DEI has claimed another life, this time at the hands of Cambridge University where their Golden Calf, former professor Jason Arday, is dead a little over a week after resigning.

In 2023, Arday became the youngest black professor at Cambridge University. An achievement Cambridge patted its own back on quite publicly and quite often. At the time of the announcement Professor Bhaskar Vira, pro-vice-chancellor of education at the university, proclaimed:

“He will contribute significantly to Cambridge’s research in this area and to addressing the under-representation of people from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds, especially those from Black, Asian and other minority ethnic communities … His experiences highlight the barriers faced by many under-represented groups across higher education and especially at leading universities …

Cambridge has a responsibility to do everything it can to address this by creating academic spaces where everyone feels they belong.”

That last line showed that Arday was now the university’s mascot. A venerated totem to the university’s embrace of Diversity-Equity-Inclusion, the ideology that equal outcome trumps meritocracy.

And melanin trumps truth.

For the normies at large, the story of the boy who could not speak until he was 11 and not read or write until he was 18, securing such a prestigious position sounded like a Horatio Alger’s story on steroids. The academic equivalent of meshing Richard Branson and Dwayne Johnson. Cambridge University would be able to dine on Professor Arday for decades.

Right up until Arday’s fantastic claims became too bizarre not to raise questions.

-Stealing significant portions of his 2015 PhD thesis from Paula Zwozdiak-Myers’s 2009 thesis (more than 100 passages).

-Multiple cases of verbatim copying or light paraphrasing in published papers that caused academic journals to issue corrections and updates.

-Claiming to have raised millions of British pounds for charity.

-Falsely claiming to have worked at the University of Glasgow and THE Ohio State University.

-Claiming to have run 600 miles in six days.

-Falsely claiming he had published a book called “Being Young, Black and Male: Challenging the Dominant Discourse.”

-Using a Brooklyn ghostwriter for his memoir, which was published in August.

-Using AI to write his resignation letter after Cambridge announced an investigation.

That last was particularly ironic after Cambridge’s rush to defend Arday’s fabulism by attacking everyone who noticed … even calling out the cops on a reporter.

British cops tell reporter to stop asking Cambridge prof about plagiarism accusations because it was hurting his mental healthhttps://t.co/uX57YZmDGZ

— Not the Bee (@Not_the_Bee) August 5, 2026

And it wasn’t like problems with Arday outside and inside the classroom weren’t known.

BREAKING: Students who complained about Professor Jason Arday, the quality of his teaching and unwillingness to meet with them were falsely accused of racism and given lower grades than he predicted for their coursework (via @Telegraph) https://t.co/1Lt3sYtIhG

— Joe Rich (@joerichlaw) August 7, 2026

Students who were running up a lifetime of debt for the privilege of a Cambridge education began complaining that he was failing to carry out even the most basic supervision of their work, but they too were ignored – or worse.

One former MA student told The Telegraph: “Apart from one meeting throughout my whole course, he made a number of excuses not to meet with me or provide any substantive feedback on my work. As a supervisor, he was terrible. (snip)

Another of Mr Arday’s students was so dissatisfied with his supervision that they asked to change supervisor. For their trouble, they were accused of racism (though there is no suggestion the accusation came from Mr Arday) but stuck to their guns and were given a new supervisor.

When the little boy pointed out the emperor was naked, the crowd didn’t turn to beat him to death. But to notice when a fraudster is committing fraud-while-black is to be accused of killing him.

I'm devastated for the family and friends of Jason Arday.

He faced an unacceptable public hounding and campaign of abuse. I know many Londoners will be angry and upset this evening.

Jason Arday was the victim of a pernicious public shaming that other people in his position…

— Sadiq Khan (@SadiqKhan) August 14, 2026

Not just Londonistan’s Mayor but Arday’s own family is blaming his death on people who dared to notice the fantasy.

“The campaign of misinformation was too much for Jason, who was a gentle man and who always wanted to see the best in everyone,” they said. “We are in shock to have lost this amazing father, partner, brother, uncle and son.

They added, “We won’t comment further at this point beyond asking the press to leave us alone now, and to stop the campaign of harassment which has been waged against Jason and his family for too long.”

Sounds like “the family” knew. How long and why not one of them did an intervention as Jason’s tales grew more ludicrous is up for speculation, but their demand to be left alone with not one statement of Cambridge’s complicity in this fiasco is revealing.

Arday certainly isn’t the only person to invent a life to game access to fame or money or position. But the impetus to apparent suicide over it doesn’t lie with his critics. There are cases where (in)famous fabulists have gone on to success post-scandal.

That's right.

Similarly, NY Times fabulist Jayson Blair wrote a memoir (the aptly titled 'Burning Down My Masters' House: My Life') after he was outed.

American culture is wild, irrepressible, and exuberant and full of hucksters always coming up with new ways to reinvent… https://t.co/3n2E0wNCo1

— Coddled Affluent Professional (@feelsdesperate) August 15, 2026

From the moment Cambridge relinquished meritocracy for bean-counting, this scandal became possible, especially as they threw him under the bus in an attempt to salvage what they could of their reputation.

Arday may have committed suicide, but Cambridge put the means for it in his hands.

featured image original graphic by Darleen Click