Let Suffering Speak
By Domonic Rollins
Last Wednesday, Dr. Cornel West spoke at the Ed School. The audience in Askwith Hall that came to listen to Dr. West speak was full and diverse. Personally, I have followed his work and he inspires my thoughts and my actions. His talk touched on so many topics, but one quote stayed with me: “The condition of truth is to allow suffering to speak.” Dr. West shared this idea as an adaption from The Speculative Moment in Adorno’s Negative Dialectics.
Collectively, we shy away from listening to those who suffer. This is for many reasons. Often, I believe we do not want to hear the pain of others, as we do not know how to hold nor respond to others’ pain. Suffering is evident in our world; everywhere you turn you can see it. Yet, few of us allow ourselves to be moved by it. Personally, I know I do not engage or speak with people in need as I travel and commute. I also change the television station quickly away from examples of the poor and impoverished. I am no different than most, trying to shield myself from the overwhelming pain that seems to just be in the air.
Yet people’s suffering — current and historic — must be engaged. Dr. West’s quote is significant as Columbus Day is recognized. The debate, question, or conversation regarding what this holiday should be called has been open and alive in many communities for years. While it is still federally recognized as Columbus Day, many local jurisdictions have renamed it Indigenous Peoples’ Day. At Harvard, this conversation remains open as some schools have decided to recognize Indigenous Peoples’ Day and others continue to recognize Columbus Day.
One must wonder: Why now is a possible truth about the discovery of the United States available, heard, and understood in a way to consider changing the name of a holiday that was established 80 years ago? In part, I believe Why now? is answered through the continual effort of many communities to speak their truth and ensure that a more complete and accurate history is available for people to wrestle with and ponder. In this specific holiday example, when we listen to the stories of Indigenous people we learn and understand something different than what most of us learned about our shared history.
A recurring theme in how we understand history, and by extension some version of the truth, is shaped through the lens, story, and perspective of those who get to tell history. And to “get” to tell history means that you are positioned, privileged, and likely in power to determine what history is or is not. When I lean in to Dr. West’s quote — “The condition of truth is to allow suffering to speak.” — I am drawn to listen to those without power and those who have not been positioned to shape, create, or produce the conditions of their experience.
Now, I understand this is a big idea, after all Dr. West is a public philosopher. Yet, there are real applications to our education spaces, especially when suffering is interpreted more broadly. Our students do not create the conditions of their experience in our classrooms, yet they are expected to learn. If you want to know the truth about your classroom, you must listen to your students. If you want to know the truth about your teaching, you must listen to your students. And, if you want to know the truth about students’ lives, you must also listen to your students.
Power cannot create the truth, as it alone knows its intentions; truth rests in the impact of power on those who intimately experience it.
Domonic A. Rollins, Ph.D., is HGSE’s inaugural Senior Diversity & Inclusion Officer.
