Cornell on Fire Post 11/6: On Love and Rage
Portrait by Robert Shetterly for Americans Who Tell the Truth.
Dear Cornell on Fire,
Yesterday, half the people of the US voted for Trump. For many of us, the election results feel like hearing that someone (or everyone) we love is dying.
They are. From the trees to the oceans to our children, death is a condition being accelerated by climate and ecological breakdown and the politics that reward it. But we cannot forget that death has always been the condition of “progress” under colonialism and capitalism – including its forms of education.*
On Monday, an overflowing crowd gathered at Mann Library for a panel on “Indigenous Perspectives in Education.” Speaking across disciplines, four panelists offered compelling data and moving remarks on the need to undertake reparations and incorporate Indigenous knowledge into higher education.
The panel prompted a graduate student to ask about incorporating different ways of knowing into our classrooms: “I have pitched this to some of my professors before, and the answer I get a lot of the time is, ‘Well we use the scientific method because it’s the best way to understand science or biological questions.’ Do you have any advice for this sort of reaction from professors?”
Panelist and Assistant Professor of Human-Centered Design Renata Leitao responded: “It’s funny…[so] that’s the best way to get to know things. But then I ask: is this the best way to learn how to act? How to build something? Just an example. We know about the climate crisis. We have even more emissions now than five years ago…Yes, you generate knowledge. But is this knowledge the kind of knowledge that allows us to create change, to act? You can analyze everything, but does this kind of way of knowing allow you to have wise decisions, to really change in a way to ensure the future of anyone alive on the planet? No. No. No!”
She points to a basic flaw in the Western ontology that dominates spaces like Cornell. While the scientific method may not be inherently opposed to acting, there is a (mis)perception among many academics that they should be "objective," and that taking action or suggesting normative outcomes (like survival) somehow compromise their "objectivity." Their belief that knowledge can and must be “neutral” leads to them to dismiss alternative perspectives as "advocacy science." In the disciplines of environmental science, Esther Turnhout argues that the results have been devastating: “environmental science has been reduced to the accountant of destruction; a detached bystander that calculates and reports on the end of the world as accurately as possible. Its subsequent calls for action are not just stunted, but also elitist and unjust.”
In many Indigenous (and non-Indigenous) circles, knowledge comes explicitly attached to responsibility. The responsibility for knowledge to inform action is presumed from the very beginning of education.
What if higher education followed this ethic? Imagine. Cornell wouldn’t just give grants for research on climate change, they would act on those research findings. It would enact the advice of their prominent scientists, historians, leaders, and trustees rather than tweeting them as PR opportunities. Doing so, Cornell would accurately report their upstream methane emissions, to reveal that they have not reduced campus emissions since they began tracking progress in 2008.(!) They would take #ClimateActionNow. They would remove powerful trustees who have conflicts of interest with the oil and gas industry and the military. They would engage in discussions around reparations with the hundreds of Native communities impacted by their land grab. They would honor the request for one acre of land back from the Ojibwe community whose mineral rights Cornell still retains.
In reality, none of this is happening. Cornell’s celebratory neoliberal rhetoric is neatly divorced from their actions. This prompted a question from Jane Mt. Pleasant, Tuscarora, Faculty Emeritus in the School of Integrative Plant Science: “How do you contain your anger against this institution? Every time I hear parts of this story, I become enraged. How do you contain that rage?”
It’s an excellent question that recalls a message from Robin Wall Kimmerer: “We are called to a movement made of equal parts outrage and love.”
The time-tested channel for love and outrage is activism. Indeed, history shows that grassroots activism is one of the most powerful tools we have. Empirical evidence bears that out in the case of both radical and moderate climate campaigns. In this national moment of mourning, remember: the most effective forms of activism are directed at the institutions we can touch.**
As you go about life in the wake of a destabilizing election that will further destabilize our climate, be attuned to your rage. It flows from what we love and urges us to close the gap between rhetoric and action. You can personally help close that gap by directing energy toward ensuring that your own values, your university’s values, and your community’s values, are enacted rather than talked about. Here are some ideas:
Write to thank someone who is leading the way on activism + scholarship.
Express your gratitude to the American Indian and Indigenous Studies Program (AIISP) at Cornell, who co-hosted Monday’s panel and continue to offer truth-telling initiatives on campus.
Attend one meeting of an activism group. You may not realize how helpful your perceptions of our work can be! Check out our Alliance Partners or join our meeting Nov. 13th, 1-2:30, in our Zoom room.
Join a post-election action on Friday the 15th at 3:30 at Bernie Milton Pavilion, to rally in the wake of the election and reckon with the results and their implications for the climate crisis.
Here’s to a movement of equal parts outrage and love.
Yours,
Cornell on Fire
*Footnote from Esther Turnhout’s new article “A better knowledge is possible” (2024):
As Yusoff (2018, p xiii) writes: “If the Anthropocene proclaims a sudden concern with the exposures of environmental harm to white liberal communities, it does so in the wake of histories in which these harms have been knowingly exported to black and brown communities under the rubric of civilization, progress, modernization, and capitalism. The Anthropocene might seem to offer a dystopic future that laments the end of the world, but imperialism and ongoing (settler) colonialisms have been ending worlds for as long as they have been in existence. The Anthropocene as a politically infused geology and scientific/popular discourse is just now noticing the extinction it has chosen to continually overlook in the making of its modernity and freedom.” Moreover, Yusoff (2018) suggests that science furthers colonialism as it subsequently casts the West - a West that has now woken up to the fact that it might no longer be able to protect itself against its destructive tendencies - as the savior of the world.
**Ironically, we initially cited Drawdown for the concept of activism directed at “the institutions we can touch,” because the concept was put forward in a Drawdown course developed by Will Grant of the Pachamama Alliance. But when Drawdown came under new leadership, they forbid the Pachamama Alliance from continuing to teach that course under the name “Drawdown” because bringing in Indigenous content was seen as a threat to the new director’s emphasis on “rigorous scientific analysis.” We now directly cite Will Grant and the Pachamama Alliance for the concept.
Special Announcements in the wake of the presidential election:
This could not be a better moment to seed new politicians. We’re happy to announce our member Anna Siegel’s newest initiative: the Maine Youth Political Portal! Made by youth, for youth interested in running for office. While it was developed for Maine, the website is a unique and incredible toolbox for civic education and candidacy-building no matter what your state of residence. Check out the portal and spread the word over facebook, twitter, and instagram!
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Plurivocality: CoF Posts are written by a revolving team of writers. Our movement is diverse, so are our thoughts, and so will be our posts. If you receive a CoF Post that you think is wrong headed, can we still walk together? (We, like you, sometimes write things we later laugh at!)
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