A sad casualty of DEI/Woke at Cambridge University

[TomC]

He doesn't have to be "innocent" of all sins, for it to be racist to attack him for his skin color.

No, but it is racist to say it's okay because he's black.
Tom

 

[Toni]

I wonder, what makes life harder for black academics in the UK.

Prob’ly the same thing that makes life harder for black people in general:
RACISM.
Ya think?

Do you really think racism is still a major factor in academia?

I’m white and married to a recently retired academic, living in a college town. It’s quite disturbing how much racism there is on campuses, including from students. Perhaps especially from students. I’m quite ashamed that I did not realize how much it existed until talking to long time friends who are not of European descent. Lots of students complaints and in classroom challenging because the student doesn’t feel comfortable with the color of the instructor’s skin or their accent. Mind you, this includes native speakers of English and near native speakers who have spoken English since early childhood and who completed undergrad and graduate degrees at excellent US universities and who have lived here at least 50 years.

I’ve also seen a lot of childish behavior on the part of professors who have been known to undermine and attack fellow colleagues out of professional jealousy and to cause a colleague to be dismissed because they wanted their colleague’s job. Issues that had nothing to do with credentials or effectiveness in the classroom were weaponized. It’s ugly. Or can be. It’s not all professors or most professors but it is amazing how one or two malevolent actors can effectively mount a campaign against a perceived rival.

Btw, I did not work in academia but I saw it at my workplace as well.

 

[Toni]

He doesn't have to be "innocent" of all sins, for it to be racist to attack him for his skin color.

No, but it is racist to say it's okay because he's black.
Tom

Someone did that?

Look, if an academic is discovered to have violated whatever academic standards are in place for their department or university, then yes, discipline is in order. Sometimes dismissal.

But it is NEVER ok to harass and malign a colleague because you think they violated some standard or because of rivalry or vying for the same position/classroom/schedule/perk, etc.

If you wish to assert that someone was hired because of reasons other than qualifications, you had better be able to back it up with facts.

The color of their skin is not relevant. And if that’s the reason you are suspicious of their credentials, you just might be a racist.

 

[thebeave]

He doesn't have to be "innocent" of all sins, for it to be racist to attack him for his skin color.

No, but it is racist to say it's okay because he's black.
Tom

Someone did that?

Look, if an academic is discovered to have violated whatever academic standards are in place for their department or university, then yes, discipline is in order. Sometimes dismissal.

But it is NEVER ok to harass and malign a colleague because you think they violated some standard or because of rivalry or vying for the same position/classroom/schedule/perk, etc.

If you wish to assert that someone was hired because of reasons other than qualifications, you had better be able to back it up with facts.

The color of their skin is not relevant. And if that’s the reason you are suspicious of their credentials, you just might be a racist.

Agreed, but what is the nature of the harrassment against Jason Arday? Unless I missed something, I didn't read anything that I would consider out of line. It seems to be mostly people asking legit questions about inconsistencies and perceived fraud and wanting his side of the story. Is that what he calls harrassment? It does seem like he sort of overreacted in a few instances by getting lawyers and police involved, just to scare people away from exposing him.

From the Wikipedia article:

In May 2023, David Harris, an emeritus professor at Plymouth Marjon University, emailed Arday to enquire about similarities between sentences in Arday's 2018 Social Sciences article and an earlier BMJ Open article by Anjum Memon. Arday responded: "Instead of spending your time trying to dismantle racism and ableism, you have spent what I assume is hours combing through my work looking for mistakes [...] Anything further from you will be considered bullying and harassment."[69] Arday contacted police to report Harris for harassment. Devon and Cornwall Police, in whose area Harris lived, concluded there was no case to pursue.[7] Social Sciences published a correction to his article, with revised citations, in December 2023.[69]

Times Higher Education reporter Jack Grove subsequently investigated Arday's alleged plagiarism, assembling a 63-page report and in September 2025 contacting Arday for his response. Arday responded with a letter from Carter-Ruck, a legal firm specialising in libel, after which the Times Higher Education chose not to publish the story so as to avoid expensive litigation.[70][69] Arday also made a complaint about Grove to the Metropolitan Police, who contacted the reporter requesting that he not communicate with Arday again.[70] Mark Rowley, Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, later acknowledged that the complaint about Grove should not have been taken forward.[71]

 

[ZiprHead]

Says the guy whose main source of information and news he publishes on this forum comes from randos on Twitter/X, Facebook, et al.

Those are always accompanied with video to show the words are accurate. I post the words to save people the trouble of watching the video.

 

[Toni]

He doesn't have to be "innocent" of all sins, for it to be racist to attack him for his skin color.

No, but it is racist to say it's okay because he's black.
Tom

Someone did that?

Look, if an academic is discovered to have violated whatever academic standards are in place for their department or university, then yes, discipline is in order. Sometimes dismissal.

But it is NEVER ok to harass and malign a colleague because you think they violated some standard or because of rivalry or vying for the same position/classroom/schedule/perk, etc.

If you wish to assert that someone was hired because of reasons other than qualifications, you had better be able to back it up with facts.

The color of their skin is not relevant. And if that’s the reason you are suspicious of their credentials, you just might be a racist.

Agreed, but what is the nature of the harrassment against Jason Arday? Unless I missed something, I didn't read anything that I would consider out of line. It seems to be mostly people asking legit questions about inconsistencies and perceived fraud and wanting his side of the story. Is that what he calls harrassment? It does seem like he sort of overreacted in a few instances by getting lawyers and police involved, just to scare people away from exposing him.

From the Wikipedia article:

In May 2023, David Harris, an emeritus professor at Plymouth Marjon University, emailed Arday to enquire about similarities between sentences in Arday's 2018 Social Sciences article and an earlier BMJ Open article by Anjum Memon. Arday responded: "Instead of spending your time trying to dismantle racism and ableism, you have spent what I assume is hours combing through my work looking for mistakes [...] Anything further from you will be considered bullying and harassment."[69] Arday contacted police to report Harris for harassment. Devon and Cornwall Police, in whose area Harris lived, concluded there was no case to pursue.[7] Social Sciences published a correction to his article, with revised citations, in December 2023.[69]

Times Higher Education reporter Jack Grove subsequently investigated Arday's alleged plagiarism, assembling a 63-page report and in September 2025 contacting Arday for his response. Arday responded with a letter from Carter-Ruck, a legal firm specialising in libel, after which the Times Higher Education chose not to publish the story so as to avoid expensive litigation.[70][69] Arday also made a complaint about Grove to the Metropolitan Police, who contacted the reporter requesting that he not communicate with Arday again.[70] Mark Rowley, Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, later acknowledged that the complaint about Grove should not have been taken forward.[71]

Getting lawyers involved in an employment dispute is not overreaction: it is prudent.


I have witnessed people who decided to target a fellow employee look over their work with extreme scrutiny in order to find errors or inconsistencies. I’ve even seen people lie about the circumstances of an error. I think very few of us could withstand an extreme level of scrutiny particularly when motivated by malice which has a way of skewing the lens.

If the Wiki article is unbiased and complete, it seems as though he had some mental health issues that perhaps exacerbated the situation.

Even more reason for administration to tread very carefully to avoid confusing or conflating issues.

 

[laughing dog]

Interesting that the allegations of misconduct are taken as gospel by some even though no specific examples of plagiarism have been shown in the thread.

 

[Toni]

Interesting that the allegations of misconduct are taken as gospel by some even though no specific examples of plagiarism have been shown in the thread.

Not quite. A wiki article is linked and it describes how a colleague ran across a paper published before his and there was a great deal of overlap in sentences.

Not having read the papers nor being familiar with the discipline I can say that it can be challenging to avoid using the same phrases when they are ubiquitous in the subject. Not saying that is what happened here. I have no idea.

 

[laughing dog]

Interesting that the allegations of misconduct are taken as gospel by some even though no specific examples of plagiarism have been shown in the thread.

Not quite. A wiki article is linked and it describes how a colleague ran across a paper published before his and there was a great deal of overlap in sentences.

Without examples of the alleged overlaps, I don’t see how anyone can arrive at a disinterested conclusion.

 

[southernhybrid]

I read about this early this morning and according to the NYT article I'm about to post, it does seem as if Cambridge hired a person who was not totally qualified for the job. Still that doesn't mean his colleagues should harass him over it. The responsibility was on the school to do what was needed to remove him from the position in a polite and reasonable way, if that was deemed necessary. I'm going to post the link to what I read as I personally trust the NYT over most any other source of news. Plus, they will retract any misinformation if found at a later time.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/15/...e_code=1.5lA.EHog.6B1bCZqEDqq7&smid=url-share

Professor’s Death Leaves Behind Hard Questions for Cambridge on Race and Hiring​

Jason Arday, the school’s youngest Black professor, was found dead on Friday. The school ignored a series of warnings about his life story and his work.

When Cambridge University interviewed Jason Arday for one of the most prestigious sociology positions in the world, he was an early career scholar and underqualified, by the school’s own standards.

Cambridge’s requirements, reviewed by The New York Times, called for “an outstanding research record of international stature” and a “proven successful track record” supervising Ph.D. students. Dr. Arday had a modest publication record and had bounced from one university to the next — not staying long enough to oversee a full three-year-or-more doctorate.

Cambridge hired him anyway in 2023, making him, at 37, the university’s youngest Black professor at a time when the school was under pressure to diversify. In doing so, Cambridge thrust him into the international limelight, giving him a platform at one of the world’s elite universities to champion academic diversity and making him a target for critics.

Dr. Arday was found dead in London on Friday, days after resigning from his job amid accusations that he had plagiarized chunks of his papers, embellished parts of his recently published memoir and fabricated aspects of his life story. The controversy exploded along cultural fault lines — race, neurodiversity and academic hiring.

It certainly appears as if Cambridge hired an under qualified person, and wanted to make the school appear more open to minorities, either racial or those who are autistic. So, I see it as the school's fault hat this young man was put in a position that was too much for him and then he was judged for his lack of qualifications. It wasn't just the plagiarism, it was that he didn't have the usual qualifications for the position.

In his Aug. 5 resignation letter, he wrote, “I no longer wish to feel as though I am living under a constant spotlight, where every aspect of my life is subject to public examination and judgment.” He added, “This is not the end of my work. It is simply the end of this chapter.”

His family said that, since starting at Cambridge, Dr. Arday had faced a campaign of scrutiny intended to undermine him. That became too much for him, they said.

Questions about Dr. Arday’s career are unlikely to end with his death, however, because they were as much about Cambridge as they were about him. The centuries-old alma mater of Isaac Newton, William Wordsworth and kings and queens, Cambridge now faces deep scrutiny about its decision-making, even from its own faculty.

While Dr. Arday was underqualified for his job, he had a remarkable story: a tale of being diagnosed early with autism and having such significant developmental delays that he spent his entire childhood in a special-needs school. In his account, he did not speak until age 11 or read until 18, yet he managed to earn his doctorate and begin giving keynote speeches on the academic circuit. Also, he had run 30 marathons in 35 days for charity, a feat that would have placed him among the world’s elite athletes.

 

[steve_bank]

Uh Oh .. now I've doe it. Tswizzle gave me the rolling eyes.

Is it racsim or ;ercvbed racism? 'Playng te rave card' can be a crutch.

I know what racism in the work pace was like.

Because a back person says something is racism is it realty? Or is it just normal hurdles.

I have comee to believe that one of the major things hindering backs is a belief there is still rampant racism.

I have listened to Cornel West speak. On the black extreme side. He called any black who mainstreamed in the economy a 'plantation Negro'. While making money selling books and speaking.

On the flip side in the 80s there was a PBS show Tony Brown's Journal, He promoted black entrepreneurship financial independence.

Attitudes matter.

 

[Politesse]

He doesn't have to be "innocent" of all sins, for it to be racist to attack him for his skin color.

No, but it is racist to say it's okay because he's black.
Tom

No one did. Some people said it was a tragedy that he died. Some said that it was a travesty he was ever hired. Some tried to say both, unconvincingly. But no one said "it's okay because he is black."

 

[Elixir]

It’s hard not to conclude that the real issue here is in fact the racist behavior of academics and administration at Cambridge.

Agreed, Arday was hired because of race.

Can you think of ANY black person hired for a better job than your own, who was NOT a “DEI hire”?
Didn’t think so.

I have comee to believe that one of the major things hindering backs is a belief there is still rampant racism.

Yeah there’s that, and the fact that there’s still rampant racism.

 

[Elixir]

I wonder, what makes life harder for black academics in the UK.

Prob’ly the same thing that makes life harder for black people in general:
RACISM.
Ya think?

Do you really think racism is still a major factor in academia?

Not for YOU, white boy.
How far through “academia” have you explored? I barely ever scratched the surface. But even at the high school level, there was plenty of racism.
My brother went to Yale, graduated magna cum laude … one of a class of almost a thousand graduates. I went to the graduation and I recall TWO black guys ant the graduation, and I think they were both foreigners. My brother graduated in “Latin Studies”, then changed his mind and went to Baylor med school and became a doctor. His take was that there was no racism at Baylor med, because ALL the very few black people were truly exceptional, So were the Asians, Middle Easterners and other foreigners.
There was, by his telling, a very unhealthy sprinkling of WHITE med students raised in rich families who managed to gain entry *somehow* and most of whom washed out.
But that’s one person’s anecdote ftom 50 years ago.
Surely things have changed since then. Right, Steve? That’s what most present day white racists contend, IME.

 

[TSwizzle]

I’m

It’s hard not to conclude that the real issue here is in fact the racist behavior of academics and administration at Cambridge.

Agreed, Arday was hired because of race.

Arday was harassed because he was black.

No, he wasn’t “harassed” because he was black. Arday was exposed for being a fraud because that is what he was. A fraud. But it also exposed the absurdity of the DEI/woke bullshit of Cambridge University.

 

[bilby]

No, he wasn’t “harassed” because he was black. Arday was exposed for being a fraud...

...and then harrassed mercilessly for it because he was black.

He wasn't the first, and won't be the last, fraud at Cambridge.

But he was treated very differently from the others.

 

[DrZoidberg]

Sounds like he was hounded because he is black. How that can be blamed on DEI and Woke is a mystery to me.

He was hired because he was black - that's where DEI comes into the picture. He was hounded because he was a fraud.

The actual evidence that he was hired because he was black is......?

They didn't do due dilligence. That's remarkable. I don't think you quite understand the prestige and dignity of Cambridge and the standards they hold. Its baffling anyone managed to squeek by without being checked like he was. Its now understandable that people speculate on that standards were relaxed because he was black.

It gets worse. Arday chose to plagiarize academics low on the academic status hierarchy from less prestigious universities, so they wouldn't have the clout to do anything about it. That's why he was able to climb as high as he did before he was exposed.

The academics who openly defend him now have probably made the calculation that criticizing a prominent black academic looks bad. Cynical as fuck. Because nobody who knows anything would seriously support Arday. What he did is really bad. There's no grey here.

The more you dig the worse it looks for Arday. I think he just seems like a shameless, intelligent opportunist who saw an opportunity to exploit the woke narrative to climb. He doesn't seem to have had any respect for academic work, at any point in his career.

If he had known it would lead to a professorship, maybe he wouldn't have cheated in the first place? But once it was done, he just had to shut up and hope it worked. It lasted as long as it lasted. His fraud would have been revealed sooner or later.

Its also important to keep in mind how rich Cambridge is. This is not like an American university who needs to keep donors happy. Cambridge's wealth is on par with the Catholic church. They don't need to care what anyone thinks of them. They're so rich that if they never again got funding, they could keep going forever with the money they already have. Nobody has pressured, or could pressure, Cambridge to do anything. This was purely self inflicted.

The whole story is mindblowing. It looks really really bad for Cambridge

 

[DrZoidberg]

No, he wasn’t “harassed” because he was black. Arday was exposed for being a fraud...

...and then harrassed mercilessly for it because he was black.

He wasn't the first, and won't be the last, fraud at Cambridge.

But he was treated very differently from the others.

Who? Name any other Cambridge professor exposed as a fraud?

There is none.

He is the first.

 

[DrZoidberg]

Just got through reading his Wikipedia page:

Jason Arday

Holy crap. It seems his whole life story was embellished, if not outright fabricated. Not just his academic record. He should never have been hired by Cambridge in the first place. What a shit show from beginning to end.

Its really really bad.

 

[DrZoidberg]

I’m

It’s hard not to conclude that the real issue here is in fact the racist behavior of academics and administration at Cambridge.

Agreed, Arday was hired because of race.

Arday was harassed because he was black.

No, he wasn’t “harassed” because he was black. Arday was exposed for being a fraud because that is what he was. A fraud. But it also exposed the absurdity of the DEI/woke bullshit of Cambridge University.

His alleged harrasement has also been exposed as fraud. He seems to have been a compulsive liar. He just seems to never have been challenged. At any point in his career.

His story of being mistreated because if his race seems to lack all substance. Some of it might have been true. But because so much has been confirmed as lies, what if anything, can we trust?