DR. CASSI PITTMAN CLAYTOR is the Climo Junior Professor of Sociology at Case Western Reserve University and the Co-Director of the African and African American Studies Minor. Her research focuses on how racial minorities, particularly Blacks, manage contemporary forms of racism with the goal of uncovering how contemporary processes of social exclusion and inequality function to disadvantage racial minorities.

Drawing on qualitative methods, her scholarship addresses core disciplinary questions concerning the significance of race and racial inequality, while also raising new questions pertaining to the intersectionality of race and class. Pittman Claytor’s work has contributed to our understanding of the Black middle class, focusing particularly on their economic reality, and experiences as consumers. She has investigated Blacks’ experiences in retail settings, as well as the mortgage market. Additionally, she has served as the research lead on a national study of retail racism commissioned by Sephora.

In her book, Black Privilege: Modern Middle-Class Blacks With Credentials And Cash To Spend, Pittman-Claytor offers original analysis as to what middle-class status buys blacks who have cultural capital, credentials, and cash on hand.

In their own words, the subjects of this book present a rich portrait of the modern black middle-class, examining how cultural consumption is a critical tool for enjoying material comforts as well as challenging racism.

AWARDS & FELLOWSHIPS

• Early Career Enhancement Fellow, Woodrow Wilson Foundation
  

• Sheila Biddle Ford Foundation Fellows, The DuBois Institute at the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research, Harvard University

SELECT PUBLICATIONS

• Dreaming in Black: Middle‐class Blacks' aspirational consumption in Journal of Consumer Affairs

• Are Black Consumers a Bellwether for the Nation?: How Research on Blacks Can Foreground Our Understanding of Race in the Marketplace in Race in the Marketplace–Crossing Critical Boundaries

• Shopping While Black: Black Consumers’ Management of Racial Stigma and Racial Profiling in Retail Settings” - Journal of Consumer Culture

• “Stop ‘Blaming the Man’”: Perceptions of Inequality and Opportunities for Success in the Obama Era Among Middle-Class African Americans" - Ethnic and Racial Studies

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