The Jason Arday affair is a national disgrace. It exposes how deeply entrenched and destructive DEI ideology has become. One might have hoped the horror of what happened to Henry Nowak would finally awaken people to how grossly unfair—and outright dangerous—this obsession with skin colour and victimhood has grown. Most ordinary people accept that academic status should rest on merit and talent. Yet a substantial cohort—ironically the same people quickest to brand dissenters as racists—insist that everything, including merit itself, must yield to racial identity. They are prepared to sacrifice academic integrity and tolerate fraud in order to pose as saviours of the poor, disenfranchised and persecuted “Diversity is our greatest strength,” people, even as the consequences of that dogma pile up. Never mind that honest non-white academics will now face unfair suspicion because of this kind of promotion. The white saviours—who, by any honest definition, are practising a form of racism—will cover up, mislead and deceive to protect the narrative. And when the fraud is exposed, they cannot even manage a straightforward apology. Arday has followed the familiar playbook of those who trade in race. When the claims begin to unravel, he immediately claims victim status on the basis of his skin colour, leans on institutions (and, where possible, the police) who are only too thrilled to investigate non existent racism, and seeks to silence journalists asking legitimate questions. When the truth finally emerges, the exposure of the deception is itself blamed on racism. Insane. This is beyond sinister. It has to stop. There is one human race. For as long as records exist, merit has been the only proper measure of an individual. Critical race theory is intellectual poison: it corrodes every institution it touches. We should learn from this episode and reject it completely.