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In my previous life as a history professor, I used to assign Thomas Sowell's excellent and overlooked book Civil Rights: Rhetoric or Reality? I have never seen such a short book (a mere 140 pages) that overturns such a great many falsehoods.
Here was the problem: almost none of the students could understand it.
Bear in mind: Sowell wrote most of his books for the general public; they weren't technical academic works intended largely for other professors. And yet these students could not understand what he was saying.
Most of them, because they knew what they were expected to think about these topics, just told me Sowell thought "racism" was the primary explanation for disparities in education and income. That's something like the opposite of what Sowell argues in that book.
I remember one student in particular whose paper about the Sowell book consisted of a patchwork of Amazon reviews of the book that she'd slapped together. There was only one sentence in the whole paper that was original to her -- and that sentence advanced the opposite of Sowell's thesis.
So the plagiarism was very bad -- but just as bad was that she didn't understand the book at all. She couldn't even tell me what she'd plagiarized!
Right now there's a case of someone just like this: Jason Arday, an academic at Cambridge. The plagiarism that's been uncovered is shocking and extensive, but when you read the prose that's original to him you think: this is worse than the plagiarism.
Arday's dissertation somehow earned him a Ph.D. from Liverpool John Moores University, and then he was hired as a full professor at the University of Cambridge -- at the young age of 37.
Yes, he's black, and no, no white person would be hired as a full professor on the basis of this work. No white person would be allowed on campus on the basis of this work.
For example:
“Throughout the process, at critical junctures the researcher was conscious that with regards to providing knowledge to the participants regarding reflection and mentoring, a contradictory position was being adopted, with regards to eliminating anything that may resemble a hierarchical structure.”
Or this:
“As the researcher, textual units concerning the narratives and biographies were identified based on the criteria that the identified themes were fit for purpose in supporting the themes associated with the study.”
Or this:
“As the researcher, there was an awareness that the legitimacy of such suggestions regarding reliability are open to critique, however, this research study adopted these principles in attempting to maintain reliability through a qualitative research design.”
The whole thing is like this.
Meanwhile, the plagiarism is extensive -- and on multiple occasions Arday's scholarly articles have had to be amended to insert acknowledgments of others' work.
It is almost unbelievable how many changes Social Sciences made to Arday's 2018 paper “Understanding Mental Health: What Are the Issues for Black and Ethnic Minority Students at University?” as documented by Nathan Cofnas, who says: "The note appears to acknowledge that Arday’s entire paper is a work of plagiarism. However, the Editor-in-Chief was satisfied by Arday adding citations to the plagiarized sources and stating that 'the scientific conclusions are unaffected.'"
But again, the non-plagiarized work is in some ways just as embarrassing. Cofnas looked at the ten articles Arday cites as presumably his best work, and found either plagiarism or, frankly, a lot of nothingness:
"When you take away the work that is plagiarized or not otherwise written by Arday, there is essentially nothing resembling real scholarship. There is no indication that Arday is familiar with even elementary statistics. His research involves reporting his own experiences of alleged racism or having conversations with people and providing subjective commentary."
Academia, in short, is a mess, and that's putting it delicately.
The pursuit and spread of knowledge are good things, but the institutional framework in which they are intended to take place in the West is thoroughly corrupt.
I spent years of my life doing nothing but mocking academia in its current state (mockery it richly deserves) and writing about how bad it was.
Then, instead of sitting around complaining, I created my own dashboard university for everyone out there who suffered from educational malpractice at the hands of these institutions.
Here, at any time of day or night, is the history (and related fields) you'd never get in a Western university.
And in honor of the 20-year anniversary of my book 33 Questions About American History You're Not Supposed to Ask, as well as my own birthday, join Liberty Classroom as a master member today and get (1) a big discount and (2) a free, autographed and personalized copy of that book shipped to you (this part of the deal is valid for U.S. addresses only).
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