- Nearly 50 senior fellows and staff members at Oriel College, Oxford, have signed a statement condemning an upcoming event featuring controversial speaker Nathan Cofnas, describing his views as racist, abhorrent, and without scientific foundation.
- Mr Cofnas, a self-described race realist who previously targeted the late Cambridge professor Jason Arday with plagiarism allegations, is scheduled to give a talk on 17 November hosted by the Oxon Universities Reform Society on whether diversity, equity, and inclusion are undermining higher education.
- The academics stated in their letter that Mr Cofnas's assertions diminish the achievements of Black scholars and cause great distress to the college community, stressing that freedom of speech does not mean opinions should go unchallenged by evidence.
- The internal backlash follows an earlier open letter calling for the event to be cancelled, which was signed by high-profile politicians, campaigners, and celebrities, including Jeremy Corbyn, Beverley Knight, and Stand Up to Racism.
- Oriel College defended its decision to allow the talk, explaining that it has a statutory duty to uphold freedom of speech within the law, though it clarified that permitting the student-society booking does not equal an endorsement of the speaker's views.
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