IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/jconsa/v55y2021i2p483-503.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Dreaming in Black: Middle‐class Blacks' aspirational consumption

Author

Listed:
  • Cassi Pittman Claytor

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.

Suggested Citation

  • Cassi Pittman Claytor, 2021. "Dreaming in Black: Middle‐class Blacks' aspirational consumption," Journal of Consumer Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(2), pages 483-503, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:jconsa:v:55:y:2021:i:2:p:483-503
    DOI: 10.1111/joca.12361
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/joca.12361
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/joca.12361?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. David Crockett, 2017. "Paths to Respectability: Consumption and Stigma Management in the Contemporary Black Middle Class," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 44(3), pages 554-581.
    2. Aronté Marie Bennett & Ronald Paul Hill & Kara Daddario, 2015. "Shopping While Nonwhite: Racial Discrimination among Minority Consumers," Journal of Consumer Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 49(2), pages 328-355, July.
    3. Rank, Mark & Hirschl, Thomas & Foster, Kirk, 2016. "Chasing the American Dream: Understanding What Shapes Our Fortunes," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780190467029.
    4. Gabbidon, Shaun L. & Craig, Ronald & Okafo, Nonso & Marzette, Lakiesha N. & Peterson, Steven A., 2008. "The consumer racial profiling experiences of Black students at historically Black colleges and universities: An exploratory study," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 36(4), pages 354-361, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Frederick F. Wherry & Vanessa Gail Perry, 2021. "Anti‐black currents in consumer affairs: An introduction to the special issue," Journal of Consumer Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(2), pages 356-365, June.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Renata Frota & Elisa Priori de Deus & Victor Almeida & Leticia Moreira Casotti, 2023. "Clubinho Preto: Children Growing Up with Racial Diversity," RAC - Revista de Administração Contemporânea (Journal of Contemporary Administration), ANPAD - Associação Nacional de Pós-Graduação e Pesquisa em Administração, vol. 27(Vol. 27 N), pages 220269-2202.
    2. Azer, Jaylan & Anker, Thomas & Taheri, Babak & Tinsley, Ross, 2023. "Consumer-Driven racial stigmatization: The moderating role of race in online consumer-to-consumer reviews," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 157(C).
    3. Licsandru, Tana Cristina & Cui, Charles Chi, 2018. "Subjective social inclusion: A conceptual critique for socially inclusive marketing," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 330-339.
    4. Tonya Williams Bradford & Vanessa Gail Perry, 2021. "Marketing while Black: commentary on the Galak and Kahn 2019 Academic Marketing Climate Survey," Marketing Letters, Springer, vol. 32(3), pages 299-306, September.
    5. Sandikci, Ozlem & Jafari, Aliakbar & Fischer, Eileen, 2024. "Claiming market ownership: Territorial activism in stigmatized markets," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 175(C).
    6. Sonya A Grier & David Crockett & Guillaume D Johnson & Kevin D Thomas & Tonya Williams Bradford, 2023. "Race In Consumer Research: Past, Present, And Future," Post-Print hal-04200003, HAL.
    7. Samuelson Appau & Sefa Awaworyi Churchill & Russell Smyth & Quanda Zhang, 2022. "Social Capital Inequality and Subjective Wellbeing of Older Chinese," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 160(2), pages 541-563, April.
    8. David Crockett, 2022. "Racial Oppression and Racial Projects in Consumer Markets: A Racial Formation Theory Approach [The Ghetto Marketing Life Cycle: A Case of Underachievement]," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 49(1), pages 1-24.
    9. Nora Moran, 2020. "Illusion of safety: How consumers underestimate manipulation and deception in online (vs. offline) shopping contexts," Journal of Consumer Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(3), pages 890-911, September.
    10. Christian A Eichert & Marius K Luedicke, 2022. "Almost Equal: Consumption under Fragmented Stigma [“The Low Literate Consumer]," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 49(3), pages 409-429.
    11. Jafari, Aliakbar & Aly, Marwa & Doherty, Anne Marie, 2022. "An analytical review of market system dynamics in consumer culture theory research: Insights from the sociology of markets," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 1261-1274.
    12. Bernd Schmitt & J Joško Brakus & Alessandro Biraglia, 2022. "Consumption Ideology [Ideology and Terror: A Novel Form of Government]," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 49(1), pages 74-95.
    13. Lydia Ottlewski, 2021. "Building and Strengthening Community at the Margins of Society through Social Enterprise," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(21), pages 1-15, October.
    14. Jenna Drenten & Robert L Harrison & Nicholas J Pendarvis, 2023. "More Gamer, Less Girl: Gendered Boundaries, Tokenism, and the Cultural Persistence of Masculine Dominance," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 50(1), pages 2-24.
    15. Frederick F. Wherry & Vanessa Gail Perry, 2021. "Anti‐black currents in consumer affairs: An introduction to the special issue," Journal of Consumer Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(2), pages 356-365, June.
    16. David Gligor & Christopher Newman & Saim Kashmiri, 2021. "Does your skin color matter in buyer–seller negotiations? The implications of being a Black salesperson," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 49(5), pages 969-993, September.
    17. Steven Shepherd & Ted Matherly, 2021. "Racialization of peer‐to‐peer transactions: Inequality and barriers to legitimacy," Journal of Consumer Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(2), pages 417-444, June.
    18. Young Woong Park & Glenn B. Voss & Zannie Giraud Voss, 2023. "Advancing customer diversity, equity, and inclusion: Measurement, stakeholder influence, and the role of marketing," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 51(1), pages 174-197, January.
    19. Jordan, Kareem L. & Gabbidon, Shaun L. & Higgins, George E., 2009. "Exploring the perceived extent of and citizens' support for consumer racial profiling: Results from a national poll," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 37(4), pages 353-359, July.
    20. Lim, Heejin An & Im, Hyunjoo, 2023. "It's the little “stings†: Racial microaggressions against Asian American customers in retail and their effects," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:jconsa:v:55:y:2021:i:2:p:483-503. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0022-0078 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.