The Differing Nature of Consumerism in the Ghetto

Does a consumer movement that is white and middle class benefit those who are not white and not middle class? This paper argues that the movement is not likely, and perhaps ought not , to have major impact on ghetto consumer problems since those problems too often are qualitatively, not just quantitatively, different from those of the white middle class. Middle class misunderstanding of disadvantaged consumers' problems offers the strong suggestion that middle class involvement in problem solutions may make the situation worse not better.