Page 103 - Purchasing Power Black Kids and American Consumer Culture

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

What is affecting is that Natalia launches into this tale after a discus-
sion of the girls' fears of being abandoned by me. The girls well knew of
my wish to have a baby, since during group time one day at school when
each person had to say what they were afraid of, I had blurted, "I'm
afraid I'll never have a baby." What was Natalia saying when she told
me her "story"?
Natalia and Tionna's playfulness, in the midst of a serious encounter,
should not be discounted, and they enjoyed the pretend aspects of telling
the "baby in the garbage can" tale as well as its potential shock value.
That this particular tale is one so familiar to them is perhaps what is
most upsetting. Moreover, we all knew, even as we played, that there
was a possibility that this "story" might one day come true. Not much
more than a year later, to my dismay, that is exactly what happened.
When Natalia was twelve years old, she became pregnant, delivering a
baby girl when she was barely thirteen.

Conclusion
Consumption intersects with every arena of importance in these children's
lives: family, friends, school, neighborhood, eating, sexuality, romance,
and babies. These are not children, however, who consume in great mate-
rial quantity. As a social process, medium of knowledge, and realm of ex-
perience, consumption does not acquire force in these children's lives be-
cause they have, want, or receive great amounts of clothes, food, toys, or
money; indeed, they are required in many settings to keep their consump-
tion behavior and desires within clearly delineated boundaries and are
tremendously skilled at doing so.
In a variety of forms, consumption is an important medium through
which many of these children's everyday social and kin relationships are
created and maintained. The piece of glazed donut that Tionna ate was
drenched in complex meaning (cultural calories?)—among them con-
flicts between Tionna's grandmother and great-grandmother over house-
hold expenses, upkeep of the apartment, and disagreements over who
was responsible for Tionna's upbringing and care. The heated negotia-
tions among children at lunchtime during school days are likewise about
much more than whether child A is willing to trade child B a cookie for a
bag of potato chips.
Such interactions and negotiations do not take place simply between
individuals or among groups of people. They take place in the context of
the larger society—one from which many Newhallville residents are, at
various levels, both alienated and marginalized; and they take place in