美国企业如何利用黑人文化，这是一个令人惊讶且引人入胜的现象。
打开阿尔文·艾利美国舞蹈剧院的小册子，你会看到美国运通等公司的标识。访问阿波罗剧院的网站，你会注意到对可口可乐和花旗银行等公司的感谢。小马丁·路德·金纪念馆和非裔美国人历史文化国家博物馆的存在，都要归功于通用汽车等公司的巨额企业捐赠。虽然我们可以很容易地理解需要这些资金来维持文化空间，但企业给予它们的理由却不那么明显。帕特里夏·A·班克斯（Patricia A.Banks）在《黑人文化公司》（Black Culture，Inc.）一书中质疑了这种捐赠完全是利他主义的观点，并主张更深入地理解导致美国企业依赖黑人文化的隐藏交易。
银行利用一系列来源，例如关于企业文化赞助的公共关系和广告文本，以及在赞助文化活动中的观察，认为黑人文化赞助通过表明企业重视多样性、公平性和包容性来为企业带来利润。通过以这种方式运作，对黑人文化倡议的支持为这些公司提供了所谓的“多元化资本”，在当今的商业环境中，这是一种越来越有价值的商品。虽然这并不一定会削弱文化赞助所带来的社会效益，但它揭示了它的秘密成本：族裔社区的支持可能会掩盖社会公正方面本来就很糟糕的记录。
班克斯巧妙地运用创新理论，通过详细观察和敏锐的批判性眼光，审视渗透在纪念馆、博物馆和旨在庆祝黑人文化的音乐节中的各种议程。在歧视性做法的指控立即遭到法律和社会谴责之际，这里提供的见解是紧迫和必要的。
Black Culture, Inc.: How Ethnic Community Support Pays for Corporate America (Culture and Economic Life)
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.
OR
