"In a piece in The Telegraph, Professor Alex Edmans said:
But the real scandal is not Jason Arday. It is an entire ecosystem that wanted Jason Arday to be true. His supervisors approved his thesis, journals published his work, and Cambridge appointed him as a professor.
This, to me, gets to the heart of the matter." And Edmans is the right person to make this point.
Edmans also makes the important point that insane appointment like Ardayh's take away opportunities from deserving candidates.
That BBC clip featuring Arday and Cremin is cringeworthy to the max. She should be kicked out for not having done her job.
That is another thing which dismays me. There may have been really good academics who were overlooked for that position. I think of how hard I worked to get where I am, and how I would feel were I overlooked for an appointment like this.
In fact, their attitude strikes me as profoundly racist and not in the least “progressive”. The subtext is, “Black and disabled people can’t manage it, let’s turn a blind eye to any flaws and let this guy in anyway, so we can look good.”
This is exactly the problem. The soft bigotry of low expectations....
Very much so.
"In a piece in The Telegraph, Professor Alex Edmans said:
But the real scandal is not Jason Arday. It is an entire ecosystem that wanted Jason Arday to be true. His supervisors approved his thesis, journals published his work, and Cambridge appointed him as a professor.
This, to me, gets to the heart of the matter." And Edmans is the right person to make this point.
Edmans also makes the important point that insane appointment like Ardayh's take away opportunities from deserving candidates.
That BBC clip featuring Arday and Cremin is cringeworthy to the max. She should be kicked out for not having done her job.
That is another thing which dismays me. There may have been really good academics who were overlooked for that position. I think of how hard I worked to get where I am, and how I would feel were I overlooked for an appointment like this.
You wrote:
In fact, their attitude strikes me as profoundly racist and not in the least “progressive”. The subtext is, “Black and disabled people can’t manage it, let’s turn a blind eye to any flaws and let this guy in anyway, so we can look good.”
This is exactly the problem. The soft bigotry of low expectations....
As I noted in more detail in this comment elsewhere on substack - https://substack.com/profile/13379579-francis-turner/note/c-296179748
Regarding your story about visiting the library. Good on you!
Your comment is spot on. This does a disservice to all concerned.
Great article.