"The choices people make as consumers-that is purchases ranging from food and clothing, to houses, to cars, to entertainment-has long been an important site of sociological study. It is a ubiquitous human activity that is both symptom and signifier of much larger social processes, and is a crucial lens for understanding group identity. In Black Privilege, Cassi L. Pittman Claytor examines contemporary race relations and racial inequality as experienced by members of the black American middle class, using the lens of consumer behavior. Based upon observational data, interviews, and ethnography conducted in New York City, Pittman Claytor paints a picture of the social experiences and entitlements that what she calls "black privilege" entails. Central to this idea is the fact that middle-class black consumers must constantly balance personal race- and class-based preferences (e.g. a preference to support black businesses) against market pressures and a number of different social worlds, a juxtaposition that has not been fully explored in the literature on consumption to date. Black Privilege is shown to be a tool that can be used to mitigate the negative effects of racial stigma, which contaminate black consumers' experiences even in the marketplace. Such cultural flexibility also demonstrates how consumptive dispositions and affinities are (often strategically) altered depending on the dynamics of the social context of the moment. Pittman Claytor's rich ethnography provides original analysis as to what middle-class status buys black people who have cultural capital, credentials, and cash on hand-not just materially, but also in terms of counteracting anti-black bias"--