix to problems of underrepresentation.

Ironically, Cambridge have put a lot of effort into widening access, which imo is the only effective way to address things.

Spaghetti alla word salad

Originally posted on the other thread (where they are having fun using AI to unentangle it) as an example of the kind of sociology our taxes go to fund....
(chosen at random, I promise, from the link to recent Phds awarded by Cambridge):
Through a critical genealogy that traces the colonial classificatory violence of binarity, its implementation into bureaucratic administrative violence of nation states and its automation in contemporary algorithmic violence, this thesis challenges the algorithmic relation to transness, the presumed technooptimist ‘objectivity’ of algorithms and the ways in which the algorithmic organises the necropolitical infrastructures of targeting, surveillance, and cisnormative violence that trans bodies live under. This intervention posits that algorithms—as the computational set of instructions—constitute the channels through which the trans body is classified and translated as information, coded as data, marked-as-different and imbued with necropolitical violence that cannot valorise transness, which position transness against and in tension with the binary valorisation of life itself.

DEI hirings don't work out well.
Was it at Cambridge or Oxford that a black academic debated with Charles Kirk in a track suit and tweeted after CK's death applauding it. And had to resign.

I agree with a lot of this but there are convincing arguments that class is increasingly important in America, and maybe more so than race.

William Julius Wilson (former president of the American Sociological Association, himself black) was arguing this back in 1980s, and I think his book is still pretty relevant now.

https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/D/bo13375516.html

It's arguable that the rise of wokeness in America, especially around stuff like critical race theory, was much more tied to class than race. Stuff like 'defund the police' was opposed by huge numbers of black people- they wanted better police, not no police.

https://reason.com/2024/05/14/black-people-overwhelmingly-want-to-maintain-or-increase-police-presence-they-also-want-better-police/

It's awful. I thought my trust in institutions was at an all-time low but this has proved to me that it wasn't quite at rock bottom.

Did they all really believe his nonsense or was it a case of not wanting to rock the boat, I wonder?

It's really concerning on multiple levels, first that this happened, but secondly that it has provided the perfect right-wing fodder for bashing DEI.

I don't know anything about DEI in general, but Cambridge had a massive problem with diversity a few years ago, really under-represented BAME population in both the staff and the students.

There are so many wonderful BAME academics out there who could have made a real contribution to Cambridge

When he said he'd been on the 7 Up documentary series J O'B didn't challenge him at all.

His claims about his past are so unbelievable I think speculating about a possible personality disorder is reasonable. What's not reasonable is the sheer number of supposedly highly intelligent, educated people who fawned over him like he was some kind of savant. It really makes me question how much we can trust the output of elite academic institutions.

Ok, I read the Guardian article last night and felt it was more about questioning what could have happened than being particularly accusatory. The way I read it was that the young man was built up perhaps promoted before his time because Cambridge desperately wanted to smoke screen their woeful diversity record. Which smacks of racism.

But we all experience being a bit out of our depth sometimes, no?

The reason I feel that JA has treated unfairly is that he’s been subject to more scrutiny than his white middle class peers.

I also watched Krishna Guru-Murthy’s longish interview with JA and I thought it was impressive. He’s articulate but uses accessible language; much like Professor Brian Cox who makes complicated physics easy to understand.

You could argue it’s dumbing down but on other hand it could encourage people to go on to more high brow reading.

Nathan Cofnas who is JA’s main adversary said: [black people would] disappear from almost all high-profile positions outside of sports and entertainment" in a true NeroHe’s clearly using Jason (I did cut and paste that quote just to be clear. 😜 It sounds like he’s worked hard at getting this case to fit his hypothesis.

In essence, having read around case as much as I’ve time for (not a lot), I do believe Jason has been victim of a witch hunt. I also believe that plagiarism needs a proper sort out because using AI to say something was likely plagiarism doesn’t cut it for me. Remember AI is unreliable and tries to give the answers it wants in order to keep you consuming.

Finally, truth seems to be an increasingly intangible commodity these days. It seemed obvious that Lucy Letby was guilty once didn’t it? Now people are not so sure. I admit my reasoning is based on hunch as well as reading around case. But it wouldn’t be the first time that a young black man was set up, would it?

My thoughts exactly.
I was listening to a bit of his interview with James O'Brien and honestly he sounded like a Ricky Gervais or Peep Show character. Just not serious or believable at all.

Never fear, the inevitable slavery argument has been introduced to save the day. Everybody but Arday brought about his downfall.

By whom, exactly?

Oh come on, people held off criticising him precisely because he's black
He got the job over far better qualified candidates- wonder why?
And you disingenuously assert that the questioning of his position now is racism- just to demonstrate what a good person you.
The stigma of being called racist simply for holding black people to the same standards as white people needs to go- and you need to stop perpetuating it- I'm hoping this saga helps that- it's no good for white or black people.
My friend (mixed race) got a job in 2021- in the wake of BLM- she was mortified by the molly-coddling she received due to her colour- she felt embarrassed rather than took advantage because she has self-respect, but I can understand why a young Mr Arday enjoyed the smoke blown up his arse- heck, even believed it, no doubt.

Is he even neurodivergent? If he's lied about car crashes, brain/testicular cancer, mutism, comas and physical attacks, why should he be telling the truth about his autism? God alone knows what the actual truth is surrounding this individual. He's like Walter Mitty. Personally, I think personality disorder is a better fit.

Is he even neurodivergent? If he's lied about car crashes, brain/testicular cancer, mutism, comas and physical attacks, why should he be telling the truth about his autism? God alone knows what the actual truth is surrounding this individual. He's like Walter Mitty. Personally, I think personality disorder is a better fit.