Academics at the University of Cambridge privately argued in 2024 that Nathan Cofnas, who accused Jason Arday of plagiarism last month, should not have been hired, Middle East Eye has learnt.
Cofnas has since been placed under investigation by his employer, Ghent University in Belgium, over public comments he has made.
But he has been supported by the US government and tech billionaire Elon Musk, and promoted by right-wing media outlets and podcasts.
Cofnas said black people would “disappear from almost all high-profile positions outside of sports and entertainment” under a true meritocracy, and argued that there “must be some barriers set up between races in order for each one to express its own unique genius”.
US Ambassador to Belgium Bill White condemned Cofnas’s suspension and said the Trump administration would review its relationship with the university.
“Race realist?”
So… a racist?
Eeeeh. There’s this academic freedom shit. Basically exists to have free questioning of everything. Obviously people use it to protect personal opinions, but a ‘race realist’ would, assumably, be more about discerning different racial traits, not rank.
But, yeah, considering how much of what he was saying was social, without any sociology considerations, “racist” seems about right.
US Ambassador to Belgium Bill White condemned Cofnas’s suspension and said the Trump administration would review its relationship with the university.
The US will never recover from the diplomatic damage this administration has done and continues to do on an almost daily basis.
Highly unserious people.
Yep. It’ll never fully recover to what it was, but may one day recover to “serious nation” once again. That said, I’m not really holding my breath on it being a “serious nation” in my lifetime.
that the process had since been changed so applications would be available to the whole faculty.
That’s a pretty cool way of doing it.
They were too excited about his racism to do a background check.