Tennille Nicole Allen and Cassi Pittman Claytor

This week, our guests are Tennille Nicole Allen and Cassi Pittman Claytor.

Tennille Nicole Allen is Director of African American and Ethnic and Cultural Studies as well as Associate Professor and Chair of Sociology at Lewis University, located outside of her beloved Chicago. Her current research centers on African American girls and women living in Joliet and Chicago as they understand and create resilient and resistive practices as well as joy in their lives. She is also merging the scholarly and teaching aspects of her professorial life as she increasingly engages and teaches experiential learning courses in community-based participatory research in communities in Joliet and Chicago.

Cassi Pittman Claytor is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Case Western Reserve University. Her scholarship examines the underlying social and cultural processes that affect African Americans’ economic behavior. Utilizing qualitative methods her work focuses on lived experiences of African American consumers. Her published research examines black consumer’s experiences of retail racism and also blacks’ perceptions of social mobility and racial progress after the election of President Barack Obama. In her upcoming book tentatively titled Black Privilege and Black Power she paints a picture of the everyday lives of middle-class African-Americans, revealing how both race and class impact their reality and inform their consumption preferences as displayed at work, in their neighborhoods, and at sites of leisure.

Join us as we discuss their work and put a B-Side spin on racial profiling during campus tours and Ta-Nehisi Coates’ take on Kanye West. And, don’t miss our B-Side of the week – Prince’s “Erotic City” along with the A-side track, “Let’s Go Crazy!”.