Intersections of Black Identity Inside Advertising: Class Fractions, Code Switching, and Stereotype Threat

• In Event: ICA Plenary Interactive Paper/Poster Session and Reception
  In Interactive Paper Session: Ethnicity and Race in Communication Interactive Poster Session

Abstract

This article draws on qualitative agency-based fieldwork to explore how intersections of black identity function within the contemporary advertising industry—an atmosphere charged by a history of discrimination and a continuing underrepresentation of African-American practitioners. I consider a set of focus groups with black interns from a wide range of agencies and suggest that advertising's race problem presents a unique set of challenges for blacks. Drawing on theories of intersectionality and identity, I argue that supposed race-based affiliations conceal deeper anxieties of cultural belonging marked by fissures of class and language. I conclude that the added psychological burden of stereotype threat makes black interns wary of seeking out help from other more established black employees—for fear of being seen as preferring their own race—thus placing them at a structural career development disadvantage vis-à-vis whites, who have no qualms about affiliating with and mentoring members of their own race.

Author

• Christopher Boulton, U of Tampa