Page 100 - Purchasing Power Black Kids and American Consumer Culture

"What Are You Looking At, You White People?" . 85

Watch 10
Car 500
Magic jewels [trolls?]
Talking Baby Alive
Phone 30
Keyboard 100
Sneakers 50
Computer 200
Watch 10
Super Nintendo 100
Play Doh 10
Sorry 20
Game Gear 100
Atari 100
House 500
Game Boy 100
Coat 30
Book bag 30
Earrings 30
Bracelets 30

When I did an inventory of LaQuisha's room later that year, few, if
any, of the gifts she hoped for were in evidence. This is hardly a sur-
prise: the sum total of her gift list adds up to nearly half her family's
yearly income—and many of her estimated prices are much too low.
After LaQuisha gave me her list, Sam looked at me and said, "I feel
like a child," his face breaking into a grin almost too big to contain.
"Why?" I asked. "Because I wrote a letter to Santa Glaus." I asked
what he asked Santa to give him, and he replied that he wanted a Super
Nintendo and a trip to Disney World. "The first time I saw a program
on Santa Glaus, I believed it," he confided. Both LaQuisha and Sam
have Christmas wishes that are destined to remain largely unfulfilled.
Neither comes from a household with a large income; Sam's life is fur-
ther disrupted because his primary caretaker, an aunt, is in and out of
jail. Though his Christmas list contained only two items, it is likely he
received neither of these.