African Americans and Consumption

African American consumerism deals with the meanings, beliefs, and values that African Americans associate with individual or group consumption. African Americans have a deep, complicated, and at times tumultuous relationship with consumerism that engages topics which include culture, citizenship, and identity. African American consumerism engages a unique historical context, which includes goals related to access to material goods/services, a desire for acknowledgement and treatment as first-class citizens within the United States, and political and entrepreneurial endeavors. African Americans have a long history of engaging consumerism and consumer spaces as a way of expressing identities, protesting inequities, and resisting distorted narratives.