Page 115 - Purchasing Power Black Kids and American Consumer Culture

TOO . Hemmed In and Shut Out

for instance, the fact that he lives in a significantly more upscale neighbor-
hood about half a mile away is rarely discussed. Because children's rela-
tionships to Bob are shaped most overtly along lines of generation and
race, he often appears like an irascible grandparent. Children are not
necessarily fans of such treatment, but they surely are used to it and find
it unremarkable. It is a relationship that in the context of the general so-
cial scene in New Haven, where racial lines are so often starkly drawn
and maintained, makes Bob an "us" rather than a "them."
The store's doorjamb and a post stationed at the middle of one of the
aisles serve as community bulletin boards. A notice taped to the post at eye
level reads: "Three bedroom apartment for rent, section eight accepted."
Other announcements include a flyer for a talent show and a photocopy
of a photocopy of a letter warning about new types of racism. Children are
well aware of Bob's views on everything from a good tomato to gospel
singing and are well aware also that they may become the objects of his
opinionated banter. It is a stream of opinion with which children are inti-
mately familiar, if, like Bob, their grandparents came up from the South-
ern states in the 1940s and 1950s. I recorded the following conversation
between Bob and an elderly woman resident in my field notes:
They get on the subject of kids, and how they don't have any manners
today. The woman says: "Today when I ask a little boy, 'do you want
to go to the store for me?' well, it used to be 'do you have a quarter?'
Now it's a dollar!" "Inflation?!" I say. "Kids today just don't have
any manners," Bob and his customer tell me. "You got to talk to that
baby, even when it's in your stomach," says the woman. "Then they
know that voice. And then when the baby's born you got to hold it
and kiss it and let them know: 'Mommy loves you.' Then that baby
could be, like in the back of the store here, and nobody can get it to
quiet down, but the mommy says, 'What's that?' and the baby is quiet
because it knows that voice. I used to spank that baby even in my
stomach," and she demonstrates by patting her middle vigorously. It
doesn't look like a spank to me at all. "I was born depressed," Bob
says, "because I was born in a depressing time, 1936. We weren't get-
ting nothing to eat!" "But the babies they still eat the same," the
woman interjects. "Not me, my mother couldn't nurse me," Bob an-
swers. "She was nursing the baby of the people who owned the plan-
tation and she didn't have enough for both of us, so I got left out!"
"That's right, and up in that house, your mother probably got so
angry, she spit in their food, too," the woman says. "She made all
their food," Bob goes on. "That's what she did."