A surprising and fascinating look at how Black culture has been leveraged by corporate America.
Open the brochure for the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, and you'll see logos for corporations like American Express. Visit the website for the Apollo Theater, and you'll notice acknowledgments to corporations like Coca Cola and Citibank. The Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial and the National Museum of African American History and Culture, owe their very existence to large corporate donations from companies like General Motors. And while we can easily make sense of the need for such funding to keep cultural spaces afloat, less obvious are the reasons that corporations give to them. In Black Culture, Inc., Patricia A. Banks interrogates the notion that such giving is completely altruistic, and argues for a deeper understanding of the hidden transactions being conducted that render corporate America dependent on Black culture.
Drawing on a range of sources, such as public relations and advertising texts on corporate cultural patronage and observations at sponsored cultural events, Banks argues that Black cultural patronage profits firms by signaling that they value diversity, equity, and inclusion. By functioning in this manner, support of Black cultural initiatives affords these companies something called "diversity capital," an increasingly valuable commodity in today's business landscape. While this does not necessarily detract from the social good that cultural patronage does, it reveals its secret cost: ethnic community support may serve to obscure an otherwise poor track record with social justice.
Banks deftly weaves innovative theory with detailed observations and a discerning critical gaze at the various agendas infiltrating memorials, museums, and music festivals meant to celebrate Black culture. At a time when accusations of discriminatory practices are met with immediate legal and social condemnation, the insights offered here are urgent and necessary.
Autorentext
Patricia A. Banks (Harvard University Ph.D. & A.M./Spelman College B.A.) is Professor of Sociology and a faculty member in the Program in Africana Studies and the Program in Entrepreneurship, Organizations, and Society at Mount Holyoke College. She is author of Represent: Art and Identity Among the Black Upper-Middle Class (2010).
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Chapter 1 introduces and elaborates the concept of diversity capital by placing it within the social science literatures on corporate philanthropy and sponsorships, race and cultural capital, and racial image management by corporations. It argues that ethnic community support is a form of diversity capital for businesses. By being a vehicle through which companies project an image of being inclusive and equitable, ethnic community support is a cultural practice that aligns with corporate interests. This insight not only deepens understanding of corporate philanthropy and sponsorships, but it advances theory on race and cultural capital. Although there is growing research on Black cultural capital as a practice that signals Black identity, this scholarship focuses on individuals.
Chapter 2 investigates corporate philanthropy and sponsorships at the Smithsonian in Washington, DC. Analyzing major corporate gifts and sponsorships at the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC), it shows how corporate patrons use diversity framing in owned and paid media around their support to make the case that they value inclusion and are connected and committed to African Americans. In a sharp departure from ethnic Smithsonian museums, gifts to majority museums at the complex, such as the National Museum of American History and the National Air and Space Museum, are less often used to make claims about corporate diversity. Conceptually, this chapter extends theory on Black cultural capital from individuals to organizations. Practically, it illustrates how in exchange for providing money to support national patrimony, corporations receive the benefit of improving their image.
Chapter 3 puts a spotlight on the commodification of symbols linked to Black freedom movements by examining the case of Denny's support of the National Civil Rights Museum (NCRM). Through the lens of this partnership, this chapter examines how Black community support is used by businesses to manage racial image crises. The soiled racial image of Denny's dates to the early 1990s when the company was accused of discriminating against Black customers. In 2002, Denny's was still addressing the aftermath of the discrimination claims and gave a large donation to NCRM. PR and advertising around the donation constructed an image of the company as a champion of diversity. While anti-discrimination laws and shifts in social norms championing diversity mean that it is in the interests of all corporations to project a diverse image, it is of the utmost importance for companies that have undergone a racial image crisis.
Chapter 4 turns attention to Big Tobacco. Close to 85 percent of Black smokers use menthol cigarettes as opposed to less than one-third of white smokers. The higher rate of menthol cigarette use among Black smokers is partly attributable to targeted advertising in the Black media. However, the role of the Black media in promoting menthol cigarettes in editorial pages has been largely overlooked. Examining the case of the Kool Jazz Festival, a music concert sponsored by the tobacco company Brown & Williamson (B&W) in the 1970s and 1980s, this chapter outlines how advertisements, along with editorial content in Black newspapers, promoted menthol cigarettes to African Americans.
Chapter 5 takes a close look at the Essence Festival. While it is well recognized that the event draws major corporate sponsors like Coca-Cola, McDonald's, and AT&T because of the opportunity to market to Black consumers, less is known about the specific processes through which businesses engage eventgoers at the festival. Drawing on observations at the Essence Festival, along with various texts related to the event, this chapter outlines the mechanisms through which Black consumers become engaged with brands at the festival. Building on research on the ways that music influences action, consciousness, and emotion, it outlines how popular R&B, hip hop, and gospel music played in the New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Center draws festivalgoers to corporate booths where they are exposed to corporate branding.
Chapter 6 examines the fast food industry. Despite growing warnings that fast food is harmful to health, it remains popular among diners in the United States, especially African Americans. To cast light on the role of cultural sponsorships in marketing fast food to Black diners, this chapter goes inside the Inspiration Celebration Gospel Tour. This annual gospel concert, which is sponsored by fast food giant McDonald's, travels to different cities across the United States. Drawing on participant observation at the event, along with PR texts, such as press releases and online postings, this chapter outlines how this gospel music sponsorship conveys an image of McDonald's as Black and sacred to African American consumers.
Chapter 7 explores how consumers co-create the racial images of companies that sponsor Black cultural events by examining corporate portrait…