Controversy Surrounding Professor Jason Arday

I like to call this one the nutty professor

when wokery backfires it's hilarious.

The board of electors on your interview day

were absolutely unanimous we are so lucky to have you.

Really? I'm talking of course about Professor Jason Arday

the youngest black person ever appointed to a professorship

at the University of Cambridge.

Their diversity poster boy who resigned over allegations of plagiarism

in his PhD thesis,

fabricated career achievements and false personal narratives.

I mean seriously how did we get here?

We had the likes of James O'Brien on LBC,

LBC lovey who couldn't wait to rub the DEI flag in our faces

lording this man in his full disclosure podcast.

He couldn't wait to get his chops into what an achievement this was.

I have no obsession with titles.

On my bank cards I've not even changed, I'm still mister.

So it's not even necessarily aligned with titles

it's I don't know why I just remember thinking

I wanted to do one and he burst out laughing

and he and I was like what are you laughing at?

What's so ridiculous?

And when he composed himself and he'd kind of become

more sober and he thought he said

you know what would be more ridiculous than you being at uni now?

You getting a PhD within 11 years of learning to read and write.

So he got it in a way.

When questions started mounting about the backstory and credentials

it was dismissed as a vile campaign to undermine his credibility and racism.

Eventually the University launched a campaign after insurmountable evidence emerged.

Initially three of his colleagues signed a petition organized by the Good Law Project,

a left-wing organization, claiming racism and that it was all a smear campaign against the professor.

However as more evidence emerged

one of the colleagues names who set up the petition mysteriously disappeared from it.

Alongside the professor's plagiarism allegations the Telegraph reported that

the RTA claimed that he had raised 5.5 million pounds for over 70 charities

mainly through distance running.

He claimed to have run over 30 marathons in 35 days,

nine of those with a broken leg.

Wow, really?

I'd have been asking questions just at that but

oh no they let it go.

When challenged he claimed that he didn't do it alone sadly.

So far no evidence to date has actually emerged

to validate that he did it at all.

The professor claimed to have carried out charity work for WaterAid,

installing clean water facilities in South America and Africa.

WaterAid however were adamant that they never send volunteers abroad.

His biography stated Jason Arday is an assistant professor

in sociology at Durham University in the Department of Sociology,

a visiting research fellow at The Ohio State University

in the Office of Diversity and Inclusion,

a research associate at Nelson Mandela University

in the Center for Critical Studies in Higher Education Transformation.

Sadly,

universities in Ohio,

Glasgow and South Africa denied his claims as a visiting professor.

The list goes on.

Too much to cover in my niggle.

How on earth did he get this far?

It's easy for me to tell you the answer to that,

of course, and to tell you it's straight because I've lived it.

The years I spent trying to get a TV gig

whilst watching what I believed to be far less talented people

of colour on the screen.

In my view, the lack of scrutiny was simply because he is black.

D.E.I. gone mad.

And that is why Charlie Kirk talked about being worried

if a plane was piloted by someone of colour,

not because he was a racist, far from it.

He simply realised the damage that D.E.I. does.

It undermines real talent and replaces meritocracy with mediocrity.

I just want to play you this.

What's your takeaway here?

Because mine is very, very personal.

I can't separate the personal from the public.

I feel like a mug,

actually.

James O'Brien, LBC.

Hilarious.