The Jason Arday scandal

[Ilikesundays]

To think that Cambridge University’s reputation has been shot to pieces by the revelations about ex-professor Jason Arday?

Not intitally

But if some dilligence had taken place i.e. checked that the Universtities he said he guest lectured didn't turn up as accurate then you could make some assumptions that he is a liar.

This guy deserves none of your empathy. Even if he is autistic and had a rough time as a kid there is no reason for him to be this deceptive in the public eye.

But his academic standards and his research fall far below the Oxbridge standard - they didn’t have to delve into his past to know that. He wasn’t fit for the job on a purely academic level, but they were willing to overlook his professional weaknesses in order to benefit from his story and background. They made his blackness and autism and story of overcoming the focus over his actual academic talent and output. That’s problematic.

'I agree Cambridge has massively screwed up here, but which of us expects to be told to prove a personal story about our past? This is one of those things that isn't an issue until it is'

The odd tall story, fine. He had a catalogue of them though and you'd think someone would have googled him and been baffled by the back of evidence of any of his stories.

How can these clever people be so stupid?

I don't think there is any racist motive initially for investigating him.. but it will be used now as a reason that DEI/black people require extra scruitiny.

Everyone should receive the same scrutiny. The problem is he didn't seem to face any.

Interesting but I still need to see some actual proof.

Bullshitting is in fashion nowadays.

How convenient it would be for bad actors if nobody were allowed to investigate their misdemeanours for fear that they might commit suicide.

Martin Bashir used forgeries and deception for his Princess Diana interview. He broke the law and caused anguish to Princess Diana’s family and people who worked for her.
However apparently he has got away with all this by threatening suicide.

The issue with DEI, like most reforms, is that doing it properly takes time - starting at the grass roots so that everyone has the same opportunities. But nobody has the patience or commitment for that.

There's a bit of a race element to an enquiry at my work. Someone is claiming that ethnic minorities were paid less. But the org went on a DEI recruitment drive, and hired a lot of people on a new pay structure. A few individuals on the old structure had a commitment not to lower their pay when changing structures - so if you cherry pick the new hires vs the few from the old structure then you get a problem - but as those people on the old pay leave, the data changes.

And our DEI lead is pissed off at the perception of her role, when she's trying to do things like manage the impact of handing six different generations in the workplace, which has a much bigger effect than ethnicity!

There's a catalogue of 'fabrications' of the truth. It's not just the plagiarism.

He would appear to be a complete charlatan. How that wasn't picked up long ago by Cambridge is astonishing. It's got feck all to do with racism.

This story is fascinating. I really struggle to understand how he got away with it for so long. The lies are so wild and improbable. How did no one see through him?

@2021x and @Londonwelshie oh I agree, I was referring specifically to his disabilities.

As an aside, I dont actually think the possibility of running multiple marathons in a short time period is unbelievable especially when someone is in their 20s. In some ways I'm more disappointed that legitimate questions have been raised about this because his academic record should be so easy to verify.

Eta: not my clearest post! In my defence I've been up all night

We know that Nathan Cofnas is a massive racist and we know that he called out Arday for plagiarism and other wild claims while Cofnas himself worked as an academic at Cambridge uni.

"Accusations of plagiarism in Arday's work were first voiced by Nathan Cofnas - a US researcher and self-defined "race realist", whose role at a Cambridge college was terminated after backlash to his view that under a true meritocracy black people would "disappear from almost all high-profile positions outside of sports and entertainment".
He claimed on Substack that he had put Arday's work through a plagiarism detection software, which found that "many passages are lifted with minimal editing, sometimes retaining copy-editing mistakes from the original source"."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c1e146jw618o

(I'm not sure if the Times higher ed journalist got the story before Cofnas but we know he was told by the police to drop it so I don't think he published?)

Cambridge has set back the academic black community several decades.

Sorry but that is ridiculous.

Arday’s actions don’t impact the many wonderful black academics.

Has the white author Raynor Wynn set back the literary white community by several decades through her lies?

No, not victimless.

"Has the white author Raynor Wynn set back the literary white community by several decades through her lies?"

I would argue it's hurt publishers. I don't trust them any more. I also read that the publishers of Arday's book will not pull it even though it's full of lies.

I thought it was the other way around, and this guy just jumped the gun because he had a hard-on for Jason Arday.

How can these clever people be so stupid?

I wish someone would ask all the people who interviewed him such as Krishnan Guru Murphy, or those on the BBC programme in which Arday said 70% of Britons were below the poverty line and abolishing the royal family would address this, why none of them smelt a rat.

Well scholarly types aren't always known for common sense.

I think its clear in this case that there was at play a combination of good will/wanting to believe/fear of being dubbed racist or ableist/quick wins for publicity & diversity figures etc

Using hyperbole to shut down opposing statements is a sign of a weak argument

I think Raynor Winn still has another book due to be published in the next year.

Whereas you've just lost the argument entirely.

Not sure of your meaning? "This guy" = the massive racist, "jumped the gun" = published his substack blog before the journalist, "had a hard-on for" = racistly keen to take down a black colleague?

This time true though?

The actions of a member of a minority community often negatively impact the wider community due to pre existing prejudices, stereotypes and xenophobia. Raynor Wynn is hardly comparable.

I don’t suppose I’m the only one who had naively thought that any academic’s credentials would be checked anyway, before employing them.