Last week this column warned that Jason Arday, the Cambridge Professor, was being disproportionately hounded. Days later he was dead.
The weeks spent stripping a good man bare had taken their toll. The disgraceful feeding frenzy, the vultures, the opportunists and the thinly-veiled racism resulted in a family without a father and a wife without a husband.
Shamefully, yet predictably, many leading the social media witch-hunt were hurriedly deleting the evidence on Friday and Saturday. What a wretched, pitiful society we exist in. Just as sickening were the attempts from those very same cheerleaders to express condolences for a death their bullying had contributed directly to.
You don’t get to lay flowers at the grave of a man you helped destroy. Last week, this column accepted that yes, Jason had claimed things proven to be untrue. Just as thousands of people do in their CVs every day.
Unfair Treatment Compared to Politicians
Just as Boris Johnson, Rachel Reeves, Jonathan Reynolds, Zack Polanski, Robert Jenrick and countless other MPs and academics - many you’ve never heard of - had done without anywhere near the same treatment.
Yet with Jason, even now, the circus continues and the tent is still up. He’d resigned. He’d accepted accountability. He’d been cleared of plagiarism by Liverpool John Moores University. It didn’t matter.
Jason was failed by Cambridge University, the latest institution to appoint just one Black person and use their background as cover for their failures to recruit more.
Systemic Failures and Racism
He was failed, too, by supposed left wing progressives who side-stepped a man crying out for help because of those holes in his stories. This platform is one of just four with less than a handful of articles on him, recognising very clearly that other individuals and bigger stories demanded far greater attention.
Elsewhere, it was a multi-platform open season. Including radio phone-ins and mid-morning shows falling over themselves to get in on the algorithm spikes. Now a man is dead. And self-reflection is crucial at a time like this.
Silence means allowing more lives to be shattered. More lies to fester suggesting Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) is taking over the world. Complete garbage. Just one percent of professors in the UK are Black.
One percent of judges in the UK are Black. Fewer than 1percent of senior leadership roles in UK finance are held by Black professionals.
In media, you’ll struggle to find journalists of any colour in any of the top jobs. How many Black cabinet members can you see in those selfies Prime Minister Andy Burnham loves taking?
Self-Help and Remaining Barriers
Small progress has come when people of colour have done something about it themselves. The Society of Black Academics was founded five years ago. Media outlets such as The Voice have existed for decades to provide their own training and senior leadership. Others, such as Black Ballad and BlackCurrent News have started up since.
The Association of Black Judges, the Council of Black Leaders in Finance and the Society of Black Lawyers were all set up to help themselves. The glass ceilings, however, remain tougher than ever at the highest levels, as nepotism, mates and relationships continue deciding recruitment processes.
Jason was pushed into a corner because of the drive to push the worst kind of sophistry. That in a meritocracy, Black people wouldn’t deserve the jobs they have. He is dead because people who hated seeing Black seniority at Cambridge could barely disguise their glee at his transgressions.
He was put on trial for every other Black professional whose credentials were suddenly being questioned. Of course, those most at fault will continue to deny it. For them, hate continues to be a business model. For Jason’s family there is only pain. That’s why we must continue calling it out.
