White academics who abuse their position of power have long been protected (Photo: WikipediaCommons)
Jason Arday was hounded to death. The right wing media that played a part in the racist witch-hunt now cry crocodile tears while trying to blame the tragedy on the equality and diversity policies which they say are behind his appointment.
For example, failed Reform UK MP-candidate for Gorton and Denton, Matt Goodwin, said on Saturday morning, “White people are not to blame for Jason Arday’s death. Right wing people are not to blame for. The media is not to blame.
“What started this is a Diversity, Equality and Inclusion regime that put somebody in a role he was not qualified to fulfil—and did so simply because of his race.”
But racism, not diversity, is to blame for Arday’s death.
Anyone who doubts the profoundly racist nature of this witch-hunt should consider how many white academics have got away with far worse behaviour than anything Jason was ever accused of.
White academics have sexually harassed their students, abusing their position of power, but faced no media scrutiny and few professional consequences.
Last month, the provost at King’s College, Cambridge, Gillian Tett, said sexual misconduct has been “normalised” at Oxford and Cambridge. Tett was responding to two cases.
Professor Herbert Huppert, an emeritus professor of geophysics, was eventually excluded from the college, but only after a series of complaints over many years.
Women students accused the professor of inappropriate touching and sexualised language, but he was allowed to continue his harassment of female students and staff.
In April, Professor Simon Goldhill, also at King’s College, Cambridge, was allowed to “step away” from teaching after an inquiry upheld several complaints of sexual misconduct against him. Goldhill admitted kissing a female student in a way that was “over-exuberant” and “no doubt slobbery”.
In February, Oxford University was slammed for requesting anonymity in a case involving harassment allegations against a senior professor in order to “protect its reputation”. The professor was accused of inappropriate behaviour with a female colleague who came to him for help after being raped by another colleague. He later resigned.
Last November, a report by the Bloomberg news website found Oxford University has consistently mishandled sexual complaints against senior academics. The report found that seven women had reported rapes or sexual assaults over the past five years.
Everyone who has been through higher education knows the professors who abuse their positions to sexually harass women.
They know how institutions like Oxford and Cambridge rush to protect their reputations rather than protecting women or members of staff who, like Arday, do not come from the establishment.
Not one of these professors, or the hundreds of others found to have harassed women, found themselves pilloried in the tabloids in the way that Arday was.
One black academic said, after Arday’s resignation, “When a white person makes mistakes, it’s just a story about them as an individual.
“When a black person makes a mistake, it’s treated as collective—and used to undermine the very principle that black people should be in these spaces.”
Just 1 percent of professors in British universities are black. Alongside Arday, several others have been driven out of their jobs including Kehinde Andrews. He was made redundant this year when the course he ran at Birmingham City University was shut down.
Jason taught at Jesus College, Cambridge. Every time he went into work, he passed a memorial to a slave-owner, Tobias Rustat. A Church court refused to move the prominent statue when asked by the college four years ago.
The slave-owners of the past are granted far greater protection and respect than black academics of today.
Monday 17 August 6.30pm, Market Square, Cambridge, CB1 0SS
Monday 17 August, 6pm, Trafalgar Square, London, WC2N 5DS
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