Synopses & Reviews
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 Corporationand#8217;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 thoughtand#151;black feminism, black internationalism, and the black radical traditionand#151;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 peopleand#8217;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.
About the Author
Tiffany Willoughby-Herard is Assistant Professor of African American Studies at the University of California, Irvine.and#160; Her research on the construction of the social identity and#147;poor whitesand#8221; in South Africa examines philanthropic organizations, scientific racism, and social science knowledge production in the U.S. and South Africa. In addition to addressing continuities and relationships between the racial politics of South Africa and the U.S., she makes an intervention into political theory and comparative racial politics through the concepts and#147;global whitenessand#8221; and and#147;white misery.and#8221;
She conducts research on black political thought in the areas of black internationalism, black and Third World feminisms, black economic justice campaigns, and the black radical tradition. She has published in numerous academic journals including: African Identities, Social Justice, New Political Science, the National Political Science Review, Kroeber Anthropological Society Papers, Race and Class, and Cultural Dynamics.
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Table of Contents
List of Illustrations
Preface: Possessions, Belonging, Companionship, or Donand#8217;t Mind the Gap
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, Inefficient . . . Black
5. Origin Stories about Segregationist Philanthropy
6. Carnegie in Africa and the Knowledge Politics of Apartheid: Research Agendas not Taken
7. and#147;Iand#8217;ll Give You Something to Cry Aboutand#8221;: 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