Jason Arday: Anti-racists must draw the right lessons

The tragic case of Jason Arday has been gripping the country for weeks, from the initial media frenzy to his resignation from Cambridge University all the way to his sudden death. Many black and brown people rightly view the campaign against Arday as a sinister threat. The media pile-on, initiated by an open racist, cheered on by the right-wing and taken up by all major newspapers, means it is open season against black people. Even renowned historian David Olusoga has faced questions about his credibility, as a shadow of suspicion has been cast over every minority in academia and beyond. This backlash needs to be fought!

However, the response by the left and liberals to Arday’s death has been nothing short of disastrous. In wanting to push back against the racist backlash, they see no other way than to present Jason Arday as simply a victim wronged by the racist media and a misinformation campaign. Yes, he was hounded. But to deny or downplay the well-established fact that Arday’s career was built on lies is a losing battle. This will do nothing to defend black and brown people and only help the racists.

The truth

It is not merely that Arday is accused of widespread plagiarism in his PhD. His version of his own life story beggars belief. Yet this was precisely the sort of appointment that allowed the Cambridge dons to claim they were “listening” to black voices. To give just one example, Arday claimed he ran 30 marathons in 35 days, 9 of them on a broken leg! Why should we have to close our eyes to such far-fetched tales to fight back against racism?

In their crusade against DEI, the far right is most effective not when it openly says that black people must be purged of any leading position. They are most effective when they say that DEI promotes incompetent people just for the colour of their skin. To defend Arday amounts to giving the far right exactly what they want, and only helps in discrediting the left and anti-racist movement.

Many today argue that the only reason Arday’s case made front-page news was that he was a black man who succeeded. The truth is more complicated. Jason Arday symbolised liberal identity politics and DEI initiatives in elite education. His appointment as a Cambridge professor was a political statement, meant to showcase Cambridge’s “anti-racist” enlightenment. And liberal anti-racism was the content of his work. This is why Arday became such a lightning rod for the anti-liberal backlash, which is becoming the dominant trend in British politics. To state the obvious, there is no backlash against Kemi Badenoch for being leader of the Tory Party, as she represents a leading anti-woke black voice.

The British establishment has no problem elevating black faces to high places when it serves their interests. This was initially the case with Arday. Now that the winds have changed, he was thrown under the bus. Thus, his downfall is not only a racist vendetta against an individual, but represents the ideological shift in the ruling class, threatening all minorities.

The role of the media

Rather than understanding the social roots of this episode, and what it represents politically, everyone on the left just blames the media. From Brexit to Corbyn’s demise, the British left always blames the media for everything. The British press is notorious for being a nest of racist, anti-working-class vipers. But they are not the cause of backwardness. Fundamentally, they transmit and amplify the ideas and interests of the ruling class. Any calls for an “inquiry” into the media’s role in Arday’s death are both naïve and useless.

Novara Media, the flagship left-media project, is now in the eye of the storm, accused by many of its viewers of having contributed to Arday’s death by giving the story “oxygen”. We are no fans of Aaron Bastani and Michael Walker, but this is just demagogic slander. In many ways, the controversy around Novara crystallises the problem that the left has in covering this story. Novara has educated its audience in the liberal notion that the framing and coverage of news is the main source of the growth of the right. Thus, when they covered a story pushed by the right-wing press, one which graphically exposes the bankruptcy of identity politics, their audience cried “racist”!

According to liberal anti-racist logic, covering the facts of this story is itself a capitulation to racism. But this story raised real social issues that are polarising the country. Keeping silent or denying reality would not have been an anti-racist act, but a declaration of bankruptcy in the face of a very real social conflict.

How to really fight racism

The whole “woke” movement, which came with DEI initiatives, “white guilt” and tokenistic appointments—largely benefiting a small layer of middle-class black and brown people—was always based on empty symbolism. In a context where large swaths of the working class are turning to the right, clinging to these discredited ideas guarantees defeat and isolation.

Rather, what is needed is class-based, militant anti-racism that links the struggle of minorities—for housing, for jobs, but also against racist oppression and fascist terror—with the emancipation of the entire working class. It is only in this struggle that socialists can undermine the basis for racist ideas among working people and materially improve living conditions for all. The lessons of history show that it took struggle, in the streets and in the workplaces, to defeat the racist backlash faced by the Windrush generation.

The point is not to bury the fight against racism for “bread and butter” issues, but to connect these with the fight against racial oppression. For example, in the current context of anti-DEI purges in higher education, the point is to show how these are the tip of the spear for mass layoffs threatening the entire sector. Any good trade union rep should know that it is only by defending the most vulnerable sectors of a workforce that we can shore up the position of all.

If the tragic death of Jason Arday is not to be in vain, the anti-racist movement must learn something, not simply wield his story as an excuse to double down on a disastrous course.