The authors using Survey of Public Participation in the Arts (SPPA) data, analyze differences in the participation of black and white Americans in a wide variety of arts activities. They document relatively small but persistent differences in the arts participation of blacks and whites. For example, blacks attend jazz concerts at higher rates than whites, while the consumption by blacks of live Euro-American performing arts events is lower than that of whites. Effects of race on these activities, however, are far less than those of educational attainment and other factors, except with regard to traditionally black art forms.

These finding suggest, consistent with Pierre Bourdieu's theory that participation in the arts is a means of achieving status within diverse social circles, that black Americans must maintain a bicultural competence that white Americans need not achieve. The authors conclude that the public policy implications of their study will depend on policymakers' attitudes toward more general issues of inequality and the relative value of participation in the arts as part of quality of life issues. At the same time, they point out the inherent limitations of a national survey, and call for further research on ethnic participation in indigenous cultural forms and supplementary local area surveys, as well as revised measures in future replications of the SPPA.

CONTENTS
Blacks as arts consumers in the .
The social organization of artistic taste and participation.
Data and methods: 
     Dependent variables.
     Independent variables.
     Subsamples.
Black/white differences in arts participation: Findings.
Convergence or resistance?:
     Cultural convergence.
     Cultural resistance.
     Absolute differences by cohort.
     Testing convergence and resistance models.
Summary and conclusions.
Implications for policy and research.
Notes [bibliography].