Page 97 - Purchasing Power Black Kids and American Consumer Culture

82 . "What Are You Looking At, You White People?"

ornaments. Tionna's presents lay beneath the tree—a Starla doll, headbands, a
pair of underpants, a small Walkman-type tape player, and a little musical key-
board. Tionna was still in her pajamas, hair all stuck out like a night creature of
some sort, watching the film Teen Witch in Ella's room. Celia was watching a
movie in her room.
While I was sitting at the kitchen table with Ella, Tionna came in and
pulled the gold hairbow off my head. Ella immediately yelled at Tionna to
get off my hair, Celia came out of her room and told Tionna to stop "pickin'
at Miss Chin's head," and Ella said that Tionna and Natalia were always in
my hair and to stop it. A short while later, Asia and Natalia stopped by.
Tionna had done her hair so that it wasn't sticking out anymore. Asia and
Natalia stopped in the front room to look at Tionna's presents. Natalia was
carrying a Walkman that belonged to her cousin. The three girls lay around
in the front room listening to tapes. They also played on Tionna's keyboard.
Tionna ran into the kitchen and Ella told her not to run. The other two girls
were waiting in the front room. Tionna sort of threw her garbage into the
garbage bag, and this riled Ella up. "You stop showin' off now," she hollered.
"I'll take that belt to you, you know 1 will," she said with a raised, threatening
voice.

The Christmas season arrives in Newhallville with a drama marked
most visibly by the decoration of many houses and yards. Across the
street from Tionna's home, a three-story house with a balcony and a
porch seems to have a Christmasy touch on every available surface. Fat,
plastic snowmen and Santas perch on the porch and balcony rails, aug-
mented by festoons of glittery garlands and blinking lights. The well-
manicured house next door is similarly decorated, with the addition of
mechanized figures of Santas and snowmen looking out from some of
the windows, bowing and waving their arms. One house is itself
wrapped up like some giant Christmas gift and is tied with a great shin-
ing gold and silver bow. Another features a Nativity scene, each of the
three-foot-tall figures glowing with the aid of an internal lightbulb. At
night, with all the frantically blinking lights turned on up and down the
block, it is like being on some wacky amusement-park ride. A few
blocks away, on one of New Haven's richest streets—Prospect—holiday
decorations present quite a different image. At one house a single red
velvet bow is placed on each of the evergreen bushes that rings the huge,
flawless lawn; at another a lone electric candle shines from every win-
dow. There is nary a blinking light in evidence.