Jason Arday, Ph.D., committed suicide a couple of weeks ago. He was just 41. Until shortly before he took his own life, Arday had been a professor at Britain’s world-renowned Cambridge University. While Arday’s death is tragic for his family, it is fair to ask why anyone who is not related to him, or who wasn’t a colleague or one of his students should take notice.
The fact is that we all should also care because, at age 37, Arday became the youngest Black person ever hired as a professor at Cambridge, which was founded more than 800 years ago. We should care about Arday because the story behind his death will have a lasting impact on academia and beyond, especially for Black people.
Finally, we should care because Arday’s death was precipitated by the rapacious British media, initially for allegedly having plagiarized much of his academic work and later for allegedly having fabricated much of his life’s story.
According to NewsCord, Arday’s “scandal” appeared in 249 articles in just 22 days. NewsCord is an AI-powered aggregator that compares global news coverage of various topics from scores of sources. It is helpful in exposing media bias by examining how stories are framed, what tone they take, and what context is used — or omitted.
Why such an obsession for a professor who few people, including other academicians, have ever heard of? The answer is simple. Arday was a Black man who studied and taught about race at an elite institution. Those facts upset a lot of people. Actually, that’s too mild … Those facts caused Arday to be literally hated inside and outside academia.
“The answer is that this story, at its core, is about race.”
Let’s assume, simply for the sake of argument, that the allegations of plagiarism, falsified medical history, and athletic superiority are true — or at least mostly true. (Note: Investigations into Arday’s alleged plagiarism had not concluded when he died.) Why would that warrant hundreds of press accounts and columns about Arday, not to mention thousands of overtly racist comments from right-wing social media accounts? The answer is that this story, at its core, is about race. But don’t take my word for it.
The key instigator of the inquisition against Arday is Nathan Cofnas, a self-identified “race realist” who has argued — publicly — that Black people are intellectually inferior to white people. In fact, Cofnas was fired from Cambridge a couple of years ago after publishing a Substack post in which he wrote that Harvard would have no Black professors if the university hired based solely on “merit.” Cofnas also wrote that a real “meritocracy” would mean that “Blacks would disappear from almost all high-profile positions outside of sports and entertainment.”
Notably, Cofnas, who is Jewish, has been attacked in writing by Kevin McDonald, a proudly antisemitic professor. McDonald argues that Jewish people eventually destroy every society with which they become affiliated. As the saying goes, you just can’t make this stuff up.
On the very day that Arday died, Cofnas posted a YouTube interview that he had with social media personality Rob Montz. In it, Cofnas admitted that plagiarism — which he said is common in academia — was not his real issue with Arday. No, Cofnas’ real issue is what he referred to as Arday’s “exalted position.”
Thus, if there is a story that is worthy of breathless media coverage, it isn’t Arday’s alleged malfeasance. Rather, the story that should be told is that the growing legitimacy given to “race science” (a new term for old eugenics) even within major universities. For his part, Cofnas has said that he fantasizes about chairing a department of “race science” and eugenics at Harvard. The resurgence of such ideology has engendered growing racial hostility that puts scholars of color at risk of verbal and even physical harm.
And speaking of Harvard, for 371 years, all of its presidents were white men. Every. Single. One. The notion that 1) all of them were qualified and 2) no women or people of color were qualified for nearly four centuries is beyond ludicrous. Discrimination kept even the most qualified people of color, and women of all races, from attaining that lofty role. I digress.
Consider the case of another person you’ve never heard of. Ross Barkan. Mr. Barkan is an award-winning journalist and novelist. Until recently, he wrote for New York Magazine. Earlier this year, journalists from NPR and The Washington Post accused Barkan of plagiarism. New York Magazine investigated the allegations. It found that 67 of Barkan’s roughly 250 columns — more than a quarter of them — did not give proper attribution to work that other authors had written. Subsequently, they dropped him.
This story, or rather this non-story, will completely fade in a week or so. Barkan is white. Yet, ask yourself why the name Jayson Blair still sounds so familiar …
Next to race, another key issue is hypocrisy. For example, remember billionaire Harvard alumnus Bill Ackman? He was the primary force behind the firing of Harvard’s first Black (and second female) president, Claudine Gay, Ph.D. — in part because of Gay’s alleged plagiarism. Meanwhile, Ackman’s wife, Neri Oxman, was accused of plagiarizing parts of her dissertation at MIT. (Oxman also accepted donations from Jeffrey even though she knew about his trafficking of children.) Ultimately, Oxman admitted to “mistakes.” She then returned to her exceedingly comfortable life.
Other well-known plagiarists? Historian Doris Kearns Goodwin. Helen Keller. (Yes, that Helen Keller.) My favorite case? Bob Dylan. Dylan plagiarized the speech — wait for it — that he gave to the Nobel committee after he won its prize for literature!
Of course, in the age of AI, the issue of “authentic authorship” becomes substantially more complex. For example, suppose an author were to instruct ChatGPT or Claude to scan everything that he had written, ascertain what his “style” was, and then write something in said style. Is that product “authentic”? Or would the author be, in essence, plagiarizing a non-sentient being — or even himself?
In any case, the most telling statement in the Arday affair comes from Cambridge Vice Chancellor Deborah Prentice. In an interview Prentice said that Cambridge would review its hiring processes. She also emphasized that, “our staff of color are highly valued for their scholarship, their achievements, and the contributions they make to the institution and the wider academic community … This particular case is an aberration and should not be used to cast aspersions on their work or the legitimacy of their roles at Cambridge.”
“The need to affirm the bona fides of people of color is not a result of affirmative action or DEI; affirmative action are the result of centuries of racial discrimination.”
While I genuinely appreciate the statement, we all must recognize that it would be unthinkable to have made it if Arday were white. The need to affirm the bona fides of people of color is not a result of affirmative action or DEI; affirmative action and DEI are the result of centuries of racial discrimination. Blaming people of color for racists’ reactions is akin to blaming sexual assault on women for wearing “provocative” clothing.
To compound matters, when people of color are finally hired to sit in “exalted” seats, they are subjected to the charge that they were chosen primarily, if not exclusively, based on their race. White people are hired because they’re qualified — and they’re qualified because they’re white. This is the insidious, self-reinforcing, and hypocritical tautology of racial discrimination. This is the myth and mockery of “meritocracy.”
Consider the kakistocracy that defines the Trump Administration: Robert Kennedy, Jr.; Pete Hegseth; Linda McMahon, Jared Kushner, Stephen Miller, et al. In the end, white people who are unqualified for the positions they hold are unbothered by that fact. Why should Black people, who generally are qualified to hold such positions, be concerned even if they’re not?
” … the most legitimate test of equality will be when Black people of average or below average ability can become stunningly successful …”
To be clear, I am not suggesting that Arday was not qualified for his role. I’m merely suggesting that the most legitimate test of equality will be when Black people of average or below average ability can become stunningly successful on par with white people of average, or below average, ability.
In the U.S., despite being assured for generations by our parents that we are “just as good as anyone else,” deep down many African Americans don’t believe it. Or, even if we do, the psychological and spiritual toll of having to constantly prove ourselves can lead to mental, spiritual, and physiological damage. This phenomenon is less common among Blacks who grow up in countries where most of the people in leadership are Black.
This reality plays into the endless debate regarding the extent to which Black people should seek to occupy white spaces as opposed to being in our own institutions, which can then bring charges of “self-segregation,” which isn’t actually a thing.
The bottom line is that when a Black person engages in inappropriate behavior, society employs a microscope to determine that there is something inherently wrong with us. By contrast, when white people transgress, society uses a telescope to highlight the vast constellation of other white people who are not at all related to that individual.
Not that it is of the same magnitude, but this brings to mind Vanessa Williams’ tarnished reign as the first African American woman to be named Miss America. Of course, in Williams’ case, she certainly got the last laugh. Indeed, if one listens closely enough, one can hear her chuckling at this very moment.
I think it appropriate to end with Arday’s words: “While criticism is an inevitable part of academic life, what I have experienced has gone far beyond scholarly disagreement. The relentless accusations, speculation and public commentary have taken a profound toll on me and on those I love.”
That statement is from his resignation on Aug. 5. Arday died on Aug. 14, but he was killed long before then.
Contact community leader Larry Smith at larry@leaf-llc.com.
