Buy Black

How Black Women Transformed US Pop Culture

by Aria S. Halliday

Buy Black examines the role American Black women play in Black consumption in the US and worldwide, with a focus on their pivotal role in packaging Black feminine identity since the 1960s. Through an exploration of the dolls, princesses, and rags-to-riches stories that represent Black girlhood and womanhood in everything from haircare to Nicki Minaj’s hip-hop, Aria S. Halliday spotlights how the products created by Black women have furthered Black women’s position as the moral compass and arbiter of Black racial progress.

Far-ranging and bold, Buy Black reveals what attitudes inform a contemporary Black sensibility based in representation and consumerism. It also traces the parameters of Black symbolic power, mapping the sites where intraracial ideals of blackness, womanhood, beauty, play, and sexuality meet and mix in consumer and popular culture.

REVIEW

5 out of 5

This isn’t a light read, but it’s a very well-researched and informative one. Geared more towards the academic market than your typical casual reader, this book is a well-written and in-depth study. We’re seeing more representation of the Black and other marginalized communities in today’s world than ever before, and while it’s still a long way from being equal, I loved learning about the history leading up to where we are now, and the powerful Black women who helped get us here. I cannot recommend this enough.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Aria S. Halliday is an assistant professor in the Department of Gender and Women’s Studies and Program in African American and Africana Studies at the University of Kentucky.