Was Jason Arday just the perfect victim?

[KellyK2026]

Surely I can’t be the only one that feels like Jason Arday was a victim, right? Yesterday he was found dead and I feel bad for him. Here’s the reasons why I think he was a victim:

1. It is absolutely insane to me that Cambridge University would appoint him as a Professor when he was in the early stages of his career. It’s practically unheard of. At any university you typically have to earn your dues (which means working as an academic for many years) OR do something truly special, like a Nobel Prize nomination, to be promoted to Professor. I cannot imagine the amount of pressure he had been under to prove himself and likely had a tremendous amount of imposter syndrome. Cambridge let him down.
2. I’ve worked in academia for many years, and let me tell you, academics are under a tremendous amount of pressure to publish. This pressure can compromise quality. Arday isn’t the first nor will he be the last to publish questionable papers.
3. As I’ve worked in academia for years, I’ve experienced academics make racist and sexist remarks first hand. One white academic I worked with got drunk at a work get together and started a rant about how Black people shouldn't be president (this was when Obama was in power), that Obama was a Muslim and interracial relationships were ‘disgusting’. What made this somewhat even worse was that this particular academic wrote about racism in the public sphere, so he profited from writing about Black struggles while harbouring these personal views. There was no repercussions for him, despite presenting himself as something other than what he was.
4. I’ve also been sexually assaulted at a conference by a male academic. No repercussions for him either and he no doubt pretends to be a feminist in his work.
5. I don’t think it’s in doubt that Arday had autism. Now I don’t know how it affected him personally, but, again, that must’ve been extremely difficult and perhaps even blurred what is and isn’t acceptable in higher education.
6. He was also cleared of plagiarism but, again, so many academics have plagiarised ideas and papers, but they haven’t been strung up like Arday has been.

So, long story short, I feel like Cambridge let him down. And I feel like he was targeted because there’s plenty of other examples but they never get called out and nobody cares. It was a witch hunt. But I’d be interested to hear what others have to say on this matter.

Nothing to do with Racism here. I used to work with a guy who was a total walter mitty - 12 hour shifts, the two of us together. It was exhausting, infuriating a bit mind bending (if I philosphised on it too much - if he doesn't realise he's talking utter BS and has absolutly no awareness, how do I know the same isn't true of me?!) and at times hilarious. It's all coming back to me reading about Jason Arday, that's what sparked my interest not his colour.

My Colleague was white.

Seriously, once again, would MNHQ please explain how this constitutes a "personal attack" or is otherwise liable to be deleted. This is one poster asking another about views that they have expressed on this thread:

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Once again, avoiding the question.

It is a very simple thing to say "No, I have never taken that position"

Yet, you don't.

In contrast, if somebody online suggested to me that I might hold that position then it would be a simple case for me to say "No, I don't believe that at all".

It's interesting that a previous response of yours to me was:

"It’s clear what you’re after and you’re not going to get it from me."

What do you think it was that I was "after" and why would you say "you’re not going to get it from me." ?

Was it perhaps because you were ashamed or embarrassed about your views? Or perhaps you are not able to defend your views when somebody questions you about them?

How could he have voiced anything to write down? He stated in a PBS show that even at university he couldn’t understand language properly, could not understand lectures or what people were saying to him.

Yes a very interesting interview.

But there's still a legitimate question about proportionality. Investigating whether particular claims were exaggerated or inaccurate is one thing; turning those claims into a huge political story about DEI, Black academics and ‘woke’ universities is another.

@Macaronnn You're deliberately misunderstanding. It's obvious @Charlize43 meant don't lie about your achievements, history, background etc. It rarely ends well.

I agree with above - the point wasn't about whether he made some of the stuff up. The point is whether the media story was about that or something else and I would say about all those other things.

Investigating whether particular claims were exaggerated or inaccurate is one thing; turning those claims into a huge political story about DEI, Black academics and ‘woke’ universities is another.

But investigating his work inevitably raises questions about how, if his work was of such poor quality, he attained the position he did. Why shouldn't questions be asked of the university? And AIUI, it was the university itself, in the person of Hilary Cremin, who publicly linked Arday's appointment to his race and to DEI.

Well and any case, even if he is 'just' a vulnerable man with a disability, does that make him exempt from castigation from wrong doing. No it doesnt

👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼 absolutely!

It's all about proportionality. Like others, I have worked in the HE sector all my career. I've known lots of mad professors who absolutely should have been sacked for all kinds of reasons - some get away with it because they bring in so much money and some quietly get sent to HR. And if he was white that is absolutely what would have happened to him - I don't think anyone is saying he shouldn't have faced professional consequences. But how many other professors have been hounded by the media to this extent, to the point their lives were not worth living? The reason the reaction was out of all proportion was because he was black. And people saying "yeah but he made stuff up" are missing the point -I have known personally several white professors for whom that is true, and not a single one ended up in the press, hence you don't know about it if you work outside academia. There's so much hate and racism around at the moment, it makes me so sad. But I'm white so it doesn't effect me nearly as much as so many of my lovely friends who are not - and are just trying to get on with their lives in peace.

Let's not forget this was not just about the university and the journalists but he must have been aware of the storm on social media and the public ridicule he was exposed to. I suspect that may have been most detrimental to his mental state

I think whatever underlying personality disorder he had was most detrimental to his mental health.

Hate to say it but I felt the same as he ticked so many boxes of the family anhilater profile

The thing is, it was the ideal shitstorm. It wasn’t just one slight exaggeration, or just the plagiarism issue , or just a bog standard professor. He was high profile, he lied and exaggerated about many things , he combated any accusation with lawyers, police and claims of racism and harassment. It was the combination of ALL these things that created this situation. A lot of which, was done by JA himself.

Everything about the case is shameful.

Yes, he should never have been appointed. The merest sliver of respect for academic due diligence would have shown his CV and publicity stunts were questionable and symptomatic of a troubled mind. He was shovelled in the Professorship with imo, a racist attitude of, He's black, he'll do, and was appointed by people who prioritised PR over scholarship.

He could have been mentored, prepared, encouraged instead of given a high profile role he was nowhere near capable of fulfilling at his stage in his career, if ever, due to his MH issues.

Then when some of both his academic and personal credentials were discovered to be questionable, the gleeful, relentless media witch hunt against him was revolting. There are many, many questionable people who don't deserve their professorships - who have cribbed from others, passed off student research as their own (this is rife - always has been), abused their power, or puffed up their credentials. But they get away with it. It's not hard to see why he was picked on so mercilessly.

Yes, and the marathons and the brain tumour and the cancer...it just got quite overwhelming.

Out of curiosity, do those professors have a similar social/public profile like JA did at the time this all came out?

Id say both are true

What total rubbish - I’m a black legal academic. I expect to be treated exactly the same as my white counterparts. Equally when I’m hired and (God forbid) equally when I’m fired. Is your position that we should be treated differently; held less accountable for our lies/misdeeds? He took a role from someone else, he took funding and opportunities from other academics and when caught - instead of facing it like a man - he abandoned his wife and family.

He was a very good looking guy. Madly white teeth and a great smile. He had a Good way with him and he put on a really gentle friendly smiley persona. Until he was challenged then he was a Rottweiler. If this guy becomes the left messiah i am out

@Beryl92 As a fellow academic, I totally agree with everything you have said.

To be honest i couldn’t even look at his picture as it looked so false. Eyes were definitely loads of eyeliner. But eyes that said it all.. i am scared and false.

I’m not saying Arday was blameles. If he embellished parts of his life story, then it was fair to criticise that. But the right-wing media seemed to relish bringing him down and those mistakes were quickly turned into a much wider narrative against DEI. Whatever his flaws, he was still a human being who had clearly done some genuinely valuable work and meant a lot to many people and he didn’t deserve the scale of that public pile-on.

I do feel for him as suicide must not be easy. If he wasn’t so fake he could have had a career on love island or strictly!