Anybody here follow the story of Jason Arday?

[ALAYMAN]

Christianity Today has a pretty good article on the whole mess.

Thoughts?

 

[Ransom]

Good article. (Not Christianity Today, incidentally--just Christian Today, an independent British media site.)

The Jason Arday story was a tragedy. I mean that in the literal, Shakespearean sense: Arday was a deeply flawed man who rose well above his ability, and in the end those flaws did him in. "Be sure you sin will find you out" (Num. 32:23).

Arday was supposedly severely autistic, nonverbal until he was 11, and unable to read or write until adulthood. Nonetheless, he achieved a PhD in 2015 and became a professor at Cambridge in 2022, the youngest black professor in their history. His story was basically false, of course; Arday was an academic Baron Munchausen. But he was propped up and promoted by progressive academics who saw him as a DEI triumph.

He probably would have had a successful career as a gifted undergraduate, had he not been pushed beyond his abilities.

 

[ALAYMAN]

Good article. (Not Christianity Today, incidentally--just Christian Today, an independent British media site.)

lol, I literally consciously thought that I had typed that out correctly, knowing that the article wasn’t from the slightly left leaning Christianity Today site.

The Jason Arday story was a tragedy. I mean that in the literal, Shakespearean sense: Arday was a deeply flawed man who rose well above his ability, and in the end those flaws did him in. "Be sure you sin will find you out" (Num. 32:23).

Arday was supposedly severely autistic, nonverbal until he was 11, and unable to read or write until adulthood. Nonetheless, he achieved a PhD in 2015 and became a professor at Cambridge in 2022, the youngest black professor in their history. His story was basically false, of course; Arday was an academic Baron Munchausen. But he was propped up and promoted by progressive academics who saw him as a DEI triumph.

He probably would have had a successful career as a gifted undergraduate, had he not been pushed beyond his abilities.

I know I really shouldn’t be surprised in this culture where every elite institutional to outdo the other on its progressivism, but it really did stun me that nobody vetted his pedigree, at least not to the appropriate level of investigation.

 

[Ransom]

I know I really shouldn’t be surprised in this culture where every elite institutional to outdo the other on its progressivism, but it really did stun me that nobody vetted his pedigree, at least not to the appropriate level of investigation.

Well, look at what's happened to the media and others who did examine his pedigree and credentials. It's been said the scandal would set back racial studies and humanities departments; that it makes life harder for other black academics; that it's being weaponized by far-right racists; that it was, in fact, out-and-out racist and would make people assume all black academics falsify or exaggerate their credentials.

In other words, it's not Arday's fault he was a fabulist; it's the media's fault for being racist and reporting it.

It's been argued both that the scrutiny over his credentials is due to his race, while conversely a white academic would not have been so closely scrutinized;[1] also that his race was what shielded him from a more rigorous vetting.

It's easy to imagine why an institution might be hesitant to vet the claims of a Jason Arday. The backlash could be severe.

---

[1] On the other hand, in a North American context, look what's happened to the reputations of "Pretendians" like Elizabeth Warren, Ward Churchill, or Grey Owl. It seems to me, rather, that a white academic would likely never have been seriously considered for Jason Arday's job if his fabrications were discovered early enough.

 

[ALAYMAN]

Well, look at what's happened to the media and others who did examine his pedigree and credentials. It's been said the scandal would set back racial studies and humanities departments; that it makes life harder for other black academics; that it's being weaponized by far-right racists; that it was, in fact, out-and-out racist and would make people assume all black academics falsify or exaggerate their credentials.

In other words, it's not Arday's fault he was a fabulist; it's the media's fault for being racist and reporting it.

It's been argued both that the scrutiny over his credentials is due to his race, while conversely a white academic would not have been so closely scrutinized;[1] also that his race was what shielded him from a more rigorous vetting.

It's easy to imagine why an institution might be hesitant to vet the claims of a Jason Arday. The backlash could be severe.

---

[1] On the other hand, in a North American context, look what's happened to the reputations of "Pretendians" like Elizabeth Warren, Ward Churchill, or Grey Owl. It seems to me, rather, that a white academic would likely never have been seriously considered for Jason Arday's job if his fabrications were discovered early enough.

I hadn’t heard of 2 of those footnoted folk before you mentioned them. Off to google.

 

[illinoisguy]

"Arday has claimed that he did not speak before his twelfth birthday, could not read or write until he was eighteen, completed thirty marathons in thirty days, and appeared on a TV show that aired twenty years before he was born.

"It has now emerged that, in a desperate bid to silence those who were scrutinising his record and asking legitimate questions, Jason Arday reported a fellow academic and a journalist to the police. . . .

"Jason Arday reached for the police when he realised people were on to him. Powerful figures should not have the ability to direct the police to silence those speaking the truth or legitimately scrutinising them."

In a desperate bid to avoid scrutiny, Professor Arday tried to use the police to silence a journalist and an academic

The Met Police investigated a journalist for four months after Professor Jason Arday reported him for asking legitimate questions. Lord Young of Acton has written to Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley demanding answers.

freespeechunion.org

Theologian Carl Trueman weighs in: "The aftermath of Jason Arday’s death is a fine example of this new morality in action. His apparent acts of fraud against his employer, his profession, and his students have been obliterated in an ocean of identity politics. There have been calls in the U.K. to eviscerate the free press for simply doing its job — uncovering the truth. These calls continue the legacy of Arday himself, who used police to shut down scrutiny of his claims.

"It is perhaps unsurprising that a Western cultural elite that enforced the fantasy of transgenderism finds it offensive that people object to academic fabulists holding prestigious posts in elite institutions."

The England I knew is gone

Growing up in 1970s and 80s England, I absorbed the importance of restraint, honesty, and respect for others This summer, for the first time, I sensed that the present can be as foreign as the past

www.christianpost.com