They Myth of Black Buying Power - Dr. Jared Ball
The immense “buying power” of African Americans, we are told again and again, makes us a huge economic power. So harnessing this power by changing the consuming habits of black America, the story goes, is an essential pre-requisite for black uplift. We've all heard it many times, from the screen, from the pulpit and elsewhere. But is any of it true? Does this popular understanding confuse black income, and even black debt with black wealth? Where does this misinformation come from? And does the emphasis on “buying power” as agency denigrate collective action in favor of “lifestyle” activism? Dr. Ball opens the door to this vital discussion.
We must be clear. Income is not wealth. “Buying power” as a phrase and one measured in these ways offers so many illusions that contradict the previous point. Population growth and increased jobs (increased from what?) do not, in and of themselves, say anything about economic power. More education means little as well when advanced degrees are considered an absolute necessity for economic advancement (certainly still no guarantee).
It is also important to note that “buying power” is a confused phrase in that it, again, says nothing of a wealth Black people have little of but also suggests that this “power” is or can be for community uplift. The fact, again, that this is target marketing material means that by “power” they mean the ability to generate money for corporations to whom this spending will be geared. It does not mean that Black America has some un-tapped economic strength that can be marshaled to buy that which increases wealth (land, stocks, etc.) and speaks to the basics of colonial exploitation. That is, that the colonized are left only to purchase trifling gadgets and trinkets “footwear” and “clothes,” as opposed to land, stock and other capital most of which is sequestered among the tiniest elite minority.
Black people, like most others, are an exploited, colonized population whose wealth-generating capabilities are, just as these reports really say, for an elite who have nothing to do with Black people. Black wealth resides in elite white enclaves here and abroad while African America devolves economically, politically and in terms of healthcare, education (quality of and access to), police brutality and mass incarceration.
Anyone, including Black “leaders,” who parade fanciful numbers before their unsuspecting audiences so as to, again, suggest that irresponsibility is the cause of Black poverty need to be checked, vigorously. We need to get back to an increased intelligent and honest discussion of economics so we can be where Ture was when he left, as he and his comrades always said when answering a phone and saying goodbye, “ready for the revolution.”
By Dr. Jared Ball