Page 137 - Purchasing Power Black Kids and American Consumer Culture

122 . Anthropologist on Shopping Sprees

play sessions, Davy did not have a figure of his own. Having Wolverine
would have let him enter into these play sessions at a new level, just as
being able to come to school in the same uniform his classmates wore al-
lowed him to meld more fully with the group, if even only visually. Al-
though Davy knew the walkie-talkies and batteries would cost all the
money he had, he spent several minutes standing in the store aisle, hold-
ing Wolverine, the batteries, and the walkie-talkies all together, unable
to decide which thing to leave behind. It seemed as if he was hoping if he
wished hard enough the prices would magically change. Finally, he re-
luctantly put Wolverine back on the shelf.
As I stood there watching Davy struggle with this decision, I experi-
enced some of the most painful moments of my research. The Wolverine
figure, after all, cost under five dollars. It was hardly expensive, but it
was more than Davy could buy. More than being a single moment where
he faced frustration and disappointment and had to curb his desire, this
boy's dilemma in the Toys-R-Us aisle was also the story of his life. Davy's
wants were modest. He did not pine for the $200 Sega Genesis video-
game system, but a five-dollar action figure; he did not want flashy and
expensive brand-name clothes, but rather a simple school uniform con-
sisting of a white shirt and blue pants. Clothing, sleep, food, and time
with his mother all seemed to be hard to come by in Davy's world. Just as
the five-dollar Wolverine figure was more than he could afford, it was
more than he could expect that his entirely reasonable and limited wants
would be fulfilled, since even his basic needs seemed to be inconsistently
provided for.
Davy's very first visit to the largest, most prevalent, and most eco-
nomically successful toy retailer in the world needs to be understood in
the context of the circumstances that shaped his life. Although scholars
and middle-class observers tend to interpret a lack of contact with con-
sumer culture as a sort of uncontaminated state, a freedom, or a benefit,
Davy's limited consumer experience was not a sign of his being sheltered
from the venal world of consumerism and hence kept pure in relation to
it. That Davy had never before visited what is arguably one of the cen-
tral sites of childhood experience in the United States is at once a sign of
exclusion and a form of exclusion from one of the wealthiest societies
now on the globe. An experience like Davy's is made possible when chil-
dren and whole communities are multiply isolated, just as its residents
are multiply oppressed: socially, economically, educationally, produc-
tively, and also in terms of consumption. Toys-R-Us, like any major site
of consumption, is thus not a great equalizer, as has been argued, for in-