One day after British academic Jason Arday was found dead, controversial author and antiracism activist Ibram X. Kendi ignited a social media firestorm by accusing the mainstream media of contributing to his death because of his skin color.
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In an article for The Emancipator, a publication Kendi co-founded, titled "The Media Lynched Jason Arday," Kendi argued that the "White-owned, mainstream media" contributed to Arday’s death through "waves of attacks" over plagiarism allegations and inconsistencies about his personal biography.
"The death of Jason Arday hit so close to home that I had no words yesterday," Kendi wrote in an X post on Saturday.
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"But I woke up with words," he continued. "To be a prominent antiracist Black scholar is to know you are a target, almost totally surrounded by resentments. You know that at any point, the attacks can come like a lynch mob. And if you die from all the attacks, the media still calls the attacks on you ‘accusations’ to wash their hands of the blood. Your lynchers announce your death as if they had no role in your lynching."
Arday recently entered the international spotlight amid doubts over his claims that he was non-verbal until age 11, practically illiterate until 18 and ran 30 marathons in 35 days for charity, as well as allegations that he plagiarized portions of his academic work. The controversy prompted an investigation into the sociology professor, who resigned shortly after.
The comments sparked an online uproar, with critics pushing back on Kendi’s response to Arday’s shocking death.
"Ibram X Kendi, of course, blames Jason Arday's death on White people," Turning Point USA contributor Jack Posobiec posted on X.
In another post on X, Kimberly Ross, a writer and Washington Examiner contributor, wrote, "Arday died by his own hand. Suicide is tragic but exceedingly selfish. Those who wanted his claims to be true never cared whether they were true. Cambridge set him up to fail. And people like Ibram X. Kendi continue the false narratives because the truth is less comforting."
"If I had to name a more contemptible charlatan than Arday, it would be Ibram X. Kendi, who despite producing nothing of value enjoys a charmed life telling everyone of the fear he pretends to live in as a black man, even though he owes his entire career to guilt-ridden whites," Libertarian author and podcast host Tom Woods posted on X.
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"As someone who cares deeply about the cause of anti-racism, Ibram X. Kendi makes my job much more difficult," Richard Hanania, president of the Center for the Study of Partisanship and Ideology, also posted on X.
In a post on X, actor Kevin Sorbo wrote, "This race grifting is pathetic. Jason took his life after being exposed as a fraud. The media did not ‘lynch’ him. Stop it."
"Ralph Ellison couldn't write a follow up to Invisible Man because the endless recurrence of the terminal nightmare in which the novel's hero had been ensnared had already swallowed up any sequel. He had created a work too definitive to permit any further elaboration. The same awful fatality he depicted in the novel created both Jason Arday and Ibram X. Kendi," writer Wesley Yang posted on X.
Kendi, who is now the inaugural director of Howard University’s Institute for Advanced Study, also came under fire over his academic work two years earlier.
In 2024, Kendi faced backlash over his leadership of Boston University’s Center for Antiracist Research after former staffers described poor financial and administrative decisions, unfulfilled promises to donors and little research output despite tens of millions of dollars in funding. A university investigation found no financial misconduct, and the center officially closed in June 2025.
Arday was found "unresponsive" at a south London address, BBC News reported Friday. In a statement to BBC News, Metropolitan Police said: "At this time, his death is being treated as unexpected, but is not believed to be suspicious."
"We are desperately saddened to hear this tragic news," Cambridge University Vice Chancellor professor Deborah Prentice previously told Fox News Digital. "Our heartfelt sympathies go to Jason Arday's family and friends at this incredibly difficult time."
Fox News Digital reached out to Kendi's team for comment.