Dreaming in Black : Middle‐class Blacks ' aspirational consumption

Abstract

Abstract When Blacks think about making it big, do they wish for the same types of things as other Americans? How does their race affect what makes it onto their wish lists? Drawing on interviews with 54 middle‐class Black New Yorkers this paper investigates their imagined future consumption. The findings reveal that for most middle‐class Blacks their combined race and class status influenced how they envisioned their aspirational consumption. By analyzing their aspirational consumption, it became clear that they were embedded in a materialistic society that links the achievement of the American Dream with the acquisition of specific things. Yet for many middle‐class Blacks their aspirational consumption also departed from traditional individualist goals, as their commitment to racial uplift was evident in their aspirational consumption. However, there was a small group for whom the pleasure and status that comes from the acquisition of material possessions weighted heavily in their consumption fantasies.

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