Over 31,000 people, including several Members of Parliament, have signed a petition calling on the UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham to conduct a public investigation into alleged media persecution of the late academic Jason Arday, organizers reported on Sunday.
The petition was initiated by the activist group Good Law Project after Arday, who became the youngest Black professor at Cambridge University three years ago, was found dead on Friday.
This project supported Arday since his departure from the university and King's College at the beginning of this month, as both institutions began investigations into allegations of plagiarism and fabrication or exaggeration of his biography.
Good Law Project stated on its website: 'There is no doubt that Dr. Arday's tragic death was a direct, predictable, and expected result of media persecution.' The group added that 'a significant element of this persecution was his skin color,' emphasizing that 'there is no doubt that racism was at the heart of this story.'
Allegations against the 41-year-old Arday attracted widespread coverage in the British press after another scholar—self-proclaimed 'race realist' Nathan Coffnas, who was dismissed from Cambridge in 2024—claimed in July numerous instances of plagiarism in the professor's work. British media and right-wing commentators seized on this dispute, claiming that Arday, who disputed these accusations, was unfairly benefiting from diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies.
In a letter published upon his departure on August 5, Arday noted that this step was 'the only way' to conclude a 'difficult period,' but it should not 'be mistakenly taken as an agreement with the narratives surrounding me.'
Following the shocking news of Arday's death on Friday, which the police do not consider suspicious, his family and friends condemned the 'campaign of constant harassment' that began with his appointment in 2023. Other friends noted that he was vulnerable, given that Arday wrote extensively about being diagnosed with autism in childhood and not speaking until age 11.
Good Law Project reported that many signatories privately warned various media outlets that their relentless pursuit of Dr. Arday could lead to his suicide. Furthermore, fundraising to support his family has already raised nearly £89,000 (nearly 2 million Rands).
Lesego Masisi, co-founder and former member of the National Executive Committee of the Palestine Anti-Apartheid Movement and a member of the South African Youth Communist League, opined that Arday's death should not be a surprise, especially considering that he was marginalized and alienated from the community that initially supported him and secured him the academic rank of professor at age 37, becoming the youngest Black professor globally at the world's leading university, Cambridge.
Masisi stated that it is necessary to understand racism and disproportionate social power relations as systems that adapt to changing external conditions while maintaining their objective, albeit with a greater emphasis on secrecy and mystery. He suggested that a Black man with a unique experience of neurodivergence seemed like an ideal candidate for investing academic resources and leadership until his scholarly work began critically examining institutional policy at Cambridge. 'It was then that the talented young man began to become a threat not only to a specific institution but to the entire high-ranking academic environment in the UK, simply because his ideas were too weighty for him to continue without damaging his reputation.'
Masisi concluded that the plagiarism allegations against Arday 'are nothing more than a fabricated career attack by the white racist and colonialist British academic establishment.'
