In his final act of contrition prior to retirement President L. Rafael Reif has determined that the only way MIT can cleanse itself of its racist and colonialist past is to return the land upon which the university was built to its rightful indigenous owners.
MIT’s defective Land Acknowledgment is not enough. A decade before becoming MIT’s third president in 1881 Francis Amasa Walker, for whom a building is still shamefully named, played a key role in advancing the reservation system. His moral failings bequeath original sin upon the entire MIT community, confirming that we are all guilty of indigenous genocide. After intense study the 32 full-time MIT Solve staff members along with the leadership of MIT’s Intercultural Engagement Program unanimously agree that the stolen land, actually recovered from the Charles River Basin but who’s counting, must be surrendered.
MIT’s Distinguished Fellow in Native American Studies has commenced negotiations with the Massachusetts Gaming Commission and the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe to shift their planned First Light casino project from Taunton to 77 Mass Ave.
Photoshop credit: Jawad Baig