Last week, Cambridge’s youngest ever black full professor was found dead, days after resigning under investigation for plagiarism and his fabricated life story. Jason Arday claimed to have run 600 miles in six days, couldn't speak until age 11, and still earned a PhD by 30. When the scrutiny finally caught up with him, Amnesty International's response was to call for censorship.

Meanwhile, MIT's black enrollment dropped from 13% to just 5% after the Supreme Court’s 2023 ruling against affirmative action. Racial preferences in admissions have not achieved the supposed goal of closing educational disparities between black and white Americans, but instead have just papered over them.

The West has spent decades manufacturing token success stories to manage its own white guilt. Can we finally admit that meritocracy was the right answer all along?