Jason Arday’s family speaks out after British professor’s death
(https://www.cnn.com/2026/08/16/world/video/jason-arday-larry-madowo-intldsk)
What we are seeing are the secret practices of academia revealed to people who believe that these are virtuous institutions. Many would focus on the pawn — in this case, Arday — and not the kingpins moving the pawns around, ever ready to sacrifice them when necessary. This tragic situation is not about plagiarism but bullying. The academic bullies were gleefully joined by media for whom the case was used as a pretext to question the legitimacy of DEI and valorize a meritocracy that firmly supports white dominance.
Beyond this, it’s dismaying that the academy is not a welcoming and friendly, respectful space for Black people. One is expected to constantly validate being deserving of status, advantages and opportunities that white colleagues are assumed to deserve. There are also ways in which those who have power within the system can act with impunity without suffering adverse consequences.
From what the media tells us, Arday has serious problems. The matter should be seriously investigated and he should face the consequences. But in my over 30 years in academia, I know that he’s not alone. People who do what he’s doing are from all races and classes. The institutions towards which they direct their wàyó (duplicitous) love to reward shady folks with fantabulous tales over and above hardworking people.
A Pattern Beyond One Case
The west also has a way of choosing one person from marginalized communities that they give extraordinary attention and praise as well as material resources that are denied more deserving people from the same community. When it blows up in their faces, they throw that person under the bus without accepting that their patron-client system produces such suboptimal outcomes.
It’s sad because we still live in a world where there’re disparately stark differences in response to the same problem, determined by race, class, etc. Frankly, the world we live in leaves the kingpins of criminality to thrive while small-time villains are persecuted, hounded & relentlessly attacked. Also, the academy can be a brutal space for marginalized minorities. There is objective evidence that the powerful get away with grave abuses, infractions, and rule-breaking but, like other instances of structural violence, it’s almost impossible to punish them or correct the problems in any meaningful way.
Race Within the System
Let’s also not be naive and think that this racist, white dominant academic system treats everyone equally. In my experience only Asians tend to get treated better than Black people because of the ideal minority category that’s applied to them, leading to the assumption that they are ab initio smarter than Black and Brown people. This also has its own contradictions and problems, but I do not have the bandwidth to address them now.
This is not to say that the assaults on progressives and leftists in higher education is not vicious, or that the brutality isn’t more destructive towards Black and nonwhite scholars.
The Fight Ahead
Given the cataclysmic effects of the attacks, silence is not an option. However, the response must be well-conceived, coordinated by coalitions that tend to fight destructive battles against one another, and tenacious. There’s also need to remember that there are historical antecedents and contemporary structures that produced and validate these attacks. They’re the real targets that must be delegitimized, dismantled and replaced with genuinely democratic solutions. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/aug/06/jason-arday-dei-race-issues-university-of-cambridge
The fight that needs to happen is twofold:
1. Fight the racist, white dominant system that produces these results.
2. Support hardworking, honest faculty of color who are still facing harsh discrimination.
Frankly, there’s a culture of hazing in academia. I experienced it from scholars who were supposed to be mentors. Arday was bullied both at Cambridge and by racists in the British media. It’s also been pointed out that Arday’s white colleagues charged with plagiarizing were treated differently, and many are still in their positions at the university.
As for me, I empathize. I find this case troubling because it is systemic. My own trials, tribulations, and travails in academia (which are not exactly the same as Arday’s, but are racist nonetheless), began with my graduate studies at Columbia University and continue to date. The academy was neither created for us nonwhite people, nor is it ready to include us as equals. I’ve never accepted the limitations and am of the opinion that people need not love me. However, they must respect me. I’m not interested in validation from institutions and persons who have power within them, but I do my work with excellence and support others to give them the benefit of my experience, even though I never got such support.
Black scholars being traumatized in academic spaces, unfortunately, is par for the course. If you speak with Black scholars, you find that the majority have been subjected to what amounts to a hazing ritual.
Arday was a Black man who rose faster and higher than white people expect or accept as appropriate for a Black person. White people tend to look for every opportunity to prove that such a rise is not deserved, and when they find any problem, they viciously go after the person, intent on disgracing them, delegitimizing them, vilifying them and taking them down.
I’m glad that Dr. Kehinde Andrews (https://www.youtube.com/shorts/vVNwaDplF7w) and Bell Ribeiro-Addy, the British Labour Party politician Member of Parliament (MP) for Clapham and Brixton Hill, (https://www.linkedin.com/posts/bell-ribeiro-addy-87341a42_jasonarday-ugcPost-7494521319066292224-YGCc/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop&rcm=ACoAAAEuvNIBKTauMIUBHo9RDLAUp06QgKS8oR0) stood by him even after death. I’m also wondering about Dr. Kehinde Andrews, who said that he had been fired. Why? I’ll let the news reports below tell that story.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwy2d6eg050o
Finally,
Racism is abominable. This tragic case should be used as an opportunity for deep reflection within the academy, with an intent to at the very least reform, and at best transform it into radically inclusive and respectful communities of learning.
Mojúbàolú Olufúnké Okome
Professor of Political Science, African & Women’s Studies
Leonard & Claire Tow Professor, 2015/2016
Brooklyn College, CUNY
The views expressed by contributors are strictly personal and not of Law & Society Magazine.
