Enough is enough.
Whilst this happened in the UK, you don’t have to be a British national to sign the petition being raised in order to prevent such a tragedy from repeating itself.
The recent death of Dr. Jason Arday, the youngest black person to ever become a Cambridge professor has, yet again, highlighted the issues others have towards people of colour. To summarise what happened: a few weeks ago, the media reported that Dr. Arday had allegedly plagiarised some of his writings and made false claims about his life. This should have been looked into by his employer, the University of Cambridge, and his publishers. In a situation like this, the press ought to report the story to the extent that it is of reasonable public interest. However, what they did was create a huge scandal, amplifying racist and prejudiced voices both within and outside academia, which relentlessly hounded Dr. Arday, even when the matter no longer concerned the general public.
Shortly after the University of Cambridge announced an investigation into his appointment, Dr. Arday resigned. The attacks did not stop, despite the warning by multiple experts about the higher vulnerability of people in the autistic spectrum, like Dr. Arday, to harassment. Just nine days later, on 14 August, he was found dead due to suicide. My heart goes out to his family, who have to deal with all this on top of grieving and planning his funeral.
It is not a secret that there are members of academia who hold racist views. Because of this, pupils and students of colour face more obstacles, fail their qualifications more frequently, and get lower grades for work of the same quality as the one submitted by their white peers. From what was said at his vigil, which was televised by Sky News, I understood that Dr. Arday himself endured racism and prejudice throughout his tenure at Cambridge University, which started in 2023. Ironically enough, he was a professor of sociology of education, whose publications explore the realities of racism in the UK.
In the wake of Dr. Arday’s death, many have come out to point at how white professors and personalities accused of similar wrongdoing have not been harassed by the press. In many occasions, they have gone through the due process with barely any press coverage, and even walked away without facing any consequence at all.
This is the main argument of the petition being pushed by the Good Law Project, a non-profit that brings together legal action, investigations and campaigning to fight against hate and spread hope. The petition, directed at the UK Prime Minister and the UK Secretary of Culture, demands an immediate public inquiry into how to ensure a responsible press.
This week, I already talked about the importance of organising against the rising threats to equality and human rights. One of the members of the Ella Baker School of Organising, which is the entity offering training across the UK to achieve just that, knew Dr. Arday personally, and vouched for his character in a message directed to the entire network.
If you want to learn more about Dr. Arday from people who knew him, his vigil in Trafalgar Square is available on Sky News’ YouTube channel:
