Originally posted at: The People’s Book Project.
The following is an excerpt from a chapter on the birth of the
American Empire in an upcoming book by Andrew Gavin Marshall, as part of
The People’s Book Project.
Note: the following is still in draft form, and is not by any means a
final product, but more just to serve as a sample of the information and
perspectives which will be articulated throughout the entire project.
For the previous excerpt from this chapter, directly preceding this preview, see: “An Education for Empire: The Rockefeller, Carnegie and Ford Foundations in the Construction of Knowledge.”
Note: the following excerpt is largely derived from information
published in Richard Arnove’s “Philanthropy and Cultural Imperialism:
The Foundations at Home and Abroad.”
The Rockefellers Engineer Black Education
The education which facilitated American imperial expansion around
the world was not situated within the Western imperial powers alone, but
was simultaneously expanded into the ‘Global South’, those regions of
the world which America and the West sought to dominate. This was a
pivotal aspect of the imperial project, as it was imperative for America
to rule the world, but in a fashion not so reminiscent of the previous
age of empires, where domination and empire were openly acknowledged and
propagated. Following the two world wars which were the result of a
clash of empires, the notion of imperial domination outright was largely
discredited. Therefore, the era of ‘informal empire’ came to dominate:
imperialism without formal colonization. This project necessarily
involved the creation and support of domestic elites in the countries
which were targeted for domination.
To prop up a domestic elite which would be subservient to foreign
(i.e., Western) interests, an educational system had to be constructed
which would produce foreign elites that were indoctrinated with
hegemonic ideology, and would thus come to see ‘cooperation’ with the
West, and the opening up of their domestic resources to foreign
corporations not as a capitulation to a foreign dominator, but as a
necessary part of the process of ‘development’.
In the first half of the 20th century, the Rockefeller
Foundation and Carnegie Corporation undertook joint projects aimed at
constructing an education system for black Americans in the South as
well as for black Africans in several British colonies. In 1911, the
Phelps-Stokes Fund was chartered with the purpose of managing “the
education of Negroes both in Africa and the United States.” This
restrictive educational system for black Americans had already been
institutionalized, beginning with the ‘philanthropic’ endeavours of Wall
Street bankers and northern industrialists and capitalists at several
conferences in 1898. The education was constructed on the basis that, as
one conference participant stated, “the white people are to be the
leaders, to take the initiative, to have direct control in all matters
pertaining to civilization and the highest interest of our beloved land.
History demonstrates that the Caucasian will rule, and he ought to
rule.” As one conference organizer stated:
Time has proven that [the ‘negro’] is best fitted to perform the heavy labor in the Southern states… He will willingly fill the more menial positions, and do the heavy work, at less wages, than the American white man or any foreign race… This will permit the Southern white laborer to perform the more expert labor, and to leave the fields, the mines, and the simple trades for the negro.[1]
The conferences resulted in what became known as the ‘Tuskegee
educational philosophy,’ which was decided upon by 1901. Three major
decisions were taken at the conferences. The first major decision was
that “it was necessary that provision be made to train a Negro
leadership cadre”:
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