Page 138 - Purchasing Power Black Kids and American Consumer Culture

Anthropologist on Shopping Sprees . 123

stance, in the case of the department store (Williams 1982). Davy entered
that store bringing his history with him, and his entrance into the mecca
of children's consumption did nothing at all to change the objective cir-
cumstances of his life experientially or objectively, if even for a few mo-
ments. The equality of consumers' money as it enters the shop's till does
not extend to the consumers themselves: their particular life experiences
and expectations shape their relationships with the store itself, its mer-
chandise, and its personnel.
In the interaction with toys on the shelves, Davy's experience was
forged within his own life situation, complete with the economic, social,
and material difficulties with which he was so consistently confronted.
These elements came together in Davy's life in particular ways in relation
to Toys-R-Us. Located several freeway miles away from Newhallville
and nearly inaccessible by public transportation, this store lay far be-
yond his reach, given that his family had no car. More to the point, his
mother could not afford to buy many toys for her children in any case.
Davy's actions and decisions while in Toys-R-Us struck me as being most
forcefully aimed at social goals rather than being more blatantly con-
sumerist. It was through watching and thinking about incidents like that
with Davy that I became convinced that consumption is at its base a so-
cial process, and one that children use in powerful ways to make connec-
tions between themselves and the people around them. Davy's decision
to buy the walkie-talkies is an especially poignant example of the effort
to create social connectedness through the process of consumption, and
most Newhallville kids expressed similar desires and intentions as they
considered merchandise, compared prices, compiled their purchases, and
spent their money. This tendency or potential has been remarked upon
by others (Williams 1988; Willis 1991) with a special focus on the Utopian
elements of children's consumption practices. Without attempting to
deny or even downplay the prosocial and Utopian elements of these kids'
consumption—elements that are too often overlooked—my aim is to ex-
plore also the contradictions and the limitations of children's efforts to
forge social relationships through consumption. It is not consumption it-
self that poses the primary obstacle for Newhallville children in these en-
deavors. Rather, it is social inequality itself, in its many forms and guises,
that continually shapes these children's consumption, purchases, motiva-
tions, wishes, and fantasies.
Davy, who struggled every day to communicate and to connect verbal-
ly with the people around him, had chosen, it seems, the perfect vehicle
for allowing him to accomplish what seemed so difficult for him. The