Waste Of A White Skin And#8211; The Carnegie Corporation And The Racial Logic Of White Vulnerability

"A pathbreaking history of the development of scientific racism, white nationalism, and segregationist philanthropy in the U.S. and South Africa in the early 20th century, Waste of a White Skin focuses on the American Carnegie Corporation's study of race in South Africa, The Poor White Study, and its influence on the creation of apartheid. This book demonstrates the ways in which U.S. elites supported apartheid and Afrikaner Nationalism in the critical period prior to 1948 through philanthropic interventions and shaping scholarly knowledge production. Rather than comparing racial democracies and their engagement with scientific racism, Willoughby-Herard outlines the ways in which a racial regime of 'global whiteness' constitutes domestic racial policies and in part animates black consciousness in seemingly disparate and discontinuous racial democracies. This book uses key paradigms in black political thought--black feminism, black internationalism, and the black radical tradition--to provide a richer account of poverty and work. Much of the scholarship on whiteness in South Africa overlooks the complex politics of white poverty and what they mean for the making of black political action and black people's presence in the economic system"--Provided by publisher. Read more... Abstract: Telling the history of the development of scientific racism, white nationalism, and segregationist philanthropy in the US and South Africa in the early twentieth century, this book focuses on the American Carnegie Corporation's study of race in South Africa, the Poor White Study, and its influence on the creation of apartheid. Read more... A pathbreaking history of the development of scientific racism, white nationalism, and segregationist philanthropy in the U.S. and South Africa in the early twentieth century, Waste of a White Skin focuses on the American Carnegie Corporation’s study of race in South Africa, the Poor White Study, and its influence on the creation of apartheid.

This book demonstrates the ways in which U.S. elites supported apartheid and Afrikaner Nationalism in the critical period prior to 1948 through philanthropic interventions and shaping scholarly knowledge production. Rather than comparing racial democracies and their engagement with scientific racism, Willoughby-Herard outlines the ways in which a racial regime of global whiteness constitutes domestic racial policies and in part animates black consciousness in seemingly disparate and discontinuous racial democracies. This book uses key paradigms in black political thought—black feminism, black internationalism, and the black radical tradition—to provide a rich account of poverty and work. Much of the scholarship on whiteness in South Africa overlooks the complex politics of white poverty and what they mean for the making of black political action and black people’s presence in the economic system.

Ideal for students, scholars, and interested readers in areas related to U.S. History, African History, World History, Diaspora Studies, Race and Ethnicity, Sociology, Anthropology, and Political Science. "A pathbreaking history of the development of scientific racism, white nationalism, and segregationist philanthropy in the U.S. and South Africa in the early 20th century, Waste of a White Skin focuses on the American Carnegie Corporation's study of race in South Africa, The Poor White Study, and its influence on the creation of apartheid. This book demonstrates the ways in which U.S. elites supported apartheid and Afrikaner Nationalism in the critical period prior to 1948 through philanthropic interventions and shaping scholarly knowledge production. Rather than comparing racial democracies and their engagement with scientific racism, Willoughby-Herard outlines the ways in which a racial regime of 'global whiteness' constitutes domestic racial policies and in part animates black consciousness in seemingly disparate and discontinuous racial democracies. This book uses key paradigms in black political thought ... black feminism, black internationalism, and the black radical tradition ... to provide a richer account of poverty and work. Much of the scholarship on whiteness in South Africa overlooks the complex politics of white poverty and what they mean for the making of black political action and black people's presence in the economic system" ... Provided by publisher Contents List of Illustrations Preface Introduction 1. Forgeries of History: The Poor White Study 2. The Visual Culture of White Poverty as the History of South Africa and the United States: Repetition, Rediscovery, Playing with Whiteness 3. The White Primitive: Whiteness Studies, Embodiment, Invisibility, Property 4. The Roots of White Poverty: Cheap, Lazy, Ineffi cient . . . Black 5. Origin Stories about Segregationist Philanthropy 6. Carnegie in Africa and the Knowledge Politics of Apartheid: Research Agendas not Taken 7. “I’ll Give You Something to Cry About”: The Intraracial Violence of Uplift Feminism in the Carnegie Poor White Study Volume, The Mother and Daughter of the Poor Family Conclusion: Race Makes Nation Acknowledgments Appendixes Notes Selected Bibliography Index This is an intellectual, political, and institutional history of scientific racist thought focused on the Carnegie Corporation's antipoverty philanthropy with 'poor whites' in South Africa, 1927-1932. The author traces the origins, analysis, and outcomes of the Carnegie Commission in apartheid law and in cultural and social organisations that synchronized Afrikaner Nationalism. She studies the conditions that shaped the study and of how the study was used in building South African social science about race and poverty