Growing up Without
By Elizabeth Chin
W
hat kind of consumer lives do poor and
working class, inner city black kids have?
Most readily accessible images are frighten-
ingly negative: a whole journalistic sub-genre exists to
describe car-jackings and out of control pathological
consumers who kill for sneakers or jackets. Poor and
minority youth are described as addicted to brands, and
as having no sense of control in relation to their sup-
posed want for status items.
For nearly two years, I spent time conducting ethno-
graphic fieldwork on the consumer lives of poor and work-
ing class African American children in New Haven,
Connecticut. I found that, among the children from the
21 families I knew and spent time with, consumption was
complex in ways unimagined by most who live outside
such communities. These children demonstrated through
their consumption—and their non-consumption—their
deep ties to their families, their fears and anxieties about
gender and race, their fantasies about romance, their
desires for safety and security. While, like all children, they
surely were not little angels, they were a far cry from the
crazed kleptomaniacs so often depicted in popular media.
Telling people outside the neighborhood about my
research inevitably went like this: I’d say “I am investigat-
ing the consumer lives of poor and working class black
kids.” Then I’d get a knowing look.
“Oh,” would come the response. “You must have
seen a lot of Air Jordans.” A whiff of disapproval.
“Actually,” I would reply, “I only saw two pairs.”
A disbelieving squint of the eyes. “Are you sure your
sample was scientific?”
8 ◆ FALL 2001
These biases are an acknowledgement of the huge
pressures faced by minority kids who are relentlessly court-
ed by marketers of athletic gear in particular, but a host of
other product manufacturers as well. Despite the ability of
many kids to distinguish between wants and needs, the
impact of such pressures cannot be discounted. On the
one hand, it is important to recognize that kids are smart
and self-sufficient in the face of an ever-tightening web of
branding, advertising, and marketing. On the other, when
the school system has installed Whittle Communications’
Channel One in its classrooms—as was the case in New
Haven—when school halls are plastered with slick corpo-
rate posters touting the crunchability of Cheetos, when
neighborhood billboards tout the drinkability of malt
liquor and the Koolness of cigarette smoking, we know
that the self-possession and sensibility of such kids is under
constant assault and likely to be breached.
G e n e r o s i t y i n a Wo r l d o f N e e d
As a way to learn more about how these kids might
spend their money, I gave them each $20 to use as they
liked, within restrictions set by parents. (Interestingly,
the only things parents said their children were not
allowed to buy were toy guns.) The children proved to
be amazingly efficient shoppers. For example, eight
children out of 23 taken on shopping trips bought
shoes and had money left over. Teyvon spent his entire
twenty dollars buying school supplies and an outfit for
his first day in summer school. A couple of years after
my study was finished, Teyvon’s mother called me up to
announce that he’d spent most of his first paycheck
from a summer job buying groceries for the family, cat
food, and a pair of sneakers for himself. Other kids
bought socks, underwear, deodorant. Of course, kids
bought toys too, but the number of gifts and practical
purchases was very surprising to me.
Nearly half the children spent part of their money on
presents—two girls bought shoes for their mothers, others
bought gifts for grandmothers, aunts, cousins. In buying
presents for others (usually mothers, grandmothers and
aunts), or in buying things they needed, kids showed that
they could contribute to the well being of their families
and households. In this way, kids used buying as a way to
help those upon whom they depended. They were show-
ing that they were responsible and cared for others. This
kind of behavior in households where people sometimes
went hungry because there was no food or money, where
kids often had to take on responsibilities not only for
themselves, but for others also.
in a Land of Excess
While in the U.S. many middle-class families struggle
to curb their consumption, poor families must struggle to
meet needs which most people take for granted: grocery
shopping, paying the rent, buying adequate clothing.
Davy, for instance, had never been to a Toys ‘R’ Us.
Sometimes people respond to this tidbit of information
with approval thinking that Davy had not been indoctri-
nated to the ‘too much’ syndrome. In fact, Davy had
never been to Toys ‘R’ Us because he faced severe depriva-
tion. At eleven, he was the oldest child of four. His mother
was in her early twenties and was absent quite a bit. Davy
often came to school too tired to stay awake. He’d been
up for hours, taking care of his three young brothers and
sisters, one still in diapers. When Davy went on his shop-
ping trip, he ended up buying walkie talkies, telling me he
planned to use them with his younger brother. I was
struck by his choosing a toy that had to be shared to be
enjoyed, and that Davy had identified his younger brother
as the one with whom he was going to use the new toy.
Coping with Visions of Abundance
The overabundance available in the consumer realm is
not one aimed at poor, black children, and they are well
aware that they are excluded from both the realities and
fantasies available in the media and the malls. In New
Haven’s malls and stores, kids from the Newhallville
neighborhood were heavily monitored and often felt ill
at ease, as if already pegged as thieves before they’d had
a chance to make a purchase. In response, most of the
kids became glowering, obnoxious and threatening.
Even Barbie left them ill at ease. One afternoon, Asia
and Natalia, 10-year-old cousins, began talking about a
frazzle-haired Barbie doll left on Natalia’s front stoop:
ASIA: You never see a fat Barbie. You never see a preg-
nant Barbie. What about those things? They should
make a Barbie that can have a baby.
NATALIA: Yeah … and make a fat Barbie. So when we
play Barbie … You could be a fat Barbie.
ASIA: OK. What I was saying that Barbie … how can I
say this? They make her like a stereotype. Barbie is a
stereotype. When you think of Barbie you don’t think
of fat Barbie … you don’t think of pregnant Barbie.
You never, ever … think of an abused Barbie.
In wondering where the pregnant Barbie is, where the
abused Barbie is, Natalia and Asia were also wondering
where the Barbie is that represents something of the world
they know and live in. Our consumer culture, the good
and the bad, is not for kids like these. While we must con-
tinue to work on issues of conservation and sustainability,
we must also remember that there are those among us
who do not have the luxury of struggling to keep their
consumption in check.
We have to be careful when judging the consumption
of others; the ‘Air Jordans’ remarks are not-so-coded ways
of condemning others, remarks behind which race and
class discrimination lurk none too discreetly. When your
most costly investment is not a diploma, a pair of braces,
medical insurance, a house, or a car, but a $100 pair of
sneakers, those Air Jordans
are a precious thing indeed. I t ’s i m p o r t a n t t o
The consumption problems
of the poor are demonstra- recognize that these
bly the consumption prob-
lems of the entire society as kids are smar t and
well. Today our culture
seems far more comfortable self-sufficient in the
turning prisons into for-
profit enterprises, while fail- f a c e o f a n e v e r-
ing to ensure that the poor
can consume adequate pre-
tightening web of
ventive health care, educa- branding, adver tising
tions or living spaces.
The very same forces and mar keting
that keep poor and minority
kids in segregated neighborhoods and under-funded
schools are the forces that prevent them from having
access to good consumption alternatives. These children
have little access to alternative visions to the lifestyles so
readily available in their schools, in the media and in the
neighborhood. In the struggle that we all face to create
sustainability in the contemporary world, we must make
sure that kids like these are not left behind.
Fortunately, beginning small isn’t hard. Partnering
with local schools, churches and community organizations
is one place to begin. Volunteer to start an organic garden
that can provide produce for school lunches, and don’t
forget to recruit the neighborhood’s best gardeners. Help
organize after-school programs in consumer education, or
teach kids and families about the yucky delights of worm
boxes and composting. Make sure local programs about
conservation are being effectively presented in all areas of
your community; get local businesses involved in these
efforts. And be prepared: you’re likely to learn as much as
you think you’re going to teach.
Elizabeth Chin is associate professor of anthropology at Occiden-
tal College. Her book Purchasing Power: Black Kids and Amer-
ican Consumer Culture is available from University of
Minnesota Press.
FALL 2001 ◆ 9