Friday briefing: What the Jason Arday row reveals about equality in modern Britain
Good morning. Instinct told me we should avoid this story. Europe is on fire, Gaza is besieged and Donald Trump remains in control of the world’s largest nuclear arsenal. Allegations against British sociologist Jason Arday of CV-zhuzhing and plagiarism in his PhD thesis (“An exploration of peer-mentoring among student teachers’ to inform reflective practice within the context of action research”) felt rather parochial by comparison. Then there’s the context: 41-year-old Arday was a Black Cambridge professor. It’s hard to believe pure academic rigour motivated his initial accusers or those now engaging in vitriolic DEI-bashing. Others rushed to defend Arday – a well-rehearsed reaction learned from a cycle of bad-faith, culture-war attacks. Many of us simply aren’t sure what to say. And yet … Arday’s case has proved inescapable this week; the fallout now prompting a far-reaching debate about academia, hiring practices, inequity and structural racism; the standards and expectations of Black people in public life. Today, we explore all this, with the help of Guardian columnist and the Long Wave writer Nesrine Malik. That’s after the headlines. Five big stories US news | A federal judge has temporarily halted an order requiring Donald Trump to turn over detailed financial information about his business empire to the BBC as part of an ongoing libel lawsuit. UK politics | The government is “urgently” identifying any grooming gang perpetrators who may still be eligible for early prison release after concerns were raised about a potential loophole in the system. Gaza | Donald Trump’s Board of Peace, which was set up in January to oversee the reconstruction of Gaza, has finally issued its first construction contract: a project to build a military outpost. Heatwave | Temperature records have been broken in several countries across central and eastern Europe as the extreme weather that has caused wildfires and droughts across the continent continues. Science | Scientists have made the first viruses designed by artificial intelligence in a milestone that raises hopes for new medicines but also concerns over how to ensure the technology remains safe. In depth: ‘Why would I lie?’ In First Edition this week, I’ve written about Nigel Farage and Gianni Infantino’s latest scandals. During my reporting, I was struck by the extent of their previous indiscretions, while both have managed to maintain and grow their positions of power. Arday has already resigned. It was only last week that the Telegraph suggested more than 100 passages of his PhD thesis closely resembled the work of another student. That story didn’t appear in isolation. Two academics in particular had been complaining about Arday, Nathan Cofnas and David Harris, both of whom had previously expressed what politely may be called “controversial” views on race. Arday rejected plagiarism claims. An investigation by Liverpool John Moores University, where he completed his doctoral research, did not uphold complaints against him. Cambridge University had previously defended Arday, labelling complaints a “vile smear campaign to undermine his credibility”. Then on Saturday, the Guardian’s Lanre Bakare published a story detailing further claims. Senior academics told Lanre the plagiarism allegations held. “I think it’s plagiarism and it’s obvious,” one said. “There is, in my judgment, a case to answer here,” said another. Lanre’s reporting also looked at other statements Arday has made about his life and career. Arday claimed to have completed 30 marathons in 35 days, to have run 600 miles in six days, and to have raised £5m (sometimes more) for charity, accomplishments he altered on questioning. Arday told the Guardian he had been the target of a series of violent threats: a severed pig’s head sent to his family home; twice he was confronted by an intruder on Cambridge University property, the second time with a knife. Despite extensive investigation – including interviewing the butcher said porcine noggin supposedly came from – the Guardian was unable to find evidence to support these claims. When asked about this, Arday stood by his story. “To be honest with you, I thought you’d just believe me,” he said. “Why would I lie?” On Wednesday, Cambridge University announced it was opening an investigation into Arday. Last night, senior dons at Cambridge demanded an inquiry be held. “I am accountable for the mistakes I’ve made,” Arday said in an interview, adding, “the positioning of me as this kind of liar and fantasist is totally unacceptable”. Lanre spoke to Arday on the phone regularly, and they met twice in person, once at Arday’s flat. “He’s clearly a very intelligent guy,” Lanre tells me, “and seemed very affected by what’s gone on, under a lot of pressure.” Arday was emotional on their first meeting. Lanre thought this was a result of the strain criticism had put on him. “Now I look back and think maybe it was because he knew all sorts was going to come out.” Arday’s memoir, Great and Unfortunate Things, is due to be published this month. It details a remarkable story: raised in a south London council house and diagnosed with autism and global developmental delay, Arday has spoken of only learning to talk at 11, and to read at 18. Aged 37, he became Cambridge University’s youngest ever Black professor. As his publisher says of the upcoming book: “Along the way there were improbable triumphs and heartbreaking setbacks … and more than one occasion when everything seemed poised to fall apart.” *** Tokenism? Nesrine has been closely following this story. “There are so many aspects that one can pick as the defining theme,” she tells me. “DEI and its flaws and weaponisation; expectations – high or low – of Black people in elite society; the resonant and evocative plotline of an alleged fantasist in high academia.” The breadth and complexity of the case makes it challenging to unpick, especially for Black people who live and work within media, academia or politics, and to whom the job of parsing the story falls: “these bourgeois, white-collar spaces that are gatekept by white people” as Nesrine puts it. “It’s difficult,” Nesrine says, “not to feel this is about all of us – and discomfort arises. First, the sense that perhaps you are also perceived as someone who has embellished their capabilities and is being indulged by white people who want a Black face in a certain space.” And secondly, “a more subtle, gnarlier feeling: is there a way in which one has been indulged, held to different standards to white peers, in this post-Black Lives Matter eagerness on the part of liberals to accessorise and to tokenise with Black people?” *** Post-BLM “It was clear at the time when Black Lives Matter (BLM) grew in 2020, that it would be turned into a movement of meaningful, but not material, symbolism,” says Nesrine. As expected, “institutions, primarily staffed and led by white people, did then look for ways to give themselves a break by doing the high-visibility, low impact bare minimum”. Cambridge only had five Black professors when Arday was hired. It’s a conversation that’s long overdue, at least in part due to fears that it’ll be co-opted by the right, Nesrine believes, else progressives will fall “into the trap of dismissing the fundamental value of DEI, representation and visibility”. When in fact, much of what has been constructed in the wake of BLM is “corporate, capitalist, board-led … not the sum of what these big, roaring movements for racial justice have been asking for.” In essence, this is a white version of DEI, where it is possible unqualified people may have been elevated in order to appear acceptable in the face of calls for racial justice. Nesrine says that it would be negligent not to consider that Arday’s rise, and rapid fall, is a consequence of these institutional responses. Yes, any academic could be proved a cheat or a liar; many have. “But having thoroughly interrogated it, it appears that so much was allowed to pass, both in terms of alleged plagiarism and sloppiness, because the reward was having a Black person from such a completely different background burnish the institution’s credentials.” *** The gatekeepers That doesn’t mean we should dismiss the potential of lofty institutions to tackle racial inequality and injustice, Nesrine adds. It’s about calibration. “Racial justice must be a coordinated effort that cascades down across the classes. Yes, in the boardroom and the academy and the corporate world; yes in prisons and in the Home Office and in policing.” This, says Nesrine, is where whatever we wish to call those who preside over these environments – the progressive left, liberal institutions, the political establishment – have “colossally failed to take the demands and energy of these racial justice movements seriously, or convert them into anything meaningful”. Instead, they wanted symbols and gestures and easy fixes. “Not to figure out what to do about poverty, social mobility, safety. The difficult, practical things.” At this moment, Nesrine says, to focus exclusively on Arday is negligent: “Really, it’s a story about the white liberals, and the world they create in which Black people thrive or not.” Expectations and standards for Black people, Nesrine continues, change quickly and dramatically, and often collide. “In certain instances the feeling is that one has to be extremely high-achieving and rigorous and do 10 times better than your average white counterpart to be let in,” she says, “In others, it appears that a really good backstory can be retold for institutional plaudits”. “This white liberal marketplace creates models of achievement for Black people to try to adhere to. That’s the way in. And the positions are so few, and the reward so high.” Nesrine is clear – this isn’t about agreeing with or justifying Arday’s actions. “I’m just saying that, as far as Black minorities are concerned, none of this happens on their own terms.” What else we’ve been enjoying I loved reading about this incredibly noisy creature, whose spectacular racket sounds like “a jet taking off” for our invertebrate of the year series. Poppy I’d not heard about Raz Segal’s case until I read Alice Speri’s reporting: the Israeli professor had a job university offer withdrawn after labelling Israel’s actions in Gaza “a textbook case of genocide”. Michael Our profile of Alessia Russo gave me the hugest sense of joy. Talking about how her love for the team has grown and what it was like for her to take part in the Arsenal parade. Poppy I scored embarrassingly poorly on this fun, modern dating terms quiz, but at least I learned something about the perils of being Shrekked. Michael I thought Zoe Williams was very good, on the dilemma of how to process someones’ death – and how to honour their character in the aftermath, and how it applies to Rod Liddle. Poppy Sport Cycling | Marlen Reusser retained the overall lead in the Tour de France Femmes from rival Demi Vollering after another broiling stage through central France saw Kim Le Court take the second Tour stage win of her career in Tournon-sur-Rhone. Football | Uefa has doubled down on its threat to boycott Fifa-run competitions and reiterated its loss of confidence in Gianni Infantino’s presidency. Athletics | London has submitted its bid for the 2029 World Athletics Championships after reaching an agreement with West Ham to allow it to host the event in September. Something for the weekend Our critics’ roundup of the best things to watch, read, play and listen to right now TV The Shards | ★★★★★ It looks as though uber-showrunner Ryan Murphy has pulled out of his dive and is beginning to find his glorious groove again. The Shards, Murphy’s adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis’s metafictional/autobiographical novel of the same name, is a marriage made in pop-culture heaven. It is the 80s, it is Los Angeles and so, as well as metaphors for the coming Aids epidemic, there is a literal killer at work. Young women get heavy-breather phone calls, go missing and then turn up horribly mutilated and deeply dead. By the time the third victim is found, the serial killer has been nicknamed the Trawler and bloody pentagrams are appearing on doors and in homes, leading to the city living in fear. The serial killer storyline pulls the story along, but its heart is in the longing for an era gone by, for youth flown, even with all its sorrows and insecurities. Lucy Mangan Music Ravyn Lenae: Blue Island | ★★★★☆ The first thing you hear on Blue Island is another earworm pop chorus, followed by a squeal of feedback and a distorted electric guitar arpeggio that feels faintly grungy. Lenae’s list of inspirations for the album features not just Santigold and Janet Jackson but Blondie, the Cranberries, the Sundays and, most surprisingly, Martin Rev. And there’s palpable glee in the album’s sudden stylistic shifts. The 90s R&B-infused Never Let Me Go and Babygirl rub up against In & Out’s sparkly alt-rock; Potential proceeds along prettily enough in pop-ballad form before it unexpectedly erupts into a squall of guitar noise and a ferocious, juddering rhythm that sounds remarkably like Squarepusher or Aphex Twin. Blue Island isn’t as jarring as that suggests, partly because of the unifying power of Lenae’s voice – a lovely, breathy soprano – but largely because the writing is buffed to a state of pop perfection. Its collage of styles makes for an original, idiosyncratic pop album. Alexis Petridis Film Hunt for the Wilderpeople | ★★★★☆ The recent sad loss of Sam Neill is a great opportunity to revisit one of his greatest roles, in this tremendous family film from 2016, a goofy mix of Butch and Sundance and Chaplin’s The Kid. Neill plays Hector, a grouchy old buzzard who works on a farm on New Zealand’s North Island. The property is owned by his big-hearted wife Bella (Rima Te Wiata) who works as a foster parent, regularly taking in troubled kids. Glum, taciturn Hector is not best pleased when Bella takes in Ricky, the toughest and most recalcitrant teen the state authorities have ever dealt with. But then an awful fate intervenes and Hector and Ricky go on the run together in the jungle, being tracked by the pitiless forces of the state who want to put the boy into “juvie”. Neill gives a lovely, gentle and wise performance. Peter Bradshaw Game Big Walk (Switch 2, PS5, PC) | ★★★★☆ A brilliant and whimsical new online co-op puzzler from House House, the Melbourne-based studio behind the 2019 viral hit, Untitled Goose Game. You are a bug-eyed, gangly limbed kind of bird person, and you and up to 12 players step out into a somewhat eerily photorealistic open world to uncover its mysteries. Quickly, you come across challenges which veer from the straightforward to the brain-scrambling. The beauty of Big Walk lies in how it tasks you with working together, conversing verbally and physically, to access its most enchanting sights. Big Walk eschews the pernicious aspects of digital life for a gentler, less overbearing experience that seems expressly designed to foster enriching connections and childlike playfulness. Lewis Gordon The front pages “Cambridge ‘unleashed grotesque racism’ with Arday appointment”, is the Guardian’s front page. The Times writes “Fraud alert over loans to foreign students”, the Telegraph has “Tories to end social housing for foreigners”, and the Mail says “Foreign nationals face social housing ban under Tories”. Elsewhere, the FT splashes “EasyJet accepts £5.7bn Apollo offer in latest foreign swoop”. The Express writes “We are failing sex gang victims once again”. The Mirror has “Andrew: My ‘stalker ordeal’”, while the i Paper says “Every river and lake in England polluted with toxic chemicals”. Lastly, Metro leads on “Sitting room only at pubs?” The Latest Why has Kemi Badenoch given a former neo-Nazi an advisory role? Joshua Bonehill-Paine, a former neo-Nazi activist, has been offered a role as an adviser to the Conservative party by Kemi Badenoch after he withdrew as a Tory candidate for next year’s local elections. The role will reportedly be focused on how young men become radicalised. Bonehill-Paine was convicted of harassing a Jewish MP and has previously described himself as a ‘nationalist, fascist, theorist and supporter of white rights’. He says he has carried out counter-extremism work since he was released from prison. Lucy Hough speaks to the Guardian political correspondent Ben Quinn. Cartoon of the day | Rebecca Hendin The Upside A bit of good news to remind you that the world’s not all bad Bogotá, Colombia is a city celebrated as a cycling success-story – nearly 900,000 bicycle trips are made daily across the city of 10 million people. Yet women account for only 28% of those trips, a 2023 survey found – a statistic that city officials are looking to address as part of their bid to become carbon neutral by 2050. Schemes such as the Mamacitas en Bici, set up in 2018 by Eliana González, are encouraging and empowering mothers and caregivers to see cycling as a viable option. “I realised how important it is to have safe spaces where we can move through the world as women, in a body that is treated differently by society and subjected to violence,” she says. Sign up here for a weekly roundup of The Upside, sent to you every Sunday Bored at work? And finally, the Guardian’s puzzles are here to keep you entertained throughout the day. Until tomorrow. Quick crossword Cryptic crossword Wordiply
