Cornell University’s Alliance for White Supremacy
GMOs, NeoColonialism, & the American Dream
#MyAFSJourney #AllianceForScience
Updates:
Response to Cornell’s Statement on Julia Feliz
Students Condemn Cornell & Alliance for Science
I couldn’t contain my excitement!
I had gotten into a prestigious ivy league program at Cornell University. At 36 years old, me, a child raised by a single mother on the little island of Puerto Rico — who had had to give up their spot at other prestigious college programs and settle for public state university at 18 years old — had made it. My mother had celebrated my achievements of having been accepted to these other schools. Unfortunately, she was not even able to purchase a plane ticket for us to simply visit the schools or to afford the meal plans or housing despite my full scholarships.
This was finally going to be my year — my time to learn from the best, partake in deep discussions, and brainstorm on the interconnections between social justice and science. See, I had been accepted to Cornell University’s Alliance for Science, a program that claimed to be about science communication with a focus on biotechnology — and they had accepted my enrollment fully knowing that I was a scientist and social justice activist.
By the second month, however, I had my invitation to be a part of the program terminated, on Indigenous People’s Day, without warning and without good reason. An email from the director, Sarah Evanega asserted, “You have continued to utilize the classroom environment to discuss your dissatisfaction with the program…you are no longer allowed to participate in the program or attend sessions.” The letter emphasized that my dismissal from the program was immediate.
And just like that, the version of what an American Dream could be like for someone like me — someone that had worked hard and achieved in the hope of something better — was over. It was over for daring to speak up against the racism that I experienced in the program, and that no one did anything about. It was taken from me in retaliation for daring to take a stand for myself and the millions of marginalized people asking, “Why should we trust biotechnology?”
It didn’t take long to realize the program was not and is not what it seemed. According to the leads, I was the first Person of Color from the mainland US and Puerto Rico. I was the first AfroIndigenous Person from the US to have been invited to join the program despite it being run for five years.
On week three, I experienced a violent racist incident from an invited speaker. Quietly, through email — after two days of no communication on the incident — I expressed my disappointment to the director and program leads on how this was mishandled. They had not actually even acknowledged what this invited speaker had done. Instead, I was asked to remove myself from events and presentations. I was asked to consider going home. They had decided that my asking them to address the racism that I had experienced was more of a problem than actually taking a stand against racism. I politely declined going home, which Sarah Evanega insisted I consider since the program was about “biotechnology and not social justice.” I assured Evanega that I was committed to completing the program and using what I had learned in my work.
As a scientist and Person of Color from the US living in Trump’s America, I explained, I couldn’t exactly divorce the two. These issues matter to me, and to my communities, and were the very reasons why I wanted to be part of this program. As a Puerto Rican, despite being US citizens for well over one hundred years, we do not yet get to vote for the president. We do not have senators or representatives in Washington, DC. However, our little island is home to 85 percent of research and development of biotechnology crops, including corn, soy, and other hybrids. While my grandmother worked past 85 years old on the island — because Puerto Ricans make yearly salary levels below the US poverty level — the top 16 medications sold world-wide are made there. The island is home to the largest modular biotechnology plant producing human insulin and home to a key manufacturer of IV bags. Biotechnology is part of my and my people’s story. And if social justice is the working towards equality for human rights, accessibility, fairness, etc., then it is also part of my story.
However, that’s not the story Sarah Evanega wanted. The stories they wanted were those of my fellows, flown in by the Gates Foundation from Africa and Asia, thanking the Alliance for bringing them to the United States and an ivy league university. For days, the fellows were made to speak about their deepest struggles so they could be recorded and used on their social media in the name of biotechnology. Not mine though — mine spoke about real life issues of living with inequality even within biotechnology.
As I sit here digesting my failed American Dream, I realize now more than ever that I don’t regret accepting to come here — even though I have been bullied, harassed, intimidated, and kicked out for speaking up. I am leaving with a real-world example of this new concept that I had been unaware of. Neocolonialism, the use of pressure to control or influence other countries through capitalism, globalization, and cultural imperialism, is the one thing that I am grateful to the Alliance of White Supremacy at Cornell University for the opportunity to understand. In facing retaliation for speaking up, I can now clearly see just how little value Black, Brown, and Indigenous People from the United States are assigned. I see the ways biotechnology is simply one more way to exploit People of Color around the world — by selling them a taste of the American Dream that those of us on the mainland US will never really achieve if we speak up against injustice.
When the Alliance for White Supremacy at Cornell University attempts to deport you from your own country when you are a US citizen?
Makes me wonder how many times they have forcibly done this to fellows and students on VISAs.
How many promised American Dreams have they ruined?
How many of the fellows, all on US visas, are now under threat to not talk to support me or face being deported?
How many of the fellows, all on US visas, will be bullied, harassed, intimidated, and face retaliation for daring to speak up like I did?
Do you think this is OK?
