The Myth and Propaganda of Black Buying Power

The second edition of this Palgrave Pivot offers a history of and proof against claims of "buying power" and the impact this myth has had on understanding media, race, class and economics in the United States. For generations Black people have been told they have what is now said to be more than one trillion dollars of "buying power," and this book argues that commentators have misused this claim largely to blame Black communities for their own poverty based on squandered economic opportunity. This book exposes the claim as both a marketing strategy and myth, while also showing how that myth functions simultaneously as a case study for propaganda and commercial media coverage of economics. In sum, while “buying power” is indeed an economic and marketing phrase applied to any number of racial, ethnic, religious, gender, age or group of consumers, it has a specific application to Black America. A new foreword by Dr. Darrick Hamilton, Henry Cohen Professor of Economics and Urban Policy at the New School (in New York, USA), and a new chapter on cryptocurrencies are included in this new edition. Dr. Jared A. Ball Professor of Africana and Communication Studies at Morgan State University in Baltimore, MD. and host of the “iMiXWHATiLiKE!” podcast. His decades of journalism, media, writing, and political work can be found at imixwhatilike.org. Ball has also been named as one of 2022’s Marguerite Casey Foundation’s Freedom Scholars.