Jason Arday #2

[FourSeasonSoupObsessive]

Like everyone else here, I’m desperately sorry to read about this sad news, and thinking of his family and loved ones. Nobody wanted this.

But the ghouls crowing about him being bullied to death are sticking in my throat. All the people who defended his lies and deception, who were complicit in elevating a troubled man over much worthier people, who didn’t care about students receiving substandard education or journalists being reported to the police, and who scolded anyone asking questions as a racist - you’re no better than us. If this result is due to public attention, then we’re all complicit, so you can hop right off that high horse and maybe examine your own behaviour.

I’d no interest in examining aspects of Arday’s story that related to his race, other than how his colour apparently contributed to his meteoric rise due to other people’s preoccupation with what qualities they felt his race bestowed on him. My interest, as I’ve repeatedly said on this topic is that I have an almost morbid fascination with fantasists, and most of the ones who’ve caught my attention are white.

Anyway. I’m very sorry he felt that this was the only way out.

 

[GabbyJ]

I am unfollowing and blocking anyone on Instagram blaming everyone else for Ardays death. Yes it’s tragic. Nobody wanted this outcome. There were just lots of questions that needed answering. How is it acceptable that there should be watering down of standards in academia? How is it right that meritocracy is being replaced with tokenism? And any attempt to highlight this is met with outrage of racism, jealousy and murder. I follow a few accounts on Instagram about non verbal autism because I have a 6 year old non verbal son. I have already seen some of those accounts harp on about what an inspiration he was and how he gave hope to so many. It seems people refuse to see the wood for the trees.

 

[10%]

PROF DEAD has been the headline on the sun for the last 12 hours, I find it in bad taste. The sun have been very critical of tattle and how awful they claim it is. I've read far worse in their pages than I've seen here.

 

[catsandsoup]

View attachment 4089891

Haha, 'proud feminist' Sadiq strikes again. I can name a dozen women, black and white, that have been ruthlessly publicly shamed far more harshly than Jason Arday, to the sound of crickets from all these brave tweeters.

Who are these other people in his position? Famous liars? Did everyone leave alone Jeffrey Archer or Jonathan Aitken or Elizabeth Holmes because of white supremacy?
Arday recieved no legal punishment within his lifetime, as well as using the law to cudgel those who tried to bring his manipulations to light. If anything, thats less than most get.
He did lose the job he wasn't qualified to have, but that's like saying the Salt Path couple (another pair who got a drubbing, fairly, despite the lazy argument Sadiq's trying of 'white people never get in trouble for lying!') losing their book contract was due to a campaign of abuse. You're not entitled to these things, and removing them isn't hounding. The standard of debate has dropped so far, its sad to see how infantilised the dialogue has become, everyone sounds like a small child.

Khan's craven baiting and cry-bullying is straight out of Arday's playbook, so I'm sure it does strike a genuine chord for him.

If I thought any of these people were genuine, instead of cynics hiding behind weaponising race as a way to control narrative and further themselves financially and politically (again, Arday himself, game recognising game here); I'd honestly feel sorry for them. You'd have some pretty serious internalised self hatred to identify with him on any serious level.

 

[Daisy Uncle]

We will never know the why, but it's worth looking at the unraveling of his life story. There is his early life, his claims of clashing diagnoses and being mute, neighbors and classmates coming out and saying, erm nope. His family must have been under enormous pressure here, it wasn't just his lie. The being illiterate until 18 despite taking gcses, that story was creaking alarmingly, would his wife, friend, or Sandro be willing and able to go along with it indefinitely.
The running stories, complete with tumours seizures and broken legs and millions of pounds, he couldn't back that up either.
Water Aid already denied his aid worker story, which maybe nobody would have thought about had he not embellished it with his jesus type projection.
All of that before you consider his academic career. Thoroughly caught out and thrown under the bus by Cambridge, and his publisher who really really shouldn't have released his book.
I suppose my rambling point is, he was under enormous pressure, but so was everyone involved in his story, must have been a nightmare, did he even have a real person there with him to support him and tell him it'll be ok and tell journalists to duck off...?

 

[PineappleQueen19]

"Fabulist conmen in important national institutions who use libel law to intimidate journalists shouldn't be investigated & exposed because it is likely to cause them significant personal difficulties, & they may respond in extreme ways" is not a sustainable principle.

Edited to add source

 

[thegirlscout]

It’s absolutely tragic but I don’t feel surprised. The attention on this story was so intense (perhaps because it’s silly season).

I know this sounds odd but I’m not sure he thought he had lied. By all accounts other academics at Cambridge and previous institutions treated him as some sort of messiah. An academic on twitter said a few days ago he was a nice guy but was just so weird how in thrall to him other academics were.

I think he could do no wrong and it probs did feel to him that he was going through life ‘manifesting’ a PhD, academic career etc. and it was all just meant to be.

I blame the people in the institutions who enabled all of this.

If he was never challenged on his lies, especially by Cambridge etc then there was no reason for him stop telling untruths. These past few weeks seem to be the only time he faced any form of backlash. That’s why I wonder about his mother or wife here. Not saying that they are responsible for him as he was a grown man but did they go along with the lies (seems his wife did to an extent) or did they try and help him even if it was unsuccessful.
His poor children, what a legacy he leaves for them. Though I hate to ask are we 100% he had children?

 

[thegirlscout]

How is it acceptable that there should be watering down of standards in academia? How is it right that meritocracy is being replaced with tokenism?

George Abaraonye got into Oxford with only ABB. I doubt him and Jason are the only ones who go accepted into prestigious academia with results that were left wanting. And what does that say to people of colour in this country? That you won’t be judged on your exam results like most white people are, that they will accept lesser results because your colour? Or that you need to have a fantastical struggle which outweighs your academic achievements? It’s like we are telling young people of colour that we don’t think you’re intelligent enough to go to this university so we are watering down the standard acceptable grades but also you need to have achieved X, Y and Z whilst doing A, B and C. I don’t think white people are/have been judged on those metrics. Surely that’s more racist?

 

[Jelly Bean]

Ugh Sue Black. My hackles have always been up around her for some reason. Massive attention seeker. (I know people who know her).
And all those with the 'I hope you're happy now'. Nobody is happy about this. Any of it.

 

[MaineCoonMama]

In Australia we have our share of fantasists but the one who stands out the most to me even 30 years on is Helen Demidenko (Darville.)

Helen wrote a controversial, antisemitic book about a Ukrainian family who aided the Nazis called The Hand That Signed The Paper which won all kinds of literary awards including the biggest one, the Miles Franklin.

She claimed to be Ukrainian going so far as wearing peasant-type blouses everywhere and doing her hair in traditional styles. Totally untrue.
I could go on but if anyone is interested she's a fascinating example of a BS artist taking prizes and attention from others. She was headline news here for months and her downfall was brutal. There's plenty of articles online if anyone is interested in reading about her.

 

[Vanelope]

Ugh Sue Black. My hackles have always been up around her for some reason. Massive attention seeker. (I know people who know her).
And all those with the 'I hope you're happy now'. Nobody is happy about this. Any of it.

Why is it important he was ‘gorgeous’? There seems to have been a lot of fetishisation and infantilisation of this 41 year old man.

I think the school friend coming out and saying his mutism was fake was the final straw.

the fact he felt he had no other way out was sad, and implies he was enabled rather than working a grift out of his own cunning and means all the academic institutions that swallowed the fantasies whole are culpable.

 

[Miscanthus]

It's sad.

But it doesn't matter if JA was "gorgeous", what mattered was his behaviour. And as has been said many times on this thread, he lied, possibly manipulated, took opportunities from other people and gave false hope to those who found comfort in his "stories".

It's not racist to call out David Burke for the murder and abuse of Celeste. Nor should he be let off for his crimes because he's "gorgeous".

It's not racist for Axel whatshisface to be in prison for his crimes.

And before someone jumps on me, I know what JA has done isn't anywhere near as awful but my point is, it's not racist to question questionable behaviour and to expect someone to be accountable for their actions. You can't just excuse behaviour because of someones race (or disability, or any other protected characteristic..).

This person is writing like JA was murdered. Like he had no choice in his death. But he did. And this is what he chose to do. Nobody forced him.

If this is a genuine professor and OBE, it's easy to see how he got away with it for so long.

This
Every single person who enabled Arday to continue to lie, copy, cheat and play the race card throughout his life should take a long hard look at themselves.
They are the ones responsible for his death now the house of cards has collapsed.

 

[SunnySideOver]

I knew there’d been a lot of publicity but that is crazy. What angers me is that he is far from the only one who has been dishonest and been in a position he shouldn’t have been, but the media didn’t seize the opportunity to hold other people accountable. Is the situation REALLY worth 188 articles?

Jess Taylor, as one example, questionably obtained her PhD and when you see what she does, especially in a space where there are seriously mentally ill people, it’s a million times worse than anything Jason has been accused of, and one day (if it hasn’t happened already but not been connected) somebody will incur serious harm or worse as a result of her behaviour. But instead of investigating her, the likes of the Daily Mail and BBC Radio 4 are platforming her . THIS is exactly why I find the coverage problematic.

 

[Yel]

Reframing this story as a simple story of the media hounding someone to death is disingenuous. I'm not saying that didn't play a part, but it's one fragment in a complex situation. I think the Guardian getting school friends to debunk his stories in the last few days was probably amongst the most damaging things in the media.

It's depressing how no one ever learns anything

 

[L3moning]

The media have most of the blame for this, honestly. See this post showing just some of the Telegraph stories about it:

Thats ridiculous by any stretch of the imagination. There's also something of an argument that there's very limited public interest in random academic fraud, beyond the point that he was sacked.

I'm not saying no one should comment on it, obviously, but we do need to remember that the original allegations were made by a man who is openly racist and wants an all white UK. We need to be careful that we're not, inadvertently, giving him credence just because he happened to be right about Arday in this case. His hiring was a failure by Cambridge. What happened after was trial by media.

 

[LottieM]

Sadiq Khan and others have said Arday faced a disproportionate amount of public and media scrutiny. As others have already said - this is because of the book deal and the press release that led directly to journalists investigating the claims.
If a journalist had written an article about a Cambridge professor who had plagiarised someone else’s work and was a rubbish lecturer, it wouldn’t have received nearly as much coverage. It was only the ‘extra’ stuff about his childhood, disabilities and sporting / fundraising efforts that made it a much more interesting story.
Same as the Salt Path couple. They disguised their real names so the story took longer to come out, but it was only when a film was made of the book with Gillian Anderson in the starring role, that people really started to speak out about them. If they hadn’t accepted the film deal and all the money that went with it, it wouldn’t have been such a big story.

 

[I'm not actually here]

It's sad.

But it doesn't matter if JA was "gorgeous", what mattered was his behaviour. And as has been said many times on this thread, he lied, possibly manipulated, took opportunities from other people and gave false hope to those who found comfort in his "stories".

It's not racist to call out David Burke for the murder and abuse of Celeste. Nor should he be let off for his crimes because he's "gorgeous".

It's not racist for Axel whatshisface to be in prison for his crimes.

And before someone jumps on me, I know what JA has done isn't anywhere near as awful but my point is, it's not racist to question questionable behaviour and to expect someone to be accountable for their actions. You can't just excuse behaviour because of someones race (or disability, or any other protected characteristic..).

This person is writing like JA was murdered. Like he had no choice in his death. But he did. And this is what he chose to do. Nobody forced him.

If this is a genuine professor and OBE, it's easy to see how he got away with it for so long.

Well, that's my many years of respect for Sue Black straight out of the window.

Can any of these people see how racist THEY are being by putting the colour of skin first, above all else? The colour of anybody's skin should be completely irrelevant in this day and age, and I find it sad that it is the FIRST thing they see, rather than the very last.

 

[lilykestrel]

It's basically a massive complex, very sad, shitshow isn't it

Was he vulnerable? No doubt. Was he a fantasist? No doubt (but fantasists are usually vulnerable, given you're generally not such a fantasist without a hefty dose of unresolved mental illness). Was he enabled institutionally and personally? Most likely. Was he a mediocre academic? Probably. Did Cambridge appoint him on vibes alone to try and speedrun the appearance of diversity and get a good news story? Certainly. Do heritage institutions need to take a hard look at how they're currently seeking to remedy structural inequalities? Definitely. Was the media coverage more vociferous than it might have been had it not been summer recess/silly season? Likely. Was his initial critic probably driven by racist ideology? Yes. Was the right wing media coverage more vociferous because of race and them having a bone to pick with current (liberal) diversity efforts? Probably.

 

[Guest Featu]

George Abaraonye got into Oxford with only ABB. I doubt him and Jason are the only ones who go accepted into prestigious academia with results that were left wanting. And what does that say to people of colour in this country? That you won’t be judged on your exam results like most white people are, that they will accept lesser results because your colour? Or that you need to have a fantastical struggle which outweighs your academic achievements? It’s like we are telling young people of colour that we don’t think you’re intelligent enough to go to this university so we are watering down the standard acceptable grades but also you need to have achieved X, Y and Z whilst doing A, B and C. I don’t think white people are/have been judged on those metrics. Surely that’s more racist?

I have a colleague who was outright told that the degree grade required to qualify for a post grad she wanted to do had been downgraded from 2:1 to 2:2 to encourage black applicants because black graduates get lower grades on average. I actually have no idea if that's true, and if it is, it bears a lot of scrutiny as to why, but she was not pleased oddly enough and was very offended.
The issues around disparity in educational achievement for students who are BAME is an important issue that needs to be addressed but not by watering down academic standards in higher education.

 

[Sweetcouchpotato]

He didn't want accountability for decades of lies, and the ultimate way to avoid accountability is to become "a victim" of those who asked questions and raised concerns.

Media are not responsible for the mental health of people they write stories about. Hounding a victim of a crime or family members of a victim of a crime is different. If he hadn't lied for years and plagiarised, there would have been no Media attention. Having a total fantasist raised to a position of power and influence, especially educating young people who pay a fortune for their university education and discover it's being delivered by said fantasist, is a national scandal, and there is rightly public interest.

Of course, I'm very sorry for his poor wife and children, but if his death was self-inflicted, it was his choice and not the fault of anyone else.