Ethnicity/Race

Impact of Class, Culture, and Race on Consumption

In many ways, racial and ethnic minorities' preferences as consumers and the symbolic value they attribute to particular goods reflect prevailing mores and values operating on a societal level. However, national contexts differ in the level of ethnic diversity, the degree to which they require minorities to assimilate, and the pervasiveness of racial stigma and inequality. Societies also vary markedly in the degree that they encourage consumption and emphasize values such as materialism and individualism. Often, racial and ethnic minorities have to engage multiple meaning systems and orientations, using goods to negotiate interactions with both in-group and out-group members. Cultural, class-based, and racial dynamics together affect how members of racial and ethnic minority groups engage in consumption. Consequently, racial and ethnic minorities' orientations toward consumption may diverge from the dominant culture in important ways.

For racial minorities, consumption practices are a means of affirming and reinforcing group boundaries. As Viviana Zelizer asserts, distinct cultural sensibilities are expressed through consumption and are often grounded in an ethnic identity. The celebration of unique aspects of a group's culture is often intricately tied to the consumption of particular goods, as goods are integral to the performance of social rituals that distinguish a group. For racial minorities, the social meaning goods convey may even carry a “double meaning,” notes Dick Hedbidge. Additionally, scholars have argued that internal status hierarchies within groups are often maintained through distinct group practices and that social status is gained “not through adherence to monolithic consumption norms but through displays of localized cultural capital” (Arnould and Thompson 2005, 874).

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