Thanks for reading, and special thanks as ever to paid supporters of the Gadfly. I'm going to take a short summer break from the madness and lose myself in a few books. Some of that reading will doubtless find its way into my next essay in a couple of weeks from now.
"Suppose you were a black professor at a prestigious university, someone of genuine intellectual distinction who earned every inch of your career through talent and relentless work. Yet you can’t quite shake the feeling – is it paranoia? – that some students, peers and members of the public think you obtained your position, at least in part, because of the colour of your skin rather than the breadth of your knowledge and the power of your intellect."
This is indeed one of the consequences of identity politics. I have been experiencing it first-hand, as a woman in STEM. I am proud of my research accomplishments, but if I ask myself "Anna, would you get the same bag of accolades is you were a man" -- the answer is "no." This poisons my accomplishments.
When we see a slew of unqualified women elevated by the DEI initiatives -- this does not provide an inspiration to younger generation -- instead it taints the accomplishments of qualified women and reinforces the stereotypes that women cannot advance without social engineering.
This is what's on everyone's mind when they see an accomplished female in science -- that she got there, at least in part, by means of social engineering. This is the price of DEI.
Agreed Anna. I had a major career setback when my husband got a promotion that involved an international move. When I eventually got a lecturing job in the new country I had to accept a lecturer position, where I had previously been a senior lecturer. When the vacancy finally came up for the senior role I saw a black female lecturer with much less experience, fewer publications, and fewer qualifications get the job I had waited years for. Not because she was the best person for the job. Because the university wanted to employ her black husband in a newly created senior role and he insisted that he wasn't going to accept it unless she got a senior lecturer job too. He was qualified for his role. She wasn't.
“As the researcher, textual units concerning the narratives and biographies were identified based on the criteria that the identified themes were fit for purpose in supporting the themes associated with the study.”
Translation: I only looked for and included references that support my foregone conclusion.
Another negative consequence is that a potentially good professor lost the job Arday was handed. He was given it not based on merit but on account of politics. That usurped teacher is jobless while Arday and countless others like him have taken over. And it's, of course, bad for the students themselves, who are misled down the path of neo-Marxism instead of legitimate intellectual pursuit.
It reminds me of another black PhD student I knew, also from Africa, whose dissertation was absolutely awful. She asked me to proofread it. It was gibberish, though I suppose that was at least proof that she wrote it herself. And she was at times insane and aggressive, constantly getting into crazy dramas, including screaming matches and accusations. She was heavily into black politics. We had an off-and-on friendship. I think she must have been bipolar. What was fascinating to me was that she had scholarships, awards, and appointments, but clearly not due to merit. If she were white, she would never have gotten a MA, much less been admitted to a PhD program. We both got our doctorates at roughly the same time. She teaches at a university while I do not, largely because I am a white male conservative and I couldn't be bothered with a system that was so obviously askew. I have nothing against her personally, but it's crazy that poor teachers are hired and good ones are not. It's sad for the students, who deserve better.
The support of this fraud, largely just to promote a black man at Cambridge, is also just creating many more stereotypes that actual talented black academics will have to pay the price for (which you pointed out). It never ceases to amaze me how the overall DEI movement, is just full of not very talented and intelligent people.
Cases like this just proves how ridiculous this racism is; and it is racism. They are not promoting and defending this man because of the incredible work he has done for sociology (which I don't think anything meaningful or constructive could ever come out of sociology), but only because of the color of his skin.
See the banishment of "blind" auditions for orchestras so that now the color and gender of the hands holding the instrument are more important than the quality of the music
I can imagine a darkly comic thriller in which the rest of the faculty tries to preserve a school’s reputation by getting rid of a DEI con artist, but they’re otherwise good soldiers of woke so they don’t want to seem racist about it.
They prefer to preserve the school's reputation by screaming ad hominems about those who point out the fraud. That wouldn't make for a good movie though, because it's so overdone already.
Hollywood did some mocking of political correctness in the 1990s. With a little courage they could do it again. But it might more likely be a streamer, an upstart, or an indie effort, maybe using AI.
“As the researcher, textual units concerning the narratives and biographies were identified based on the criteria that the identified themes were fit for purpose in supporting the themes associated with the study.”
This is called 'word salad', a technique illustrated here in the U.S. by Kamala Harris.
The real crime here is not the plagiarism, but rather the insane nonsense in his PhD thesis and others like it, and the fact that Cambridge and other universities accept it as scholarly work.
Thanks for reading, and special thanks as ever to paid supporters of the Gadfly. I'm going to take a short summer break from the madness and lose myself in a few books. Some of that reading will doubtless find its way into my next essay in a couple of weeks from now.
"Suppose you were a black professor at a prestigious university, someone of genuine intellectual distinction who earned every inch of your career through talent and relentless work. Yet you can’t quite shake the feeling – is it paranoia? – that some students, peers and members of the public think you obtained your position, at least in part, because of the colour of your skin rather than the breadth of your knowledge and the power of your intellect."
This is indeed one of the consequences of identity politics. I have been experiencing it first-hand, as a woman in STEM. I am proud of my research accomplishments, but if I ask myself "Anna, would you get the same bag of accolades is you were a man" -- the answer is "no." This poisons my accomplishments.
When we see a slew of unqualified women elevated by the DEI initiatives -- this does not provide an inspiration to younger generation -- instead it taints the accomplishments of qualified women and reinforces the stereotypes that women cannot advance without social engineering.
This is what's on everyone's mind when they see an accomplished female in science -- that she got there, at least in part, by means of social engineering. This is the price of DEI.
Agreed Anna. I had a major career setback when my husband got a promotion that involved an international move. When I eventually got a lecturing job in the new country I had to accept a lecturer position, where I had previously been a senior lecturer. When the vacancy finally came up for the senior role I saw a black female lecturer with much less experience, fewer publications, and fewer qualifications get the job I had waited years for. Not because she was the best person for the job. Because the university wanted to employ her black husband in a newly created senior role and he insisted that he wasn't going to accept it unless she got a senior lecturer job too. He was qualified for his role. She wasn't.
His demand to hire his unworthy wife should have disqualified him.
This is typical university politics.
“As the researcher, textual units concerning the narratives and biographies were identified based on the criteria that the identified themes were fit for purpose in supporting the themes associated with the study.”
Translation: I only looked for and included references that support my foregone conclusion.
Another negative consequence is that a potentially good professor lost the job Arday was handed. He was given it not based on merit but on account of politics. That usurped teacher is jobless while Arday and countless others like him have taken over. And it's, of course, bad for the students themselves, who are misled down the path of neo-Marxism instead of legitimate intellectual pursuit.
It reminds me of another black PhD student I knew, also from Africa, whose dissertation was absolutely awful. She asked me to proofread it. It was gibberish, though I suppose that was at least proof that she wrote it herself. And she was at times insane and aggressive, constantly getting into crazy dramas, including screaming matches and accusations. She was heavily into black politics. We had an off-and-on friendship. I think she must have been bipolar. What was fascinating to me was that she had scholarships, awards, and appointments, but clearly not due to merit. If she were white, she would never have gotten a MA, much less been admitted to a PhD program. We both got our doctorates at roughly the same time. She teaches at a university while I do not, largely because I am a white male conservative and I couldn't be bothered with a system that was so obviously askew. I have nothing against her personally, but it's crazy that poor teachers are hired and good ones are not. It's sad for the students, who deserve better.
"It's sad for the students, who deserve better." It's sad for society too, although perhaps it's getting what it deserves.
It's another Emperor’s New Clothes story, isn't it? The Left is full of them. Lets hope that people are beginning to wake up.
Call me a cynic but I don't think they are.
The support of this fraud, largely just to promote a black man at Cambridge, is also just creating many more stereotypes that actual talented black academics will have to pay the price for (which you pointed out). It never ceases to amaze me how the overall DEI movement, is just full of not very talented and intelligent people.
Cases like this just proves how ridiculous this racism is; and it is racism. They are not promoting and defending this man because of the incredible work he has done for sociology (which I don't think anything meaningful or constructive could ever come out of sociology), but only because of the color of his skin.
See the banishment of "blind" auditions for orchestras so that now the color and gender of the hands holding the instrument are more important than the quality of the music
Chick-Fil-A does a better job screening new hires.
I can imagine a darkly comic thriller in which the rest of the faculty tries to preserve a school’s reputation by getting rid of a DEI con artist, but they’re otherwise good soldiers of woke so they don’t want to seem racist about it.
They prefer to preserve the school's reputation by screaming ad hominems about those who point out the fraud. That wouldn't make for a good movie though, because it's so overdone already.
I’m imagining something fictionalized in a comic way that hasn’t been done AFAIK.
it will have to be produced outside of Hollywood naturally
Hollywood did some mocking of political correctness in the 1990s. With a little courage they could do it again. But it might more likely be a streamer, an upstart, or an indie effort, maybe using AI.
Excellent article. Thank goodness people are standing up to this nonsense.
He looks like an AI simulacrum and I imagine if you dig into his backstory that will become apparent
I suspect it was his claim to have given birth to triplets, whilst holidaying on Mars, that finally did for him
The 15,000 people signing that supporting letter? I have it on good authority that at least one is named Karl Marx.
He is a fraud, a bad fraud.
Cambridge University has covered itself in disgrace and humiliation.
And DEI is toxic, period.
“As the researcher, textual units concerning the narratives and biographies were identified based on the criteria that the identified themes were fit for purpose in supporting the themes associated with the study.”
This is called 'word salad', a technique illustrated here in the U.S. by Kamala Harris.
Oh, and who else I wonder has been accused of this?
The real crime here is not the plagiarism, but rather the insane nonsense in his PhD thesis and others like it, and the fact that Cambridge and other universities accept it as scholarly work.
San Francisco elected a DEI mayor just before pandemic. What could go wrong?