Simon Woolley is the Principal of Homerton College and was the lead supporter for Jason Arday. Hi smain background ias a political activist. He has fairly negligible academic existence. He was moulded by Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson in a world of activism: “Al Sharpton’s overarching strategy centers on transforming grassroots outrage over racial injustice into media coverage, which he leverages to force political, legal, and corporate concessions.” Woolley is better knonw for activism such as Operation Black Vote (1996)
He has been assisted by Prof Kehinde Andrews whose base of work ha s been in racism and activism: ‘His academic work and public intellectual contributions focus heavily on Black radicalism, anti-racism, colonialism, and structural inequality”.
There is nothing unusual in their back ground or inappropriate in principle in their playing the role of leadership in defence of Arday. But the issue is in the specifics. I told them their approach was wrong and they refused to even discuss it. Andrews more or less said to me that since Simon Woolley was Principal of Homerton I should bow to him. This was wholesale absurdity. I don’t bow to anyone, Principal or Professor. It gets worse. The meeting was to discuss the role of free speech in the context of Covnas. All he could say was there was racism. The other panellists were mostly Ivy League professors who ignored him. Andrews did not get the memo! When I tried to explain to him that he wa no tonthe same page he would not listen. Andrews appeared to think that ‘racism as such was a relevant issue in a debate about freedom oi speech in a university.
Simon Woolley followed his mentorship with Al Sharpton.
“Al Sharpton’s overarching strategy centers on transforming grassroots outrage over racial injustice into media coverage, which he leverages to force political, legal, and corporate concessions.” This was inappropriate to this situation . The offence of Woolley and Andrews was their boneheaded refusal to even listen to other suggestions.
Even today after Arday’s passing Andrews is focussing on racism. He calls the whole process a ‘lynching’. Let us look at this carefully. Andrews is focussing on race and makes the one accusation that is not legal in the UK. There is nothing the police can do about his metaphorical calling the treatment of Arday a ‘lynching’. Andrews cannot even be bothered to read the Equalities Act and frame an allegation the police could look into . It is all performance and show. That is the scale of his incompetence.
All I can say is that for Arday, whom I respect, with friends like Wolley and Andrews, suicide was the only option.