Art, identity, and the new black middle -class: How elite blacks construct their identity through the consumption of visual art

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.