Two Black men whose names have been in the news recently are Jason Arday and Doris Miller. Arday, formerly a professor at one of Great Britain’s most prestigious universities, took his own life after his academic credentials and achievements, as well as his life story, were questioned. Miller, one of the first American heroes produced by World War 2, has had his contributions to the war effort downgraded and denied by President Trump’s Defense Department. Each case reflects a different dark side of DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) policies—either the use of factors other than merit in personnel decisions, or the provocation of an anti-DEI backlash which deprives the marginalized of credit for their actual achievements.
The main purpose of DEI policies is to promote social justice for those considered “marginalized” by white male-dominated society, including women and people of color. To that end, advocates of DEI support greater recognition of marginalized achievements, as well as more job opportunities and other measures to reverse at least some of the harm caused by marginalization. But among the dangers of DEI are the use of factors other than merit to fill personnel positions, and the provocation of so extreme a backlash as to deny the legitimate achievements of the marginalized.
Jason Arday, born in London in 1985, was appointed a professor of educational sociology at Cambridge University in 2023. Although initially lionized in media reports as the youngest Black professor in Cambridge’s history, as well as one of its very few faculty members of color, critics of DEI programs charged he was appointed because of his race and personal background, and not for his academic achievements. Examinations of his academic work produced charges that he had plagiarized portions of his doctoral thesis and other research articles. His autobiography and other statements also included many improbable claims which have not been verified: For example, he said he ran 30 marathons in 35 days, the last nine with a hairline leg fracture. leg. Nor has his self-described job history before joining Cambridge checked out. Following an announcement that Cambridge would conduct a more formal investigation into Array’s background, Arday resigned his position earlier this month and then took his own life. Arday’s defenders claim the investigations were motivated by racism. But if the investigations confirm that Arday was indeed the fabulist his critics say he was, then Cambridge can be fairly charged with overlooking his weaknesses in the interest of appointing a Black faculty member mainly because he was Black in order to satisfy a DEI initiative.
The story of Doris Miller of Waco, Texas, is radically different. Born in 1919, Miller enlisted in the Navy in 1939 and for the next two years served as a mess attendant on various ships, including the battleship U. S. S. West Virginia, when it was attacked at Pearl Harbor by Japanese forces. Although banned by virtue of his race from training on how to operate weapons, Miller nonetheless commandeered an anti-aircraft gun and is officially credited with shooting down at least one Japanese fighter plane, although eyewitnesses claimed Miller may have downed up to six. Moreover, as Japanese aircraft continued to strafe the West Virginia’s decks, Miller continuously exposed himself to their firepower as he also pulled many wounded sailors to safe shelters. For his efforts, he was nominated for the Congressional Medal of Honor, but the nomination was vetoed by Navy Secretary Frank Knox, who opposed Blacks serving in the Navy. Nonetheless, Admiral Chester Nimitz personally awarded Miller the Navy Cross. The Navy used Miller’s image on recruitment posters and sent him on campaigns to encourage public purchase of war bonds. Returning to combat, Miller was killed in action in November, 1943, when the ship on which he was then serving as a cook, the escort carrier Liscome Bay, was torpedoed and sunk by a Japanese submarine off the Gilbert Islands in the Pacific.
Miller has had one ship, a frigate, named after him. But on Martin Luther King Day, 2020, at Pearl Harbor and with Miller’s family in attendance, the Navy’s acting secretary announced that an aircraft carrier would eventually be named for him as well. If so, Miller will have the distinction of being the first enlisted man and first person of color to be so honored.
But whether the aircraft carrier will actually be named after Miller after all is being called into question. At the beginning of President Trump’s second term, he and his Defense Secretary, Pete Hegseth, both fierce opponents of all things DEI, ordered the scrubbing of Defense Department websites of anything reflecting what a Defense Department spokesperson called “Discriminatory Equity Ideology.” To that end, information on Miller and other people of color who served in the armed forces—the Tuskegee Airmen, the Navajo Code Talkers, Jackie Robinson, Medgar Evers, and even Colin Powell—vanished from Defense Department websites (although apparently some information has since been restored). Moreover, the Navy is reportedly reconsidering the name of the aircraft carrier. What its new name would be is unknown, but some in the Navy have proposed naming it after President Trump.
News reports of this alleged/possible switcheroo are maddeningly vague. Who’s pushing for the name change and why are not yet known, as of this writing, although in fairness to President Trump, it must be noted that there’s no evidence yet that he’s pushing for a name change or has even suggested it. However, it would be in the best interests of all concerned were he to actively push for retaining “ Doris Miller” as the name for the new aircraft carrier, while inviting Miller’s family to the White House to receive—albeit 80 years late—the Congressional Medal of Honor. After all, Frank Knox is no longer around anymore to say “no.”
If it can be shown that Arday’s academic credentials and research are genuine, then he must be considered a victim of racism practiced by those who cannot accept a Black man in a prestigious academic position, or any prestigious position at all. But if the charges of plagiarism and fabulist self-reporting are proven true, then Arday must be seen as someone who victimized himself with his own alleged dishonesty, while being used as a symbol by DEI ideologues who used him for their own virtue signaling without any thought of the impact their actions would have on him. And the scrubbing of information on Doris Miller to deny his genuine heroism shows how opposition to DEI policies can be carried to such extremes that even the most heroic and meritorious achievements of the marginalized are unfairly forgotten, and that a policy based on truth rather than ideology is a moral imperative if the marginalized and everyone else are to be given their just due on the basis of what they do, rather than who they are, or aren’t.
Malcolm L. Cross has lived in Stephenville since 1987 and taught politics and government at Tarleton for 36 years, retiring in 2023. His political and civic activities include service on the Stephenville City Council (2000-2014) and on the Erath County Republican Executive Committee (1990-2024). He was Mayor pro-tem of Stephenville from 2008 to 2014. He has served on the Board of Directors of the Stephenville Economic Development Authority since 2018, and as chair of the Erath County Appraisal District’s Appraisal Review Board since 2015. He is also a member of the Stephenville Rotary Club, the Board of Vestry of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, and the Executive Committee of the Boy Scouts’ Pecan Valley District. Views expressed in this column are his and do not reflect those of The Flash as a whole.
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