Jason Arday dead

[ThisWiseRobin]

Just putting this out there, but just heared.A sad end to a whole sorry mess.

We do agree. My concern is that so many people (on both ‘sides’) are asserting things here as absolute facts.

No they couldn’t because Cambridge was doubling down and refusing to believe or act on the exposures. It was only the continual news of new exposures that led to Cambridge being finally forced to announce an investigation.

It’s also worth mentioning that JA could have also held his hands up and admitted his fabrications. That would have helped to close the story too. But instead he invented more ridiculous cover stories, such as the 100 charity fundraisers he could not name due to them all signing non-disclosure agreements.

It was the refusal by JA and Cambridge that kept the stories and investigations going.

The journalists are the only people in this sorry saga who have acted with integrity and professionalism. Yet they are being blamed.

This whole thread is a parable of how easy it is to create scapegoats.

I don’t want to labour this point but taking one’s own life is a choice. Other people will have made different choices when faced with extremely difficult situations. We shouldn’t portray suicide as inevitable. Help is available for people who feel suicidal (and many people who have attempted suicide have reported that they now regret this choice and are glad to be alive).

Do you believe everything you read in the press? Do you think journalists always tell the truth or get their facts correct (whether intentionally or not)? In my view some of it is probably true and some not. That isn’t to say that the issues being raised in respect of JA, CU and others aren’t very concerning. But it does come across as if you just unquestioningly accept what the papers say as the truth.

I agree with this. There's a very special type of white racist who purposefully love putting POC on a pedestal in order to see them fall. Or they deliberately set them up as targets for more direct racism. It's the most insidious type because they are usually highly educated, wealthy, outwardly liberal and always appear as an ally for diversity, multiculturalism etc. I feel there were many involved in the story here. They knew his claims didn't add up but they relished in pushing him higher to see how far he could fall. Wouldn't be surprised at all if some of them took into account that this could have been the outcome.

Those arseholes' day of reckoning is coming.

The list of lies from the ‘professor’ is as long as my arm. And I am still seeing tributes made to his academic career and achievements. I despair.

He caused huge harm.
Students who paid to have the best teaching, and got the worst, students who complained were told they were racist, but most of all to the genuinely hard willing and talented black peoples who got jobs on merit, not by playing the race card as he did.

Harm to his family who obviously knew about the lies but had to go along with it and were accessories to the crimes (yes fraud is a crime)
’No harm’?????

I don’t think the people who built him up wanted him to fall. Not the academics anyway. They promoted him because it made them look and feel good.

Was it racism? From the outside it certainly looks like a willingness to set the academic bar on the floor for Arday. I think him being black was part of a magic package for them that flattered everything they wanted to be true.

Oh come on. Have you read the entire dossier of lies? He was more than Walter Mitty. He brought the entire Black academic community into disrepute and lied over and over again. It’s sad he felt the need to take his life but it’s entirely on him and those around him who facilitated his nonsense.

Im not sure they deliberatley wanted him to faiil but he did tick a lot of their diversity boxes and they were therefor willing to overlook any concerns he wasnt up to the job.

I wonder sometimes how this would play out if it was someone like Tommy Robinson or Farage. if they were hounded in the press and then took their own life. Would someone be defensive of those 2?

They're national hate figures.

This bloke caused a lot of harm, a lot of harm.

For the same reason MN shuts down all threads relating to the litigious - same happened with the MCCanns for the same spurious’ press hounding’ figleaf.

That whole Ted talk was a lie too. Not impressive in the least sadly.

It’s a very sad ending and it is a huge shame that Jason has died and my condolences go out to the people that loved him.

However kind and inclusive we wish to be, we cannot let everything slide, particularly when someone is meant to be a world class expert on their particular area of expertise. I don’t know why at no point in this journey, no one who genuinely cared about Jason took him to one side and explained that he was building a house of cards. His friends and family must’ve known he couldn’t have done all the things he said he had done with the many serious impairments he said he had.

Cambridge and the other universities that have enabled the charade need to be held accountable also - it isn’t kind to tell people they are doing great when they aren’t and then all look in the other direction when things come crashing down.

What is being kind these days? I don’t even know anymore - on a personal level I wouldn’t call you out for talking shite but if you are going to go and stand on a pedestal then it is not kind to accept everything you say unquestionably. There are consequences to what people say in the public eye. If he was a vulnerable individual who didn’t understand what he was saying could be scrutinised then that is on the institutions that put him up there, not on the public for turning a blind eye.

Suggesting those who promoted him did so in order to see his downfall sounds unlikely to say the least, not least because the fallout will seriously affect their careers too.

You have no insight on the quality of his teaching. Student evaluations and complaints are not a good measure of one's teaching quality (any woman academic or POC academic can attest to the abuse we get every year from our dear students).

I know of no respectable academics who would consider the failings of this specific individual as a stain on the achievements of other PoC who are in academia. I however can understand why some may feel thar this will cast a long shadow.

This

Do you think it likely he was a good teacher? Would you have wanted to be taught by a plagiarist and fraud? Do you think his work suggests a genuine interest in and application to his discipline?

Exactly. The reporting around possible student complaints is sketchy at best. There seems to be one particular historical complaint at Roehampton. Very little else and Jesus College confirmed they’d received no complaints. It’s yet another thing that people are now asserting as fact. Even if there were complaints, they would need properly investigating before any conclusions are drawn. As you point out, students complain all the time!

Firstly deepest sympathy to you @ScruffMuffin
You are absolutely right about a pile on.
I did think that Jason would have to be very mentally robust to withstand what he endured in the past weeks. It was relentless.
So very sad for those who loved him.
They too must have suffered through his vilification and now this

I was inspired by him, I have two autistic dc, one with selective mutism who has been unable to go to school in two years. Both want to go to university. I used him as an example of how you can overcome your adversities and I know he gave hope to many parents / friends whose autistic dc are struggling at school. To hear him justify plagiarism as ‘autistics learn by mimicry’ was really quite upsetting and untrue - particularly at the level of phd. And to hear he was chatty at school and so lying about the extent of his autism (if indeed he had autism) makes me feel quite sick. On one level I am sad that he quite clearly suffered at the end and Cambridge and John Moores should bear some responsibility, but on another level I fear my daughters very real struggles will be taken a bit less seriously.

Ok the facts I put in that post are that JA and Cambridge doubled down when the first exposures came. If you are accusing me of believing crap printed by papers, present your evidence that these facts are wrong.

This needs repeating.