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\"A surprising and fascinating look at how Black culture has been leveraged by corporate America, this book addresses some of today's most pressing public debates around allyship and diversity. 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 trans

Patricia A. Banks traverses the New York and Atlanta art worlds to uncover how black identities are cultivated through black art patronage. Drawing on over 100 in-depth interviews, observations at arts events, and photographs of art displayed in homes, Banks elaborates a racial identity theory of consumption that highlights how upper-middle class blacks forge black identities for themselves and their children through the consumption of black visual art. She not only challenges common assumptions about elite cultural participation, but also contributes to the heated debate about the significance of race for elite blacks, and illuminates recent art world developments. In doing so, Banks documents how the salience of race extends into the cultural life of even the most socioeconomically successful blacks. Patricia A. Banks is Assistant Professor of Sociology at Mount Holyoke College. 1. Constructing Black Identities 2. Seeing Ourselves: A Portrait of Cultural Participation and Image 3. Collective Memories: A Portrait of Cultural Participation and the Past 4. Measures of Worth: A Portrait of Cultural Participation and Dignity 5. Advancing the Race: A Portrait of Cultural Participation and Community 6. Race, Cultural Participation, and the Black Middle-Class. Appendix: Research Sites and Research Procedures

Scholars argue that black middle-class lifestyles revolve around the negotiation of class and racial boundaries. To gain elite privilege or connect with black roots, middle-class blacks turn to cultural objects such as music, clothing, and language. Using the case of visual art, I problematize this prevailing depiction of black middle-class cultural consumption and identity. My central argument is that middle-class blacks use cultural consumption to reproduce and transcend class and color lines. Drawing on 103 in-depth interviews with middle-class blacks in New York and Atlanta, and photographs of art in their homes, I develop and empirically demonstrate a nested-identity framework for analyzing black middle-class consumption of visual art. I argue that at the most intimate level art is a medium that allows middle-class blacks to define their individuality; at the next level it allows them to give concrete expression to membership in particularistic groups, both black and middle-class; and finally, on the broadest level, art allows middle-class blacks to create a sense of connection to other racial and class groups. A secondary goal of my dissertation is to refine existing theories on racial and class identities and black middle-class consumption. I extend theory on the former by outlining the specific dimensions of racial identity that are linked to cultural objects, and by showing how black immigrants preserve ethnic distinctions through art. I advance theory on the latter by illustrating how art consumption maintains middle-class identity by sensitizing black elites to financial freedom and constraints.

Home Girls, the pioneering anthology of Black feminist thought, features writing by Black feminist and lesbian activists on topics both provocative and profound. Since its initial publication in 1983, it has become an essential text on Black women's lives and contains work by many of feminism's foremost thinkers. This edition features an updated list of contributor biographies and an all-new preface that provides Barbara Smith the opportunity to look back on forty years of the struggle, as well as the influence the work in this book has had on generations of feminists. The preface from the previous Rutgers edition remains, as well as all of the original pieces, set in a fresh new package.  Contributors: Tania Abdulahad, Donna Allegra, Barbara A. Banks, Becky Birtha, Cenen, Cheryl Clarke, Michelle Cliff, Michelle T. Clinton, Willi (Willie) M. Coleman, Toi Derricotte, Alexis De Veaux, Jewelle L. Gomez, Akasha (Gloria) Hull, Patricia Spears Jones, June Jordan, Audre Lorde, Raymina Y. Mays, Deidre McCalla, Chirlane McCray, Pat Parker, Linda C. Powell, Bernice Johnson Reagon, Spring Redd, Gwendolyn Rogers, Kate Rushin, Ann Allen Shockley, Barbara Smith, Beverly Smith, Shirley O. Steele, Luisah Teish, Jameelah Waheed, Alice Walker, and Renita J. Weems.

Background: Transcript abundance (TA) measurement in whole blood frequently is conducted to identify potential biomarkers for disease risk and to predict or monitor drug response. Potential biomarkers discovered in this way must be validated by quantitative technology. In this study we assessed the use of standardized reverse transcription PCR (StaRT-PCR™) to validate potential biomarkers discovered through whole blood TA profiling. Methods: For each of 15 healthy volunteers, 6 blood samples were obtained, including 3 samples at each of 2 separate visits. Total variation in TA for each gene was partitioned into replicate, sample, visit, study participant, and residual components. Results: Variation originating from technical processing was <5% of total combined variation and was primarily preanalytical. Interindividual biological sample variation was larger than technical variation. For 12 of 19 tests, the distribution of measured values was gaussian (Shapiro–Wilks test). Conclusion: For control or diseased population groups with variation rates as low as those observed in this control group, 17 individuals per group would be required to detect 1 SD change with 80% power with a 2-sided α = 0.05 statistical test for mean differences.