Page 143 - Purchasing Power Black Kids and American Consumer Culture

128 . Anthropologist on Shopping Sprees

C/ierie
Thinking about mothers' wants and needs was an important element ii
kids' lives, and several children aside from Shaquita bought gifts for thei
mothers. Cherie spent nearly all of her money ($14.99 to be exact) on :
pair of sneakers for her mother (table 5.3). The rest of her money wa
spent on candy, but she gave most of it away to family members, spend
ing less than five dollars on herself. In Cherie's purchases, once again thi
deep sense of mutual obligation, and even debt, between family member
played a central role. For Cherie, as well as for other kids, these obliga
tions and debts were often at once sustaining and joyful as well as painful
onerous, and highly charged. I sometimes suspected that the lesson im
parted to children and imparted by them was a coercive generosity: shan
or else. These harsher aspects of mutual dependence and obligation wen
an important part of being connected to family and caring for them, an<
existed simultaneously with the pleasure and satisfaction children re
ceived in participating in their families and households.
Cherie, her newborn brother, and mother Deanna shared an attii
apartment in a two-family house owned by Deanna's mother. Thougl
Deanna's sister Lynn, a paramedic, did not live at home, she visited he
mother often. Deanna received the bulk of her income from state am
federal programs and there was some tension between Deanna and he
sister, stemming, I thought, from Lynn's steady and comfortable incomi
coupled with her status as a jobholder, versus Deanna's reliance on pub
lie assistance. Lynn had no children herself and often gave Cherie expen
sive gifts: a television set, Sega Genesis game system, and a CD player
These gifts fanned the competitive flames between the sisters. These con
flicts occasionally erupted into physical confrontations. Deanna had ;
scar on her thigh where her sister had once bitten her during a violen
tussle. "Look! She ruined my pretty legs!" Deanna wailed to me in mocl

Table 5.3. Cherie's Purchases
Item Price Store

1 pair black leather sneakers $14.99 Payless Shoes
2 containers "juice bar" gum $ .69 ea Kay-Bee Toys
2 bags chocolate coins $ .69 ea Kay-Bee Toys
1 dish strawberry frozen yogurt $ 1.35 Food court