Jason Arday

Picture of Jason Arday is from https://www.utenfilter.no/2026/08/14/jason-arday-funnet-dod/

When I was working at Johns Hopkins, there was a colleague who really did not like me. No matter what I said or did, she was mean and dismissive toward me. One encounter has always stayed with me. I had written a report for a research project, and the director asked her to review it and go over it with me. When we met, she had all of these “corrections” and suggestions. But as she talked, I realized something: everything she was telling me to add or address was already in the report.

So after she finished, I asked one simple question: “Have you read my report?” She stumbled and gave a bunch of excuses. I stayed calm and asked again, “Have you read my report?” She became frustrated and combative. I stayed calm and asked again, “Have you read my report? Because everything you have said or suggested is actually in the report.” Finally, in frustration, she yelled, “Well, I was just giving suggestions on ways you can improve it!” I calmly responded, “Well, how can you give suggestions about something you have not read?” She became frustrated again, and I finally said, “Let me make something very clear to you. You cannot critique anything I write if you have not read it thoroughly.”

This woman was White. What bothered me was not simply that she disliked my work. She had made assumptions about the quality of my work without respecting me enough to actually read it. Fast forward to another encounter. My research at the time focused on issues of diversity in K–12 education. One day, this same colleague said to me, “I am so tired of your people. All you talk about is your people.” Even the director stepped in and said, “Well, we hired her to do research on this topic. That’s why she talks about it.” Think about that for a moment. I was hired to research issues of diversity in K–12 education, but somehow my doing the very work I had been hired to do became, in her mind, “All you talk about is your people.”

Again, I confronted her calmly. I corrected what she said and explained why it was offensive. And then, almost as if the weight of the interaction had become too much, she suddenly yelled, “Do you know how smart you are??? I mean, everything you say, I look up on Google!!!”

And THAT is the part right there. She was Googling the things I said. She was checking me. And suddenly that earlier encounter over my report made even more sense to me. She had walked into a meeting prepared to critique work she had not even read. She had made assumptions about the quality of my work before actually engaging with it. And now she was admitting that when I spoke, she went behind me and looked things up to see whether what I said was actually true.

My heart is so broken for Jason Arday. If he was dishonest, even a little bit, then he chose a path that was ultimately going to hurt him because in academia we are scrutinized heavily. This is why I hate writing sometimes. I have so much anxiety about whether I cited everything I claimed. I will read and reread something a million times to make sure I did not miss any facts or miss a citation. The more successful you are, especially if you step outside of an HBCU, the more scrutinized you are. And if you make one mistake, misquote a fact, or fail to cite something properly, there is always the fear that you will be labeled by that mistake and that it will follow you throughout your career.

I could go on and on about my journey in this space, from getting my PhD until I came to CUA. It is much better here. It is the most welcoming space outside of an HBCU that I have ever experienced, but I know people are watching and looking for just one mistake. I have to pray daily and trust the Lord that no matter what, He has me, and rest in that.

To those who are Black and thinking about this journey, please know it is hard. You will often feel like you are not welcomed, and some will try to make you feel like you are not worthy. It is a battle you may find yourself fighting daily. Make sure you are meticulous about everything. And even then, give yourself grace, because you are human and you will make mistakes.

I went through this while working on my PhD. To combat the claims that this White professor was making about my PhD research, I began to catalog all of the Black people throughout history who read the classics. I wanted to prove to him that this research was relevant to diversity in education because the classical tradition is part of the history of Black education. He was White, and he told me that classics was not for Black people.

By the time I finished my PhD, I felt so devalued that when I got home, I cleaned up my office, stuck my dissertation in a drawer, and forgot all about it. It wasn’t until St. John’s College “made me” talk about my research at an event they had that I pulled it back out. They believed in me, and that is why I am here.

We are seeing repeatedly that plagiarism is being used to shame, dismiss, and erase Black scholars, and we must take note. At the same time, the reality is that this scrutiny will continue, so we have to be prepared to fight through it, know how to handle it if the accusation happens to us, and also be careful about cutting ANY corners at all, because there is no grace for us in these spaces.

We also cannot make the mistake of allowing academia to become our identity. Our sense of purpose, joy, and self-worth cannot be tied to our identity in these spaces. We have family, heritage, community, and a whole life outside of academia. Our sense of self-worth has to be rooted in something much more stable and loving than a place like academia, because academia can be brutal to Black scholars.

For me, my identity is in God. That identity leads me to own when I have made a mistake, but it also gives me the courage to stand on what is true, no matter what people may say or think of me. He is the ROCK I build everything on, and that makes me unwavering. So if one day someone finds a misquote, a mistake in my research, a missed citation, or anything else that could be used to dismiss my scholarship, I will face it with courage and humility. If they are correct, I will own it, apologize for it, and accept the consequences, all while remembering that ultimately, what matters most is what God thinks of me. At the same time, if they are wrong, I will fight it, and the world will know the truth.

There is no way to escape the scrutiny of Black scholars in academia. It is part of world history and especially American history, and it is not going away. So don’t be tempted to find a quick way around it. Sometimes we may want to lie, even a little bit, to achieve our goals or get where we desperately want to go. But if we wait on God, remain people of 100% integrity, own our mistakes with humility, and keep pressing on, then we will still get there.