Two serious harms arise from the sad story of Jason Arday, the Cambridge professor found ‘unresponsive’ at his London home, mere days after credible evidence of plagiarism destroyed his academic career. It is assumed, although it has not been confirmed, that he took his own life.For those lately focussed on news elsewhere, the late Mr. Arday was a black professor at Cambridge University, billed as the youngest ever ‘black professor’ and much celebrated by the university administration as a consequence. He was a star. They felt lucky to have him.Why? Not so much because of what he taught — the somewhat recondite subject of the Sociology of Education — nor of how he taught. (He was not without his supporters, but overall, student reviews are critical.)But he had claimed to have been mute until the age of eleven and unable to read or write until eighteen, yet somehow completed a doctorate and rose to a Cambridge chair. He boasted of raising millions for charity through feats of extraordinary endurance running that appear never to have happened in the form described. Other elements of his personal narrative — dramatic confrontations, threats, and miraculous recoveries — have likewise failed to withstand scrutiny. In other words, in the woke world of Cambridge University, he was a trophy. A professor, that is, who was considered brilliant, claimed impressive triumphs over life’s doubtless racially based adversities and who, above all, was not white.For an institution with an active anti-racism policy, Cambridge was indeed remarkably focused upon Arday’s race.The first harm is obviously to Arday himself. Yes, he was a fraud. That's bad. But we don’t demand the death of frauds.He was also making personal gains on false pretences. .But again, that's not a capital offence. Those who paid good money to learn from a supposedly high-octane professor who was nothing of the sort are entitled to their money back. They should receive it and let the matter drop. It’s been a few centuries since our white, ethnocentric, and patriarchal society has hanged anybody for lying about their credentials. If ever, in fact.In wilfully helping himself to the intellectual accomplishments of others, stealing their ideas as we might call it, Arday did show moral weakness and a disregard for the high standards that Cambridge University has legitimately boasted of for centuries. But he has company; the president of Harvard, Claudine Gay, was similarly exposed for multiple instances of plagiarism in her scholarly work and forced to resign.But for none of these things did he deserve to die. Gay, after all, was later reinstated to an inferior position by a sympathetic administration. Why not Arday, a wokester might ask?Why not indeed? As a morally compromised person, he deserves the same grace that any of us who are not perfect in every way must pray for. And as he is no longer in a position to do so, those of us who are left should concede him that much. We are all imperfect in our own way.Indeed, in one shocking sense, he too was a victim — the prey of an institutional culture so hungry for a symbolic success story that it suspended ordinary standards of verification and placed a fragile man in a position he could not honestly sustain.However, it is the second harm that demands our continued attention: the woke establishment denies it ever happened..Rather than confront the institutional failure that elevated Arday without proper checks, the machinery of identity politics has moved to protect its franchise. His supporters have not messaged that while this was unfortunate, it's not what woke is all about. Instead, they have framed the exposure of his plagiarism and fabrications as a racist campaign. Indeed, it's the fault of the press! Politicians and activists have written to press regulators demanding investigations into the newspapers that reported the facts.Most revealingly, the academic who first systematically documented Arday's plagiarism, Nathan Cofnas, has been suspended from his university post. Meanwhile, those who celebrated Arday’s appointment remain largely unexamined. So there it is. Alas for Mr. Arday, but this is what the left does: defend the narrative, punish the messengers, and try to make sure that the next symbolic appointment proceeds without inconvenient scrutiny.This is not over. The same leftist forces that operate in Great Britain to elevate a man whose whole career was founded on a lie are at work in Canada (and in Australia and the US). We think truth and professional excellence matter; the other side regards them only as obstacles in their intergenerational effort to win power.Meanwhile, Mr. Arday is entitled to rest in peace.
