Philanthrocapitalism U (A Tale of Today, Episode #7)
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A Morehouse college commencement speaker makes an extraordinary financial commitment, but there’s a “profound story” to tell about the durable funding of HBCUs in the US since the Gilded Age [12:00]. How does philanthrocapitalism work? [42:00] What is the Double Tax? [48:00] How might EdTech extract “intellectual capital” from HBCUs? [54:00] Can the second curriculum be sustained inside a philanthrocapitalist university? [64:00] Are HBCUs the vanguard of a new era of disruption to education? [74:00]
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Cast (in order of appearance):
Andrew Douglas is Professor and Chair of Political Science at Morehouse College and the co-author of Prophet of Discontent (U. Georgia, 2021). He is also author of “Modern Money & The Black University Concept” for Money On The Left.
Jared Loggins is Assistant Professor of Black Studies & Political Science at Amherst College and the co-author of Prophet of Discontent (U. Georgia, 2021).
Kelly Grotke is a founding co-partner in the Pattern Recognition Research Collective. She has written about education finance for American Prospect, Inside Higher Ed, and The Oberlin Review.
Crystal Sanders is Associate Professor of African American Studies at Emory University and the author of A Forgotten Migration (UNC Press, 2024)
Jelani Favors is Henry E. Frye Distinguished Professor of History at North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State University and Director of the Center of Excellence for Social Justice. He is the author of Shelter In A Time of Storm (UNC Press, 2020).
Dominique Baker is Associate Professor of Education & Public Policy at University of Delaware. She has published extensively on intersections of race, political economy, and education funding.
Matt Seybold is Associate Professor of American Literature & Mark Twain Studies at Elmira College, as well as resident scholar at the Center For Mark Twain Studies and executive producer of The American Vandal Podcast.
Soundtrack:
All music for this season of The American Vandal Podcast comes from the Tennessee-based roots ensemble DownRiver Collective. Most of the tracks come from their most recent EP, Off The Shelf. You can purchase it direct from the band here. It’s also available on Spotify and Apple Music.
Tracks featured in this episode include “Kettleridge,” “Steam Whistle,” “Dead To Me,” “As It Was,” and “Days Don’t Stop.”
Narration:
Excerpts from Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner’s The Gilded Age come from the audiobook edition produced by SNR Audio and narrated by Nathan Osgood. Available at Audible, as well as other audiobook retailers. SNR has an extensive catalog of professionally-narrated adaptations of 19th-century Anglophone fiction, including The Complete Mark Twain Collection.
Nathan Osgood is an actor and voice artist who has being appearing in films, scripted television, video games, podcasts, and audiobooks since the mid-’90s. In 2018, he played Mark Twain in the Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly vehicle, Holmes and Watson.
Excerpts in this episode come from chapter 43.
Episode Bibliography:
James D. Anderson, The Education of Blacks in The South, 1860-1935 (UNC Press, 1988)
Dominique Baker et al, “Expanding The Student Persistence Puzzle to Minority Serving Institutions: The Residential Historically Black College & University Context” Journal of College Student Retention (February 2021)
Dominique Baker & Tolani Britton, “Hate Crimes & Black College Student Enrollment” Education Finance & Policy (Spring 2024)
Dominique Baker, “A Case Study of Undergraduate Debt, Repayment Plans, & Postbaccalaureate Decision-Making Among Black Students at HBCUs” Journal of Student Financial Aid (June 2019)
Ron Chernow, Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller Sr. (Random House, 1998)
Tressie McMillan Cottom, Lower Ed: The Troubling Rise of For-Profit Colleges In The New Economy (New Press, 2017)
Marco DiMaggio, Ankit Kalda, & Vincent Yao. “Second Chance: Life Without Student Debt” NBER (2019)
Cory Doctorow, “‘Enshittification’ is Coming For Absolutely Everything” Financial Times (February 8, 2024)
Andrew Douglas, “Modern Money & The Black University Concept” Money On The Left (April 19, 2024)
Andrew Douglas & Jared Loggins, Prophet of Discontent: Martin Luther King Jr. & The Critique of Racial Capitalism (U Georgia P, 2021)
Andrew Douglas & Jared Loggins, “The Lost Promise of Black Study” Boston Review (September 28, 2021)
W.E.B. Du Bois, The Souls of Black Folk (1903)
W.E.B. Du Bois, Black Reconstruction in America, 1860-1880 (1935)
W.E.B. Du Bois, “The Field & Function of the American Negro College” (1933)
W.E.B. Du Bois, The Education of Black People: Ten Critiques, 1906-1960 (1973) [2001 Monthly Review Edition]
Jelani Favors, Shelter In A Time Of Storm: How Black Colleges Fostered Generations of Leadership & Activism (UNC Press, 2020)
Todd Feathers, “This Private Equity Firm Is Amassing Companies That Collect Data on America’s Children” The Markup (January 11, 2022)
Bryant Morey French, Mark Twain & The Gilded Age: The Book That Named An Era (Southern Methodist UP, 1965)
Jarvis R. Givens, Fugitive Pedagogy: Carter G. Woodson & The Art of Black Teaching (Harvard UP, 2023)
Kelly Grotke & Stephen Hastings-King, “Broadening The Divestment Debate Beyond DOI” Inside Higher Ed (October 11, 2024)
Kelley Grotke, et al. “College Finances Lack Adequate Transparency” The Oberlin Review (December 3, 2021)
Fredric Jameson, An American Utopia: Dual Power & The Universal Army (Verso, 2016)
Audre Lorde, “The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle The Master’s House” from Sister Outside (Ten Speed, 1984)
Kenneth W. Rose, “John D. Rockefeller, The American Baptist Education Society, & The Growth of Baptist Higher Education in the Midwest” Rockefeller Archive (1998)
Crystal R. Sanders, A Forgotten Migration: Black Southerners, Segregation Scholarships, & The Debt Owed to Public HBCUs (UNC Press, 2024)
Matt Seybold, “Jason Wingard’s EdTech Griftopia” Los Angeles Review of Books (February 23, 2023)
Matt Seybold, “Putting The ‘If’ in ‘Enrollment Cliff'” The American Vandal (March 5, 2024)
Matt Seybold et al, “Ponzi Austerity in The Age of Cultural Abundance” The American Vandal Podcast (August 21, 2023)
Matt Seybold et al, “Ponzi Austerity & The Monolingual University” The American Vandal Podcast (August 25, 2023)
Matt Seybold et al, “The Racist Interpretation Complex” The American Vandal Podcast (August 28, 2023)
Matt Seybold et al, “Ed Tech, AI, & The Unbundling of Research & Teaching” The American Vandal Podcast (November 2, 2023)
Kadhim Shubber, “How Robert Smith Played Hardball with IRS Over Unpaid Taxes” Financial Times (October 17, 2020)
Robert F. Smith, 135th Commencement Address, Morehouse College (2019)
Mark Twain & Charles Dudley Warner, The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today (1873) [2006 Modern Library Edition]
Booker T. Washington, “Atlanta Exposition Speech” (1895)