No, I’m not making that fallacy. You’re failing to engage with the bad facts I’ve linked and stated. You assume he was qualified then argue this wasn’t a DEI hire because he was qualified.@bradstevens I feel like we are talking past each other.
I agree they played up his identity when they announced his hire. As I have said multiple times, that's to be expected. Cambridge doesn't have a strong history - or really any history - of D&I hires, so they jumped on the opportunity. That doesn't prove they hired him because they were gunning for a black guy. They hired him because he was (so it seemed) qualified for the job. I'm saying their playing up his identity when they hired him was a bit disingenuous. My evidence for this is the fact that they do actually have pretty much zero reputation for engaging in that sort of hiring. They have over 700 full-time professors. Literally 4 of them are black. They aren't stocking the cupboards with diversity hires. It's not their thing.
Ironically, once this whole thing hit the fan, some of Arday's most prominent critics were other black UK academics, because they felt that his actions were falsely painting them as a community in a bad light, precisely because D&I hiring at top academic levels wasn't something that top UK universities were known for, and they had to work their butts off to get where they were, and they were afraid this mistaken narrative about Arday would reflect badly on them.
Now, is it impossible they decided in this one instance they were going to find a black guy, and that's why they settled on him? No, of course it's not impossible. But the simplest explanation that fits the facts is usually the right one, and the simplest explanation is this: they got snookered by a liar, they took the opportunity of his hire to try to score PR points, and it eventually blew up.
You're engaging in a logical fallacy similar to CO here. You see A) they hired a black guy who turned out to be unqualified and conclude B) they hired an unqualified guy because he was black. Unheard of? No. It's possible. But logically, it doesn't necessarily follow. And I think my read on the situation better fits all the facts, not just the two facts that 1) he was unqualified and 2) he was black.
@bradstevens I'm not assuming it. The statements made about his hire at the time make it very clear he was qualified.
The stance that Trump was somehow supporting white supremacy with the "both sides" Charlottesville remark was indeed a huge hoax. But the existence of white supremacists there and elsewhere is no hoax, and neither is their ability to advance their agenda by gaining political support or at least their ability to be ignored despite their vile beliefs. This whole thread is weird.
This whole thread is weird.
Im challenging the white privilege paradigm because I believe it to be a hoax and pretext for different agendas. As you note, some will always believe whites are better and more privileged than blacks. But as a whole, I think society has moved past it, however we cling to that idea for various reasons.
@bradstevens I feel like we are talking past each other.
I agree they played up his identity when they announced his hire. As I have said multiple times, that's to be expected. Cambridge doesn't have a strong history - or really any history - of D&I hires, so they jumped on the opportunity. That doesn't prove they hired him because they were gunning for a black guy. They hired him because he was (so it seemed) qualified for the job. I'm saying their playing up his identity when they hired him was a bit disingenuous. My evidence for this is the fact that they do actually have pretty much zero reputation for engaging in that sort of hiring. They have over 700 full-time professors. Literally 4 of them are black. They aren't stocking the cupboards with diversity hires. It's not their thing.
Ironically, once this whole thing hit the fan, some of Arday's most prominent critics were other black UK academics, because they felt that his actions were falsely painting them as a community in a bad light, precisely because D&I hiring at top academic levels wasn't something that top UK universities were known for, and they had to work their butts off to get where they were, and they were afraid this mistaken narrative about Arday would reflect badly on them.
Now, is it impossible they decided in this one instance they were going to find a black guy, and that's why they settled on him? No, of course it's not impossible. But the simplest explanation that fits the facts is usually the right one, and the simplest explanation is this: they got snookered by a liar, they took the opportunity of his hire to try to score PR points, and it eventually blew up.
You're engaging in a logical fallacy similar to CO here. You see A) they hired a black guy who turned out to be unqualified and conclude B) they hired an unqualified guy because he was black. Unheard of? No. It's possible. But logically, it doesn't necessarily follow. And I think my read on the situation better fits all the facts, not just the two facts that 1) he was unqualified and 2) he was black.
Did more qualified candidates apply?
@bradstevens I'm not assuming it. The statements made about his hire at the time make it very clear he was qualified.
Dr. Jason Arday, the youngest Black professor at Cambridge University, was found dead in London on Friday after resigning last week from his job due to plagiarism accusations. He also faced accusations of embellishing his life story in his memoir published last Tuesday.@bradstevens I'm not assuming it. The statements made about his hire at the time make it very clear he was qualified.
Arday’s hiring in 2023 came at a time when the school was under pressure to diversify. The New York Times reported that Arday was under qualified for the position by the school’s standard’s, but they hired him anyway. Cambridge’s requirements call for a robust research record and a proven successful track record of supervising Ph.D. students. Arday had worked at several universities, never staying long enough to oversee a full-term doctorate student, and had a small publication record. His hiring attracted intense international attention and scrutiny.
Cambridge announced an independent investigation into Arday’s appointment. Over 30,000 people have signed a Good Law Project petition seeking an inquiry into the relentless coverage and harassment of Arday.
We have a closer look at the sociology professor’s precipitous rise and fall and the uncomfortable questions it raises about Cambridge, the media, and hiring practices in higher education. Check it out at here: https://katiecouric.visitlink.me/3fg9ZY
📷: AP Newsroom
Getty/Nordin Catic/Jonathan Brady - PA Images / Contributor/Joe Giddens
As you note, some will always believe whites are better and more privileged than blacks. But as a whole, I think society has moved past it...
I'd like to believe that, and maybe I believed that until recently, but it seems to me that there has been a growing chorus of persons in politics ramming through policies based on the ideology that there is a large population of poor mistreated whites. These downtrodden whites are in their eyes suffering from systematic and oppressive favoritism given to non-whites. The remedy they push is to hold every appointment of a non-white person (and relatedly, any woman or any immigrant) as being a DEI hire, until proven otherwise (or unless the appointee is politically aligned with them).
I am not saying that the alleged oppression is all made up, as there are instances of hard race-based quotas having priority over qualifications. Such policies indeed need to be eradicated. But I think the prevalence of such policies is vastly overstated. Though Brad just pointed out (possibly) one such case.
My point is in response to Biden’s speech from the link in the OP. Biden implies, if not clearly expresses, white supremacy is a ubiquitous ideology largely present and accepted in our body politic. I think that is a hoax and he makes it for political purposes.
Thats not to say there aren’t anecdotes of racism etc. There are.
Thats not to say there aren’t anecdotes of racism etc. There are.
I believe that social media is at fault for a large percentage of both the increase in racism and the resultant overreaction by the left leaning. 1) It has created an anonymous safe space for like-minded bigots / racists to express their opinions without fear of public ostracization and 2) Just like any extreme view, it gets more press / sensationalism, meaning that it is blown out of proportion for the amount there actually is.
We are all susceptible to it. CO, you like to throw out that "liberals are scientifically more depressed" argument, using it as a label that can be whitewashed over the entire democrat base. It's the same thing, just the other side of the coin.
It's becoming very lazy to take the worst extreme aspects of one ideology and applying that to define everybody on that side as being in favor of that extreme belief. That is an absolute "both sides" problem.
Dr. Jason Arday, the youngest Black professor at Cambridge University, was found dead in London on Friday after resigning last week from his job due to plagiarism accusations. He also faced accusations of embellishing his life story in his memoir published last Tuesday.@bradstevens I'm not assuming it. The statements made about his hire at the time make it very clear he was qualified.
Arday’s hiring in 2023 came at a time when the school was under pressure to diversify. The New York Times reported that Arday was under qualified for the position by the school’s standard’s, but they hired him anyway. Cambridge’s requirements call for a robust research record and a proven successful track record of supervising Ph.D. students. Arday had worked at several universities, never staying long enough to oversee a full-term doctorate student, and had a small publication record. His hiring attracted intense international attention and scrutiny.
Cambridge announced an independent investigation into Arday’s appointment. Over 30,000 people have signed a Good Law Project petition seeking an inquiry into the relentless coverage and harassment of Arday.
We have a closer look at the sociology professor’s precipitous rise and fall and the uncomfortable questions it raises about Cambridge, the media, and hiring practices in higher education. Check it out at here: https://katiecouric.visitlink.me/3fg9ZY
📷: AP Newsroom
Getty/Nordin Catic/Jonathan Brady - PA Images / Contributor/Joe Giddens
Gotta be very careful how one phrases things. What the NYT article actually said was that Arday's CV (in the NYT's judgment) did not meet the requirements of the job posted by Cambridge when the candidate search began. That's not the same as saying the Cambridge hiring committee knowingly hired an unqualified candidate.
However, I will grant that it dramatically increases the odds that Cambridge should have known he was unqualified, which I will also grant is much stronger evidence of a DEI hire, either intentional, or because they were blinded by the bad press they were getting at the time for their lack of diversity.
@squeakyclean or social media has shed light on what the mainstream legacy media prefers not to
more of our "teens."
racism is a delicate topic and it's used in a nonspecific way that becomes problematic. do i believe blacks are a problem? particularly young blacks? hell yes. did they look like a welcome group at a state fair? if you owned anything and a 100 black youth walked up would you be happy? any interest in booking a carnival cruise? pick a city that's in the shitter with high crime and bad schools and 99 percent of the time you will find a large black population and enabling dems. go to a decent-sized city and sit in on a confined docket. blacks. the vast majority.
is the above racist? no. it's reality. but we've become so pc and then woke people won't talk about it or worse will call you a bigot/racist etc. racism is a belief that some group is inherently inferior because of their skin/ethnic group. recognizing black youth are a problem and expecting them to do better is not racism. in fact it's the opposite.
if you owned anything and a 100 black youth walked up would you be happy?
If 100 youths walk up to me, I wouldn't be happy regardless of what color they were, but I get your point.
There are several topics being thrown around here. White privilege, racism, DEI, while all having to do with race are all separate issues. It's when we start lumping all of these things together that we get into trouble and makes us assume the worst case scenario.
Take it up with Katie Couric. Her words, not mine.Dr. Jason Arday, the youngest Black professor at Cambridge University, was found dead in London on Friday after resigning last week from his job due to plagiarism accusations. He also faced accusations of embellishing his life story in his memoir published last Tuesday.@bradstevens I'm not assuming it. The statements made about his hire at the time make it very clear he was qualified.
Arday’s hiring in 2023 came at a time when the school was under pressure to diversify. The New York Times reported that Arday was under qualified for the position by the school’s standard’s, but they hired him anyway. Cambridge’s requirements call for a robust research record and a proven successful track record of supervising Ph.D. students. Arday had worked at several universities, never staying long enough to oversee a full-term doctorate student, and had a small publication record. His hiring attracted intense international attention and scrutiny.
Cambridge announced an independent investigation into Arday’s appointment. Over 30,000 people have signed a Good Law Project petition seeking an inquiry into the relentless coverage and harassment of Arday.
We have a closer look at the sociology professor’s precipitous rise and fall and the uncomfortable questions it raises about Cambridge, the media, and hiring practices in higher education. Check it out at here: https://katiecouric.visitlink.me/3fg9ZY
📷: AP Newsroom
Getty/Nordin Catic/Jonathan Brady - PA Images / Contributor/Joe Giddens
Gotta be very careful how one phrases things. What the NYT article actually said was that Arday's CV (in the NYT's judgment) did not meet the requirements of the job posted by Cambridge when the candidate search began. That's not the same as saying the Cambridge hiring committee knowingly hired an unqualified candidate.
However, I will grant that it dramatically increases the odds that Cambridge should have known he was unqualified, which I will also grant is much stronger evidence of a DEI hire, either intentional, or because they were blinded by the bad press they were getting at the time for their lack of diversity.
My point is in response to Biden’s speech from the link in the OP. Biden implies, if not clearly expresses, white supremacy is a ubiquitous ideology largely present and accepted in our body politic. I think that is a hoax and he makes it for political purposes.
Biden and the Dems repeatedly lifted Trump's remarks out of their context for their own benefit, for sure. Even saying that it was the reason to run, which was silly. It was despicable. But the greatest hoax of the last 100 years?
I don't know how you can look at (say) Project 2025 and say that it isn't colored by white supremacy, painted as being not only acceptable but also desired. And it clearly is a mainstream political opinion, given that so many Project 2025 architects joined the administration.
So I would call Biden's speech and follow-up a shameful exaggeration for clearly political purposes, but not near the level of being greatest hoax of the last 100 years.