4-page-essay-17

In his essay, “Slavery and the American University,” Alex Carp quotes historian Craig Stephen

Wilder: “the high point of the African slave trade also marked, not coincidentally, the period in

which higher education in the colonies expanded most rapidly,” and describes how schools like

the University of Georgia sought to hide these shameful connections to the public. At the same

time, he presents the stories of academics at Princeton, Brown, and Georgetown who work

diligently to unpack and expose these cruel histories.

Similarly, in “Why is there so much Saudi Money in American Universities, Michael Sokolove

describes the MIT media lab, which he says exists thanks largely to contributions from

businesses like Aramco, Exxon Mobil, Shell and BP, and describes how universities help to

polish the reputation of corrupt tyrants. That being said, he also describes academics like Ruth

Perry and Shireen Al-Adeimi who protest and expose the Saudi royal family’s crimes.

Therefore, both authors express ambivalence in their depiction of how universities and

professional academics interface with the problem of their schools accepting immoral money.

Question:

How do American universities expose or conceal the crimes of our economic

system?