Jesse W. Torgerson

Yesterday during a lab meeting, my mentor informed me that I may no longer progress in my career due to my so-called 'infamy.' I was told that I was to blame for the challenges I've been facing in publishing my work—that my 'negative' political activism might be provoking the particularly unusual hostility of peer reviewers. Apparently, several 'respectable' figures in the scientific community have contacted him to voice their disapproval and even urged him to terminate my employment. This also highlights how the cowardly silence of my 'allies' perpetuates bigotry and exclusion. To my 'colleagues' who feel entitled to pass judgment on my existence as a Palestinian scientist—one who cannot turn away from the human instinct to preserve life while witnessing the daily murder of my people—I regret to inform you that I will continue to exist, unapologetically, with no regard for your comfort or supremacist ideals. Fortunately, science is not confined to institutions. It lives in my mind and heart, and I can enjoy it fully—even from the solitude of my imagination; even if I were to become homeless. Home, however, is precisely what I am fighting for. I only wish I had the privilege to contemplate nature, without the existential threat of Zionism. From my perspective at the margins here at MIT, I have come to see academia for what it truly is: a stronghold of racism, classism, and spiritual rot masquerading as enlightenment. Apologies in advance if I don’t respond to comments on this post—this is a deeply personal reflection, shared primarily for myself.