"you're sheltering black LHC at this university, are you not?"
The Atlantic reads Jason Arday's memoir, and finds his life story was even more inspirational than we thought
He was beaten so badly as a teen he became an epileptic. When the boys who did this were caught, he magnanimously told the judge he didn't want them to go to prison.
"By the time Arday started on his master's degree, he writes, he was reading at about the same level as his 3-year-old daughter."
You complain you can't get a girlfriend.
Chad Arday was going through college illiterate, had his girlfriend write out his applications, and managed to father a child.
He then got a teaching job. But he didn't have money, so he started working at a supermarket from 11 PM to 5AM, then a cleaner from 5:30 AM to 7:30 AM.
Remember the guys who beat him up? It turns out that two of the muggers ended up being his students. They were so moved by his compassion, that they'd turned their lives around and were now helping at risk youth.
As his dissertation approached, Arday got a brain tumor and lost his memory.
"More troubles follow in the years ahead: Arday’s brain tumor returns; he splits up with his wife; he suffers autistic burnout during the coronavirus pandemic and can’t get out of bed. He decides to kill himself by jumping off a bridge, but at the very last minute, he listens to his favorite song."
The author of the piece writes: "I reached out to the book’s fact-checker to ask whether this and several other stories from the book had been verified, but she did not respond."
The Atlantic also got its hands on his book proposal. There are even more incredible stories in it. As a teenager, Arday got hit by a car and went into a coma. The doctor told his parents to pull the plug, but he refused. There's also a bout of testicular cancer that shows up in the proposal but is not in the book.
I guess there wasn't enough room for all of that given all of the other amazing stories in his life.
Oh, and the book isn't being pulled. Simon & Schuster are still going to publish it next week. The haters are just one more obstacle Arday has overcome.