Page 29 - Purchasing Power Black Kids and American Consumer Culture

14 . Consumption in Context

circumstances that often leave children like Natalia and Asia living in
what is sometimes referred to as "the other America," that is, the one
that is economically strapped and populated by racial minorities.
Connecticut is an especially dramatic study in social and economic
contrasts between these two Americas: in 1990 it was the wealthiest of
the fifty states in terms of per capita income, while also being home to
three of the poorest cities in the nation. Located eighty miles northeast
of New York City on the shore of Long Island Sound, New Haven is a
medium-sized city of about 130,000. As the home of the prestigious
Yale University, one aspect of New Haven's image is of a gracious New
England town, with a central green, a proud colonial history, old money,
and a Yankee sense of both thrift and possibility. The Grove Street
Cemetery, where such historically important Americans as Eli Whitney
are buried, is filled with crumbling brownstone grave markers from the
1600s and earlier. As the inventor of the cotton gin, Eli Whitney is a fig-
ure who also connects the former slave economy of the South with later
migrations of African Americans north, into cities like New Haven and
neighborhoods like Newhallville.
Since its founding, New Haven had been as much a bustling manu-
facturing town as it was a seat of learning. By midcentury local com-
panies were producing guns and other munitions, tires, beer, paper,
caskets, apparel, and bagels, and for decades New Haven had handily
(though not always happily) accommodated a wide variety of migrants
and immigrants. The years surrounding the two world wars were es-
pecially productive, as much of New Haven's factory output centered
around munitions. The manufacturing boom peaked in the 1950s, and
since then the city's population has shrunk by 20,000. Today two local
hospitals and the university are the largest employers along with retail
stores, utilities, and restaurants (New Haven Downtown Council 1992).
As in many parts of the once-industrial Northeast, the shift from manu-
facturing to service economy has entailed severe social readjustment. In
1980 New Haven was the seventh poorest city of its size in the United
States (U.S. Bureau of the Census 1980); for cities over 100,000, New
Haven ranked first in the nation in infant mortality in 1994 (Reguero
8
and Crane 1994). The city also possesses a hefty illegal drug trade, a
nearly bankrupt shopping mall, a struggling downtown area, and deeply
troubled public schools. As is often the case, economic differences tend
to overlap with racial differences, and the poorest areas of the city are
populated primarily by blacks and Latinos, most of whom are from
Puerto Rico. However, New Haven's residential segregation is hardly