Page 40 - Purchasing Power Black Kids and American Consumer Culture

Consumption in Context . 25

to their lives and social experiences. The shopping trips take on meaning
only in the context of the wider culture in which children operate, and
their purchases open up pathways into exploring the complex social ob-
ligations they continually negotiate. The ethnographic view provided by
the shopping trips, however, provides a stark contrast to popular images
examined in chapter 2.
In response to a minority consumer market that wields increasingly
impressive economic clout, toy companies have begun to produce what
are called "ethnically correct dolls" that feature skin tones and facial
features said to accurately represent those of children of varying racial
backgrounds other than white. Evidence collected among Newhallville
children, however, shows that few of these children owned such toys. In
chapter 6 I analyze the goals and ideology behind the production of eth-
nically correct toys, which can be traced back to the shocking realiza-
tions of the psychological studies about race and self-perception cited in
the Supreme Court's landmark school desegregation decision, Brown v.
Board of Education. Although ethnically correct dolls are aimed at help-
ing in the formation and maintenance of "self-esteem," the Newhallville
evidence raises the question as to what happens to black children who
do not possess these dolls? I assert that these children are engaged in
what is at least potentially a much more radical project, that of bringing
their blonde-haired and blue-eyed dolls into their own worlds, largely in
part through the elaborate braiding and beading that is done on these
dolls' heads. Similarly, girls attempted to bring me into this world by
beading and braiding what they described as my "Barbie-doll hair." 12
The final chapter of this work reflects on my ongoing involvement in
the lives of these children, and the intertwining of my own remembered
childhood with the childhoods they are quickly leaving behind. This is
further complicated by the fact that I myself grew up in New Haven.
These overlappings provide fertile material for raising questions about
the nature of contemporary ethnography and for doing ethnography "at
home."