Jason Arday and the human cost of workplace and public racism

I WAS going to start this by saying I couldn’t believe what has happened to Cambridge University Professor Jason Arday, but sadly, I can, and so can many black people who have held senior positions in an organisation or found themselves in the public eye.

I’m not speaking for all black people in that position but from my own experience and in the light of the tragic passing of Cambridge University academic Jason Arday.

I never met Arday but want to convey my heartfelt condolences to the partners and two small children that he has left behind since taking the decision to take his own life. It is hard to imagine the grief they are experiencing.

What often gets left out of the discussion, or sometimes vitriol, about racist attacks or harassment is the real impact that it has on the person on the receiving end.

It erodes you on the inside over time. No matter how much you try to show a brave face, lift your head and straighten your back to the outside world and even your own family. It eats away at you on the inside in a way that can cause irrecoverable damage.

I dare say this is what has happened to Arday. Having to justify your existence every day is no small feat. There are countless black people who will know exactly what Arday has gone through and fought with themselves over whether or not to take the same tragic step that he did.

Arday had been accused of plagiarism in his PhD. He denied the accusation andLiverpool John Moores University found against the complaint and upheld the award of his doctorate.

But these complaints never seem to go away if you are black.

The witch hunt against Arday just followed him around in a way that it rarely does for anyone else.

He then faced harassment over his charity fundraising, his running and over other details of his early life.

Anything that could be dug up, with any substance or not, was used to harass Arday.

I really have no idea about any of the accusations against Arday but I entirely understand how racism works and the pile on against him was just that - racist.

On the academic side, the fact is that accusations of plagiarism are not uncommon in academia. What is entirely unusual is the amount of attention paid by the corporate media to the allegations against Arday.

Using the word allegation is incorrect in this instance. It was nothing short of a public lynching of Arday.

Arday was simply held to a different standard than others at the University and across academia in a frenzy of racist jealousy.

In the very year that Arday was appointed at Cambridge, another professor was found to have plagiarised work but kept his job. I doubt few reading this would have even heard that such a thing took place.

In that case the University concluded that any “intellectual theft” was “the product of negligent acts but was not deliberate.”

One of the figures who pushed the accusations against Arday was Nathan Cofna, a former Cambridge academic and self-described “race realist.”

Cofnas once wrote: “In a meritocracy, Harvard faculty would be recruited from the best of the students, which means the number of black professors would approach 0 per cent.”

He added: “Blacks would disappear from almost all high profile positions outside of sports and entertainment.”

I’ve seen no evidence that Arday has been found guilty of plagiarism but those behind the campaign of vilification were not prepared to consider that there was any doubt.

I have no idea of the truth of what has occurred here. That will no doubt come to light over time.

But there is a pattern of the sort of hounding of senior or public eyed black people. If you don’t believe me, go and talk with Diane Abbott, the first black woman elected to parliament. Clearly one too many for some people.

Last year, in another example, a black fire chief, Wayne Brown, took his own life because he “couldn’t take it any more” after months of alleged harassment and questions over his qualifications, an inquest was told.

Brown was found dead at his flat in Birmingham by police in January 2025.

If I had enough time and space I could no doubt find and list many other examples of similar treatment.

In a personal example, I recall having to take out a formal complaint against a colleague who clearly thought he should have been appointed to a role I had got.

I was the first black person ever to hold the particular role in the long history of the particular organisation and like to think I was appointed because of the skills and expertise I had accumulated over many years.

My colleague took it upon himself to tell anyone prepared to listen that I had only been appointed because I was black.

The organisation investigated and gave the colleague a slap on the wrist and I was told by the senior manager investigating that “you didn’t expect us to do anything more than that did you?” My answer was of course I didn’t - because I most certainly did not expect them to take firm action.

That is the experience of many black people in the workplace. Our complaints about race related matters are often dealt with in a way that is designed to make the problem go away rather than dealing with the issue of racism at hand.

Unfortunately it was not the first or last time that a similar questioning of my skills and expertise has taken place. I also know from speaking with other black friends and colleagues that this is far from an uncommon experience.

With respect to Cambridge University, we do know that they have only ever appointed a very small handful of black professors.

In 2024, only 0.3 per cent of Cambridge professors identified as black. This is roughly 2-3 individuals out of 759 professors.

Some 1.4 per cent of all academic staff were black.

Arday was appointed as the youngest black professor at Cambridge (age 37) in 2023.

Later, in 2025, Dr. Ola Osman was appointed as an Assistant Professor (not a full Professor), becoming the youngest black lecturer in Cambridge’s history.

Being “first black” is, I can assure you, not a bed of roses.

Not only is there resentment from those who think you only got the job because of the colour of your skin but also an over the top expectation from some other black people as well as probably well meaning liberals,

You are often expected to bring about major changes to institutions that have developed structures and cultures designed over many years, and in the case of Cambridge, centuries, to resist change.

In many ways you just can’t win as a black person in public life. They say we should aspire to high office but as soon as you do you face unprecedented attacks that serve to warn anyone even dreaming of following you of what the likely consequences might be.

Only a more collective approach to rooting out racism that does not reduce someone at work to the colour of their skin but to their skills and expertise will do.

Racism is real. It is not a figment of our imagination as black people. Racism has consequences and sometimes means some of us believe we simply can’t face it any more. More of us have faced the same dilemma as Arday than many can ever imagine.

(This article first appeared in the Morning Star on August 20, 2026)