Bling Bling Broke: Tough choices for tough times - Black Spending Habits off the Chain
These are tough economic times, especially for
African-Americans, for whom the unemployment rate is more than 10%.
Alarmingly, rather than belt-tightening, the response has been to spend
more. In many poor neighborhoods, one is likely to notice satellite
dishes and expensive new cars. According to Target Market, a company
that tracks black consumer spending, blacks spend a significant amount
of their income on depreciable products. In 2002, the year the economy
nose-dived, we spent $22.9 billion on clothes, $3.2 billion on
electronics and $11.6 billion on furniture to put into homes that, in
many cases, were rented. Among our favorite purchases are cars and
liquor. Blacks make up only 12% of the U.S. population, yet account for
30% of the country's Scotch consumption. Detroit, which is 80% black,
is the world's No. 1 market for Cognac. So impressed was Lincoln with
the $46.7 billion that blacks spent on cars that the automaker
commissioned Sean "P. Diddy" Combs, the entertainment and fashion
mogul, to design a limited-edition Navigator replete with six plasma
screens, three DVD players and a Sony PlayStation 2. The only area
where blacks seem to be cutting back on spending is books; total
purchases have gone from a high of $356 million in 2000 to $303 million
in 2002. [more 
] Pictured above: The" Cashville all Black Pimp Cup" on sale at Icedout gear .com for $39.95 [here ]
- PETA -- People for the Ethical Treatment of Africans:
the current Bling Bling culture is totaly irresponsible &
nearsighted on our part . Black people should be the last to
worship diamonds given the suffering our people on the continent
endure because of the wars [more ], rape (figurative and literal) and
destruction caused by the diamond trade . Truth is , most of us
don't know about the evils of the diamond trade ; not even our own
press covers it , that I've seen . We need our own PETA type movement
for Diamonds Rather than PETA standing for People For The Ethical
Treatment Of Animals [more ]it should be People For The Ethical Treatment Of
Africans . The stuff going on over Diamonds is appalling,
yet all the US media covers is stuff about mink coats , lab
animals and burgers . BW Contributor Greg Fuller