Buying while Black: How Racism Colors Spending Patterns for Affluent Black Americans



New analysis from the longest running survey of Affluent Americans finds that the buying patterns of Affluent Black consumers differ significantly from their white counterparts as this group navigates a white, racist world.

Kip Davis, Senior Account Manager who conducted the deep dive into the study, believes that: “Brands and marketers should understand that wearing and owning designer and luxury brands is one of many strategies affluent African Americans employ to build respect and status in the white world.”
Muh respect. Muh staus.

Black people on average spend 30% more on luxury goods and brands than White people in the same income group. Why? Because wearing designer and luxury brands is necessary for affluent Blacks to gain respect and status in the White world🧵
According to an Ipsos study, Affluent Blacks use clothes as a “readily processed indicator of class outweighing race.” The point of designer brands is beyond the clothes. The clothes are used to get the respect that is only conditionally granted by the White-dominated society.
Wharton Professor Nikolai Roussanov said,“If you’re a middle-class Black, it seems like in order to be perceived by Whites and other blacks as relatively well off, you have to show you have money. You have to spend more on things that are observable.”
https://www.ipsos.com/en-us/buying-w...lack-americans