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  • Book
  • © 2020

The Myth and Propaganda of Black Buying Power

Authors:

  1. Jared A. Ball

    1. Morgan State University, Baltimore, USA

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  • Describe the origins of the myth of black buying power, the rhetoric around this myth, and the contextualization of how it is propagated.
  • Looks at historical figures from across the political spectrum who have propagated the myth of black buying power, including Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, Amos Wilson and Louis Farrakhan
  • Provides an original contribution to the racial wealth gap literature

Sections

Table of contents (7 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xi
    PDF

  2. Introduction

    • Jared A. Ball
    Pages 1-10
    PDF
  3. PDF
  4. PDF
  5. PDF
  6. PDF
  7. PDF
  8. PDF

  9. Back Matter

    Pages 109-111
    PDF
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About this book

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.

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Keywords

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Authors and Affiliations

  • Morgan State University, Baltimore, USA

    Jared A. Ball

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About the author

Jared A. Ball is Professor of Communication Studies at Morgan State University, USA. He is the curator of imixwhatilike.org, an online hub of multimedia dedicated to the philosophies of emancipatory journalism and revolutionary beat reporting.

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