Cassi Pittman Claytor is the Climo Junior Professor in the Department of Sociology at Case Western Reserve University. Her scholarship examines the underlying social and cultural processes that affect African Americans' economic behavior. In 2017 she was awarded the Woodrow Wilson Foundation's Early Career Enhancement Fellowship and in 2018 she served as the Sheila Biddle Ford Foundation Fellow at the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University.
"With compelling storytelling and exciting theoretical insights,
Pittman Claytor addresses an understudied topic from a unique and
creative perspective. A must-read for anyone interested in
understanding how race operates in the marketplace." -- Corey
Fields * Georgetown University, author of Black Elephants in the
Room: The Unexpected Politics of African American Republicans
*
"A common view of consumption is that it is a source of alienation
for blacks. Cassi Pittman Claytor's incisive portrait of
consumption among those who are black and privileged challenges us
to rethink this view. In an engaging style, Pittman Claytor shows
how consumption is a resource for middle-class blacks as they
navigate a world where race still matters. Black Privilege
is an important and necessary addition to the literature on
consumption and inequality." -- Patricia A. Banks * Mount Holyoke
College, author of Diversity and Philanthropy at African
American Museums *
"Cassi Pittman Claytor skillfully uses the narratives of young
black professionals to illustrate that it's possible to be able to
afford a lifestyle of considerable luxury and leisure and still
maintain and cultivate bonds of racial solidarity across class
lines. Black Privilege is a crucial intervention in the
study of black life, and the study of class and culture in the
U.S." -- Mary Pattillo * author of Black on the Block: The
Politics of Race and Class in the City *
"A rich and nuanced portrait of the black middle class. Pittman
Claytor's insightful analysis should be read widely by college
students and wider audiences, for it skillfully and beautifully
mobilizes the sociological imagination to make the familiar and
taken-for-granted visible." -- Michele Lamont * co-author of
Getting Respect *
"This vivid account will be an eye-opener for white readers and
will deeply resonate with trained and educated blacks. Narrating
original data on race, class, and consumption, Black
Privilege is one of those rare studies that leave an indelible
impression on readers' minds." -- William Julius Wilson * Harvard
University *
"In this compelling ethnographic account of middle class Blacks in
New York City, Pittman Claytor breaks new ground in the study of
black cultural capital and the complex ways her subjects use
lifestyle practices to navigate race and class. A major
contribution to race, consumption, class, and urban studies. A
must-read and must-teach." -- Juliet Schor * author of After the
Gig *
"Cassi Pittman Claytor's Black Privilege brings rich
ethnographic detail to the study of the Black middle class. Showing
both the opportunities and restrictions of Black cultural
expression and consumption, Claytor expands our understanding of
the workings of privilege by underlying the necessity of
considering how it is racialized." -- Shamus Khan * Professor
author of Sexual Citizens *
"Black Privilege is a welcome addition to contemporary
research on the US Black middle class. What sets it apart is that
it treats the marketplace as a mainstage on which members of the
Black middle-class act out their joys and challenges in everyday
life. It focuses our attention on how these actors deploy their
skills, tastes, and practices-their Black cultural
capital-sometimes just to survive and at others to thrive." --
David Crockett * University of South Carolina *
"Cassi Pittman Claytor pushes the reader to think about the ways
the unique set of experiences, advantages, and opportunities of
members of the Black Middle Class are deployed through cultural and
material capital within and across race, class, and Black Middle
Class boundaries and identities in their neighborhoods, at work,
and amongst peers. This book is most compelling for its engagement
of cultural processes, the development of the concept of Black
cultural capital, and the author's methodology." -- Candice
Robinson * Social Forces *
"Black Privilegeoffers uncommon insight into the Black
middle-class, examining the critical importance of cultural embrace
in enjoying material comforts and overcoming racism. This must-read
is an eye-opener for anyone curious about the intricacies of Black
wealth and status advancement in America." -- Diamond-Michael Scott
* Great Books, Great Minds *
|
Ask a Question About this Product More... |
|
