The Jason Arday Affair and the 'Oprahfication' of Antiracism
Culture warriors blame 'woke' Equality, Diversity and Inclusion policies for the scandal surrounding the Cambridge professor. The real problem is that EDI has been rendered symbolic and superficial.
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Christmas arrived early this year for right-wing keyboard warriors. Jason Arday, a Black British academic, resigned from a prestigious professorship at Cambridge University after a string of revelations about alleged plagiarism and outlandish claims, including that he wrote a book that doesn’t exist, ran 30 marathons in 35 days and played for Crystal Palace. It was a gift-wrapped triumph for those on both sides of the Atlantic who have long had Black academics, the humanities and universities in their sights, confirming their prejudices about everything from multiculturalism, progressive values and Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion initiatives (EDI), to “critical race theory” and the abilities of Black people. Choked with fury, they accuse the humanities and social sciences of propagating “grievance studies” and universities of being too “woke”, that is, too inclusive of women, sexual minorities and people of colour.
No surprise, then, that the whole chain of recent events was triggered by a blog by “anti-woke” researcher and self-described “race realist”, Nathan Cofnas.
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