The Jason Arday scandal, part deux

[KatiePricesKnickers]

As the book launch is coming, let the discussion continue.

First thread: https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5563599-the-jason-arday-scandal?utm_campaign=thread&utm_medium=share
This is lifted from the thread in the education section, which is an interesting summary
https://www.ian-leslie.com/p/the-great-and-unfortunate-story-of?r=8w0woc&triedRedirect=true

Or AIBU with not letting this fade away?

Saying someone with a PhD is qualified for a prestigious professorship is a bit like saying someone with GCSE biology is qualified to be a Surgeon

It’s just an empirical observation. Most elite sprinter have West African origin. It’s not saying West Africans are good sprinters. Plenty of bespectacled Jews are good sprinters but none have won gold medals.

He did not meet the essential criteria for the role, only one of which was having a phd. So no definitely not qualified

You’ve not seen Chariots of Fire then?

The true story of a Jewish gold medal winning sprinter?

But what does that prove? The exception that proves the rule?

Or was Abraham’s of West African origin?

It’s not a great argument is it? Eugenics is debunked over and over.

I’m saddened and more than a bit shocked that Nathan Cofnas had involved himself in the type of “science “ that is responsible for the holocaust amongst other things.

I do wonder if the over crowded world of academia means you have to pick a topic that others won’t touch with a barge pole. if he actually believes this hokum, he really should have kept it to himself.

its not eugenics. It’s just a fact that most elite sprinters are west African. No one complains that white people are not represented or even just summarily gives a white man the gold medal simply because white men are underrepresented in 100m finals. In effect, that is what happened to Arday. He was handed a gold medal when he was, at best, a club runner.

I have found this, from an article defending him. It’s not his actual blog post, but it does give more context and again, unless there’s a LOT missing here, I maintain that the conclusion he reaches about black people disappearing from high-profile positions in a meritocracy is an absolutely wildly racist interpretation of that Harvard data. It’s such a huge leap to get there from that source, and based on glaringly faulty logic. He’s blinded by his agenda.

“The principally offending passage is about affirmative action and meritocracy in elite American academia. He cites Harvard University data which suggest that were the college to use a colourblind system for academic selection, judging applicants by academic qualifications alone, its proportion of black students would fall dramatically, from around 14 per cent to just 0.7 per cent. When it comes to Harvard faculty, Dr Cofnas added that in a meritocracy they ‘would be recruited from the best of the best students’, meaning ‘the number of black professors would approach 0 per cent’. He adds that black people would ‘disappear from almost all high-profile positions outside of sports and entertainment’ in this society.“

Of course there's a lot missing - his whole study!

He’s saying in a meritocracy, black people would not be admitted to top universities and top universities supply the people who become the top academics. I’m not sure that is racist. It’s just logical.

Again, he is quoting Harvard’s own data on who would be admitted without affirmative action. Since affirmative action was made illegal, rate of admission of black students has fallen and rates of Asian admissions has risen.

Interesting that there's such a stretch to find Cofnas a substantial racist but not to believe Arday was a fraudster. A lot of if, buts and maybes on the latter. Almost a form of bias. Ironic really.

A few years ago, the press Jason Arday had over this would have been a restful fortnight off for JK Rowling. Seriously. If you aren't aware of the hounding she's had, for years, it's because you didn't notice it, not because it wasn't happening. Even now when things are (a bit) less bonkers random actress on the new HP feels the need to publicise that she completely disagrees with JKR about transpeople (I'll give random actress a diamond bracelet if she can name one thing JKR has said about transpeople btw). JKR has spent years, not weeks, being vilified and attacked for things she's never said, and it hasn't caused her to kill herself.

I can totally believe that Jason Arday said he couldn't go on (and what did his friends he said that to do? Get him under the MH crisis team? Pay for him to go to the Priory? Or nothing?) But saying his death was caused by hounding in the press is assumption. In my view it was caused by him being a narcissist who went into ego collapse when he couldn't control the way he was viewed and spoken about, had lost his prestige role and the support of Cambridge, couldn't see a way to gain control back. That's my assumption from what is known at the moment.

I'd guess an inquest will likely apportion at least partial blame to the media, repeat the (unsubstantiated) line that he was vulnerable and autistic, and gloss over his and Cambridge's behaviour. We'll see.

I think both are happening

Honestly i’m so fed up of this sneery polarised rhetoric. It’s not a stretch to find Cofnas racist at all. Nor is it a stretch to believe Arday was the fraudster he plainly was. It’s possible to believe both these things to be true, and plenty of people do, but you are clearly determined to paint everyone who isn’t 100% on the same page as you as some sort of blinkered SJW so you can feel superior.

He was a fraud but that isn’t the point. Cambridge and Glasgow and other people promoted him when it was blindingly obvious, without needing to believe there was any fraud, that he was unqualified. They handed a club runner the gold medal without even holding the race. They did that because the facts did not fit their ideology. So they tried to change the facts, like giving of man a boob job to make him a woman. That’s the world we live in.

The passage is from a blog post isn’t it?

What study do you mean? Have you read it? You speak as if you have.

You've provided no evidence that he's racist. You, like others, have picked up on one section of a blog and viewed it in isolation.

www.bbc.com/news/articles/cevmrjd9lj1o

“for discriminating against Arday”. How utterly ridiculous. These people make the case against themselves. I hope he sues them.

Please explain to me how this is not flagrantly racist?

Cofnas published a 2024 blog post saying that black people are, on average, less intelligent than other groups, and that they "would disappear from almost all high-profile positions outside of sports and entertainment" under a meritocratic system and "the number of black professors would approach zero per cent"

Is it true or not?
From what I understand, Cofnas was regurgitating other people’s research?

He reported data about population average IQ results other people collected and has been stable for 50 years. That’s not racism. He then said that Harvard used policies to force up the number of black students admitted and the number Asian students down. Not racist. Then made the logical statement that if that policy did not exist there would be fewer or no black graduates from top universities so none to go on to top academic posts. You could argue that the reason black students don’t make the grades sufficient to reach Harvard is due to racism further back down the line but you have to do that using empirical data. He’s open to that but he’s just saying that the facts don’t support it. It’s just true to say that without affirmative action, no black academics and IQ is a possible explanation for it.

He also refuted research arguing that Jews were a selfish race. Was the author of that piece of work lambasted for antisemitism?

Two examples from the current Cambridge University recruitment pages:

University Assistant Professor in Polar Studies

Candidates should hold a PhD in Geography, Polar Studies or related discipline and will have an outstanding academic record for their career stage. They should have a strong record of relevant research publications, evidence of research leadership (or potential to develop it) and the ability to attract research funding. They must show evidence of enthusiasm and ability to teach a wide range of courses in Geography and Polar Studies at both undergraduate and Masters level. They will have a growing international reputation and the ability to recruit and supervise high-level PhD and postdoctoral researchers.

https://www.cam.ac.uk/jobs/university-assistant-professor-in-polar-studies-lc49794

Kidani Professorship of Integrated Cancer Medicine

Candidates will have an outstanding research record of international stature in leading multidisciplinary translational cancer research involving advanced computational approaches and the vision, leadership, experience and enthusiasm to help us realise an ambitious vision for digital enabled detection, prevention and treatment of cancer in the new Cambridge Cancer Research Hospital. They will hold a PhD or equivalent postgraduate qualification.

https://www.cam.ac.uk/jobs/kidani-professorship-of-integrated-cancer-medicine-rd50746

Are you suggesting that Jason Arday had an 'outstanding research record of international stature'?

Since Cofnas is a philosopher, his contributions is to trace the origins of the culture of wokism to liberalism. Back to John Locke and statements like the US constitution- All men were created equal. If they were created equal then equal outcomes should follow. But that’s not what we see. So DEI tries to change the outcomes to match the premise. The result is giving Jason Arday a Chair at Cambridge.

So... you don't think it's racist because you believe it's true? That black people are, on average less intelligent, that data supports this, and that if appointments were made based on merit there would be virtually zero black professors and we'd mostly only see black people in entertainment and sports?