Page 142 - Purchasing Power Black Kids and American Consumer Culture

Anthropologist on Shopping Sprees . 127

mother, draw her in, and get close to her. Perhaps, like Dorothy's ruby
slippers, the golden shoes are a way for Shaquita to get back to an ideal-
ized home.
In comparison to the shoes, the pink foam rollers Shaquita bought her
grandmother have a down-to-earth usefulness. Shaquita had good rea-
son to think her grandmother would really be glad she had chosen to buy
her rollers, since she and her sister were always "borrowing" them. This
choice emerged as well from the detailed knowledge we gain of those we
live with—knowledge that is gained from pulling one person's hair off a
hair curler in order to use it oneself, using the same toothpaste and soap,
from changing each others' sheets. This gift, so eminently practical, is
particularly appropriate for a female primary caretaker, who is so often
expected to forego luxuries herself in order to provide for those around
her. The rollers were in this way a powerful symbolic contrast to the
golden shoes, and their practicality attested to the everyday intimacy
Shaquita shared with her grandmother as opposed to the more richly
imagined relationship she contemplated with her mother. The contrast
also "speaks" of the differences between Shaquita's relationship with her
mother as an important emotional figure and with her grandmother as
primary caretaker.
If the golden shoes helped to create the kind of relationship Shaquita
imagined she could have with her mother, the rollers allowed Shaquita
to demonstrate that she understood her grandmother's generosity and
care by reciprocating it. Shaquita could have decided to solve the roller-
shortage problem by buying some for herself; then she would not have
had to use her grandmother's anymore. But in doing this she would have
been broadcasting an entirely different message than she did by coming
home with a gift. If she had said she was buying the new rollers for her-
self, Shaquita would have asserted not only her right to use her grand-
mother's things, but also that she felt it was not her responsibility to re-
place the things she used. Rather than taking this approach, Shaquita
chose to make a gesture that could show her understanding of her obli-
gations as a household member, a gesture that showed she was aware of
the kinds of things her grandmother needed. With her sister, however,
there could be more give and take, and Shaquita bought a 99-cent bag
of bubblegum that they could share. In an omission worth noting,
Shaquita bought no gifts for the male members of the household, her
brother and grandfather. In fact, no child bought a gift for a male friend
or relative.