
Patricia A. Banks earned a Ph.D. and A.M. from Harvard
“The Racial Return,” chapter 2 in the book, reveals, through the lens of the National Museum of African American History and Culture, how strategic partnerships between organizations in the nonprofit and private sectors can be mutually beneficial. When NMAAHC opened in 2016, it became the first African American Museum on the National Mall. This museum, now widely regarded as a national and international treasure, took over five hundred million dollars to build. The corporate sector contributed millions of dollars towards this effort. For example, firms such as Bank of America, Target, and Walmart made seven-figure donations. Black Culture, Inc. shows how their donations weren’t just a win for the Smithsonian and the public; they were also a win for the corporate donors. Companies used PR about their gifts to project an image that they are deeply committed to African Americans.This chapter also reveals how firms use donations to other Smithsonian museums to construct various aspects of their public image. For example, companies use gifts to the National Museum of the American Indian to burnish their reputation as valuing diversity and Native Americans, and companies in the aerospace industry use contributions to the National Air and Space Museum to construct an image of being a leading firm in that line of business.“Cultivating Consumers,” chapter 4 in the book, is also of particular interest to many readers. It focuses on the Kool Jazz Festival, sponsored by the tobacco company Brown & Williamson in the 1970s and 1980s. In this chapter, I show how the company used its festival sponsorship to promote tobacco products, including its menthol line of Kool cigarettes, to the Black community. This is an important historical story to uncover because even today, Black smokers consume menthol cigarette at a higher rate than White smokers do. Amidst current efforts to establish a national law prohibiting menthol cigarettes, some advocates for the ban charge tobacco companies with targeted marketing of menthol cigarettes to Black smokers. By analyzing diversity capital in the context of Big Tobacco, Chapter 4 offers essential insight into this policy debate.Black Culture, Inc. demonstrates that there is an important role for the corporate sector to play in addressing social concerns, such as providing a wider public with access to the arts and racial equity. For example, corporate donations help to establish museums like the National Museum of African American History and Culture, which is the first Black Museum on the National Mall; sustain cultural institutions such as the National Civil Rights Museum, which preserves the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.; and make possible music festivals like Afropunk, which is the first major art event to feature Black musicians in the punk scene.Black Culture, Inc. also reminds us that although there is the potential for corporate support to benefit both the public and the firms, it does not always reach its full potential. In some cases, corporate support for ethnic causes draws attention away from corporate activities not conducive to racial equity and social equity more broadly.Black Culture, Inc. also makes significant theoretical advancements around cultural capital and race. Although previous research, such as my books Represent and Diversity and Philanthropy at African American Museums, shows how cultural practices linked to ethnoracial minorities serve as cultural capital for individuals, Black Culture, Inc. is the first text to elaborate in-depth how cultural practices tied to ethnoracial minorities serve as cultural capital for organizations. Although Black Culture, Inc. focuses on ethnic community support, diversity capital is a concept that can illuminate other organizational practices related to racial image management, such as the types of food served in cafeterias, the types of art displayed in offices, and the types of people and languages showcased in promotional brochures.Diversity capital is also a concept that can be applied to cast light on organizational image management related to other minority groups, such as women and people in the LGBTQ community. For example, corporate donations to the Human Rights Campaign, an organization that advocates for LGBTQ equity, and Girls Who Code, a nonprofit focused on increasing the number of women in computer science, can be understood through the lens of diversity capital.

Patricia Banks Black Culture, Inc.: How Ethnic Community Support Pays for Corporate America Stanford University Press240 pages, 6 1/4 x 9 1/4 inches ISBN 9781503606777
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