In an interview with conservative media personality Rob Montz, posted to
YouTube on the day Arday died, Cofnas admitted what happened to Arday was not really about plagiarism, which he noted is common in academia, but about his “exalted position”. He goes on to fantasise about one day becoming head of a department of race science and eugenics at Harvard.
Claudine Gay, the first black woman to become president of Harvard, was only in the post for seven months before she was forced out over plagiarism allegations. Others said they felt like “
sitting ducks” as their work was pulled apart. Some
senior black figures have killed themselves after persistent questioning of their work
or qualifications.
Arday began being sent racist emails as soon as he took up his position at Cambridge, becoming so intense that his emails had to be screened. But the messages paled in comparison to the other incidents the academic said he had faced. In an open letter to the government minister Jacqui Smith in July 2025, which outlined Arday’s experiences, he claimed to have been “threatened with a knife, physically assaulted and spat on; [had] rape and death threats being made to him and his family; bananas and bullets being posted to him via the university campus; and corrosive substances and mutilated animals sent to his family home”.
As he previously said:
“I am accountable for the mistakes I’ve made...“I hold myself accountable and other people should hold me accountable. We’re talking about academia here. I didn’t murder somebody. I think the cruelty that I’ve experienced, and the positioning of me as this kind of liar and fantasist, is totally unacceptable.”
en.wikipedia.org
