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New Commodities, New Consumers

Selling Blackness in a Global Marketplace

University of Maryland, USA

Because current literature on globalization largely neglects racism, it fails to explain the experiences of contemporary African American youth within the new racialized social class formations of globalization. I suggest that because African American youth live within the borders of the sole remaining world super-power, their experiences might shed light on social class relations of advanced capitalism as refracted through the lens of race, gender, age and sexuality. First, I investigate how shifting the focus of class analysis from production to consumption sheds light on how African American youth participate in a reconfigured black body politics that is increasingly aligned with the ever expanding consumer markets of advanced capitalism. Second, I use the sex work industry as a template for examining how young African American women and men participate in new forms of commodification that sell blackness in the global marketplace.

Key Words: African Americans • body • capitalism • commodification • consumerism • globalization • hip hop • racism • social class • youth

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