Gary McDonogh. Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Culture

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Bacall, Lauren (Betty Jean Perske)

b. 1924

“If you want anything, all you have to do is whistle”—this line from Bacall’s 1944

Hollywood

debut in

To Have and Have Not

—as a teenager—introduced a smart,

beautiful and independent female who would also marry her co-star, Humphrey

Bogart

Bacall’s subsequent career with and without Bogart solidified this persona, despite

problems with studios. Bacall earned a 1970 Tony on Broadway for

Applause

. “The

Look,” the astonishing voice, the image and the talent have made her a legend as she

continues to select roles in her seventies.

GARY McDONOGH

CINDY WONG

backlash

Phenomenon associated with the political retrenchment following

civil rights,

women’s

and antiwar movements of the 1960s and 1970s. The backlash was first noted in the

violent response of whites to

SCLC’s

1966 march in

Chicago, MI,

followed by

Nixon’s

success drawing on the “Silent Majority” and the assault on

busing

. It is also seen as a

reason for the failure of

ERA,

the growth of the anti-abortion movement and the rise o

the “Moral Majority” during the

Reagan

era. Susan Faludi’s

Backlash

(1991) has

examined the reaction against

feminism,

and numerous studies have outlined the

problems facing the

Democratic Party,

given the loss of much of its New Deal coalition.

The backlash has been captured in several television series: first in

All in the Family

(CBS, 1971–83) with Archie Bunker representing a not-so-“Silent Majority”; then in the

1980s series,

Family Ties

(NBC, 1982–9), which pitted Alex Keaton’s political and social

conservatism against his parents’ 1960s idealism.

ROBERT GREGG

Baez, Joan

Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Culture 96

b. 1941

Folksinger and activist whose crystalline voice has rung out against abuses of power

and on behalf of social equality worldwide. Baez mingled song and protest from the

1950s onwards, becoming a visible and vocal presence in the

Civil Rights movement

and anti-Vietnam campaigns. In 1979 she founded Humanitas Human Rights

International, which she headed for thirteen years while maintaining an active concert

and recording schedule and continuing to participate in protests. Her renditions of “We

Shall Overcome” at the March on Washington and other songs have become anthems for

a generation. Her memoirs include

And a Voice to Sing With

(1987).

GARY McDONOGH

CINDY WONG

Baldwin, James

b. 1924; d. 1987

A Pentecostal preacher during his teens in

New York

City, NY, loosely described in

Go Tell it on the Mountain

(1953), Baldwin left the church to become a novelist,

playwright and essayist. Baldwin’s other great novels,

Another Country

(1962) and

Tel

e How Long the Train’s Been Gone

(1968), explore the intersection of

race

and

sexuality and the ways these have shaped American culture. His play

Blues for M

Charlie

(1964) was based on the Emmett

Till

murder case. Baldwin rose to international

fame with the publication of

The Fire Next Time

(1963), which, though conciliatory

towards whites, considered the slowness of racial change in the United States, and

warned of dire consequences if this continued—

redictions seemingly fulfilled in ensuing

assassinations

and

race riots

. Sickened by the racial climate in the US, Baldwin lived in

southern France.

ROBERT GREGG

Ball, Lucille

b. 1911; d.1989

After years as a minor movie actor, Ball and husband Desi Arnaz (1917–86) changed

television

comedy through their long-running hit

sitcom

I Love Lucy

(1951–7) and

further 1-hour shows. As a starring female comedian, Ball’s rebellious streak and

marvelous ingenuity for complicating the lives of her ensemble cast (including her

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ioneering onscreen pregnancy) delightfully controverted stereotypes of meek

housewives. The couple also pioneered control of production and syndication through

their Desilu Studios, which Ball took over after her divorce (1960). Desilu produced

Lucy shows, as well as other hits like

The Untouchables

GARY McDONOGH

CINDY WONG

Baltimore, MD

The “Charm City” dominates Chesapeake Bay and its

waterfront

recapitulates

America’s urban transformation. From a

Roman Catholic

colonial refuge, Baltimore

ecame a mercantile port, guarded by Ft McHenry (where Francis Scott Key composed

the “Star-Spangled Banner”). Industrial and commercial use took over in the nineteenth

century giving way in the late twentieth century to a new inner-harbor festival

marketplace,

hotels,

cultural attractions and sports facilities, including the neo-traditional

Camden Yards (home of

baseball’s

Orioles). Yet critics worry that this recreation zone,

like splendid old suburbs, such as Roland Park, and the verdant campus of the Johns

Hopkins University or its renowned Hospital and Medical School, does not reflect the

problems of

race

and poverty that have plagued the modern city. Its population has

dropped to 641,468 (2000 estimate), although the Baltimore-Washington metropolitan

area, encompassing rural towns,

suburbs

and planned

communities

like Columbia,

Maryland, has become the fourth largest in the country (7,285,846).

Despite a series of dynamic mayors, including Donald Schaefer and Kurt Schmoke,

analyst David Rusk has used the city as a case study of the need for shared metropolitan

taxation and planning. Half the city’s neighborhoods are poor, incomes represent only 59

ercent of suburban averages and the burdens of both poverty and an inadequate tax base

fall hardest on a black urban majority (

Baltimore Unbound,

1996).

Perhaps Baltimore’s cultural reflections find a balance among past glories and

contemporary dilemmas. John

Waters,

for example, has produced remarkably

individualistic films that explore race, sex, aesthetics and neighborhood in the postwar

city. Barry

Levinson

has also dealt with neighborhood and nostalgia in films like his

Jewish family epic

Avalon

(1990), while observing the gritty reality of center city in the

ABS series

Homicide

(1993–9).

Further reading

Rusk, D. (1996)

Baltimore Unbound,

Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University.

GARY McDONOGH

Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Culture 98

CINDY WONG

Bambara, Toni Cade

b. 1939; d. 1995

Born and educated in

New York

City, NY, Bambara worked as an educator and social

activist throughout her life. She began her literary career editing several anthologies o

Black writers. She published her first short-story collection in 1972 and her first novel in

1980, winning the 1981 American Book Award. Her fiction usually revolved around her

involvement in community activities and observations drawn from her students and her

experiences in such places as

Cuba

and Vietnam. She also wrote screenplays, including

an adaptation of her friend Toni

Morrison’s

Tar Baby,

and worked on community

documentaries.

JIM WATKINS

bankruptcy

A legal proceeding (commonly known as “Chapter 11”) in which insolvent individuals or

usinesses are adjudged incapable of repaying debts, and their remaining assets are

allocated for equitable distribution to creditors or reorganized for continued operation.

Debtors are freed from most liabilities. The opportunity for a fresh start harmonizes with

the American sense of fairness and compassion for those who have unwittingly fallen on

hard times. Since the Constitution grants exclusive bankruptcy jurisdiction to

Congress,

it is subject to continuous, national political scrutiny from competing interest groups

seeking, for example, to preserve protection for spendthrift consumers while limiting

misuse by businesses and the wealthy At the end of the century bankruptcy proceedings

are less socially stigmatized than ever before for both individuals and corporations who

have encumbered debts within constant affluence and seeming opportunities of economic

growth.

JAMES KRAUS

banks and banking

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Banks traditionally are protectors and providers of money intermediaries between those

who have money and want it protected and those who need money to purchase

homes,

grow businesses or fund education. Banks take deposits and transfer this money to

borrowers as loans, earning the spread between the low-interest borrowed funds and the

higher-interest lent funds. The Federal Reserve, the industry’s regulator, allows banks the

special privilege of creating money by lending more than they receive in deposits. Hence,

anking was and is a confidence business: the system works as long as depositors have

confidence in a bank’s solvency. Lost confidence results in depositors demanding their

money back—an ominous event of the

Depression

. Deposit insurance, provided by the

FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation) and FSLIC (Federal Savings and Loan

Insurance Corporation), was created as a New Deal reform to prevent bank runs. It

protects up to $100,000 of a depositor’s money when a bank goes under.

Despite Depression fears, the banker has been a symbol of local tradition. Often a

town’s most prominent citizen, the banker was conservative, well-respected and often

olitically influential. Banking was once profoundly local, whether in small towns or

major

cities

. Only locals, it was thought, could evaluate borrowers’ ability to repay

“Banker’s hours”—09:00 to 15:00—were a technical requirement. While adjusting the

ooks each day was an exhaustive manual process, the staid, leisurely reputation of the

banker persisted (as in

It’s a Wonderful Life

(1946)).

American attitudes towards debt provided the impetus for the postwar growth o

anking. European principles of thrift and avoidance of debt are ignored as Americans

often prefer huge mortgages to tiny bank accounts. Home-equity loans even free up the

value of one’s house to allow current spending. US households have over $5.5 trillion in

outstanding debt.

Technology also has profoundly altered the banks’ and bankers’ role as intermediary

smashed barriers to entry and prompted consolidation. Financial assets held by depository

institutions have declined from 70 percent in 1932 to 40 percent in 1990. Much of this

decline is explained by new institutions that provide savings and lending opportunities.

The consumer credit industry once a boon to banking, is now dominated by non-

anking

institutions. Credit cards provide a line of credit to individuals on which banks may earn

healthy interest rates. By the mid-1980s, however, retailers (for example, Sears), phone

companies (for example,

AT&T

) and manufacturers (for example, General Motors) had

introduced

credit cards,

eliminating the bank as intermediary These firms sold their

receivables in a burgeoning money market where firms sold debt to mutual funds and

institutions, again bypassing banks.

Mortgage securitization, wherein a firm buys a portfolio of mortgages and packages

them into diversified, saleable investments, removed other lucrative servicing and pricing

opportunities that banks held. Starting in the early 1980s, investment banks like Salomon

Brothers securitized over 70 percent of all mortgages (Crawford and Sihler 1991:138).

Banks now require fewer deposits and can extract fewer fees for services because loans

are sold after origination. Mutual funds have embraced securitized debt. Money Market

Mutual fund assets total $1 trillion, reducing the traditional savings account and bank

Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Culture 100

certificate of deposit customer base.

Today, insurance companies offer investments, automobile manufacturers offer credit

and third-

arty providers offer payroll and processing services. The banking industry has

traditionally been restricted from business diversification by the Glass-Steagal Act o

1933, but deregulation and changing conditions have forced re-evaluation. The

consolidation of banking, supported by loosened restrictions on interstate operations, has

een the main focus of this restructuring. Chartered banks in the US have fallen from

13,124 in 1979 to 9,143 in 1997. The FDIC estimates there will be fewer than 5,000 US

anks by 2005. Behemoths Nationsbank, Chemical and Corestates have merged with

Bank of America, Chase Manhattan and First Union to eliminate operational

redundancies and become more competitive. Citibank, Chase Manhattan, Bank o

America and First Union have nearly $1 trillion in deposits, and operate from

New

England

California

This often raises the specter of problems in urban or neighborhood finances as national

anks go for maximum profits. The community bank has difficulty providing the services

of a larger bank because its expenses are spread over a smaller asset base. Legislation,

including the Community Reinvestment Act, requires banks to lend in the communities in

which they operate, but does not promote autonomous financial planning for these areas.

Credit unions, which have acted as joint financial reserves for groups like teachers and

government employees, have also been explored as a way to bring non-

redatory

financial services into low-income communities.

Banks now earn the majority of their income from fees, not the spread on deposits.

Banking is also done through technology-intensive phones or 24-hour automated tellers,

more than through branch offices, reducing the need for personal interaction and

providing economies of scale to large, centralized banks.

Savings and Loans (S&Ls) once held a unique

lace in the banking industry because

they exclusively provided long-term, fixed-rate home mortgage loans. In the late 1970s,

interest rates rose above 10 percent. S&Ls held portfolios of thirty-year mortgages

earning as little as 5 percent, but had to pay double that to attract deposits. Additionally

banks offered savings accounts. Real-estate loans, provided in the early 1980s, imploded

when land prices declined. Regulators were slow to respond to problems—five US

senators were even accused of using their influence to deflect attention from crooked

financier Charles Keating. Deposit insurance provided a crutch as S&Ls across the

country shut their doors, yet healthy S&Ls came under pressure as individuals lost

confidence in the entire industry. Ultimately, the Resolution Trust Corporation was set up

to bail out the S&L industry and recover some of the massive losses. It is estimated the

S&L bailout cost the country $1 trillion.

The banking industry faces numerous challenges. Confidence in banking has declined

in recent decades. Banks must improve services at lower prices and still remain

competitive with other service providers. In order to survive, banks and other financial

institutions must continue to reinvent themselves.

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Further reading

Mayer, M. (1997)

The Bankers,

New York: Truman Talley.

Crawford, R. and Sihler, W. (1991)

The Troubled Money Business,

HarperCollins.

MARC BALCER

Baraka, Imamu Amiri

b. 1934

One of the most original

African American

poets, playwrights and cultural critics to

emerge from the 1960s, as well as a leading political advocate of black cultural

nationalism. Under his birth name, LeRoi Jones, he gained notoriety in 1964 when four

of his plays were produced offBroadway in

New York

City, NY. His poems and plays

constituted an eloquent assault on the racism in mainstream American society.

Blues

eople

(1963), a volume of essays focusing on African American music, had a profound

impact on Black Studies, helping transform analysis of black cultural traditions during

and after slavery. Since 1967 he has published under his African name, been a leading

force behind the 1972 National Black Political Convention in Gary Indiana, and

undertaken housing ventures in his hometown of

Newark, NJ

ROBERT GREGG

Barbara, Hanna

animation

barbeque (barbecue, Bar-B-Q)

Traditionally seen as originating in the Carolinas, and considered a cultural tradition

throughout the

South,

a barbeque is an open-air feast of meat roasted in a red sauce over

open coals, served with coleslaw, baked beans, potato salad and white bread. Factions

Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Culture 102

argue the merits of beef, pork, chicken, mutton, goat and even sausages for the entrée,

while devotees swear by certain types of wood (oak, hickory citrus, etc.) for the right

coals. The sauce has innumerable variations, but most consist of a tomato base with

additives such as Worcestershire sauce, butter, lemon juice, molasses/honey sugar, etc.—

national cook-offs are generally judged according to the best secret sauce recipes.

Regional variations are also highly contested. Although adapted to home grilling and

commercial fast food, the mystique of the ultimate barbeque experience remains. Because

the original chefs were mostly southern blacks, many believe the best barbeque is found

African American

owned commercial establishments in out-of-the-way locations.

JIM WATKINS

Barber, Samuel

b. 1910; d. 1981

Lyrical composer who worked in various genres, winning

Pulitzer Prizes

for his

opera

Vanessa

(1958) as well as his “Second Piano Concerto” (1962). While his work is

demanding and complex, it has also found favor with a wider public, especially his

“Adagio.”

GARY McDONOGH

Barbie

The Barbie doll is famous the world over as the leggy, blonde teenage model toy for girls.

The doll was first released by the Mattel Corporation in the spring of 1959, ultimately

becoming not merely a toy but a cultural phenomenon. A clear departure from the baby-

doll toys which were popular during that period, she was one of the first dolls to offer a

window into an “adult lifestyle,” replete with such fashion outfits as “Dinner at Eight,”

“Enchanted Evening” and “Picnic Set.” She spawned the creation of her steady boyfriend

Ken, along with countless additional product tie-ins, including the Barbie game, the

Barbie van and numerous doll outfits,

fashion

accessories and doll sidekicks (younger

sisters and

African American

and ethnic clones). As a powerful cultural icon, she helped

shape the way generations of children conceptualize

gender, class, race

and

ethnicity

contemporary society. Many feminists have argued that Barbie reinforces gender

stereotypes, but

consumers

continue to support the ponytailed doll wholeheartedly.

Although Barbie was in effect “born” in 1959, the Mattel Corporation was founded in

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1945 in Southern

California

by art student Elliot Handler, his wife Ruth and their one-

time foreman Harold Matson (hence the name “Mattel,” formed by fusing the names

Matson and Elliot—though Matson sold out in 1946). Barbie was essentially invented by

a working woman—Mattel co-founder Ruth Handler. Both Barbie and Ken have real-life

counterparts, since they are named after Ruth and Elliot’s actual children. Although

Barbie is in many ways synonymous with rigid, unrealistic, Eurocentric ideals o

feminine beauty, it is important to note that Barbie was from the start a “career

girl” (complete with requisite fashion accessories of course). Although she eventually

found Ken, she has never been a wife or a mother—though she did have a bridal outfit.

Barbie is truly all-American, for she has roots in foreign lands. She was modeled after

“Lilli,” a plastic German sex toy for men (in turn modeled after “Lilli,” a character in a

opular comic strip in a German newspaper) that Ruth discovered while travelling in

Europe. This may account for her impossible dimensions if projected life-size. Ruth’s

then teenaged daughter Barbara spotted the doll in a store and wanted one, and Ruth

realized that this was the doll she had been imagining. While observing her daughter play

games as a young girl in which she and her friends imagined their “grown-up” lives, Ruth

knew that an adult woman doll for young girls would be a huge hit. Lilli’s sultriness was

toned down to make way for Barbie’s Californian wholesomeness, and Barbie doll was

orn. Since that time, there have been numerous efforts to create ethnically diverse and

global Barbie counterparts, but Barbie remains an enduring symbol of the deeply

entrenched “tall, thin and blonde” ideal of female beauty in American culture.