Aria S. Halliday - Buy Black: How Black Women Transformed US Pop Culture

feminist media studies

Edited by Carol Stabile

Series Editorial Board

Mary Beltrn, Department of Radio-Television-Film, University of TexasAustin

Radhika Gajjala, American Cultural Studies, Bowling Green University

Mary L. Gray, Department of Communication and Culture, Indiana University; Senior Researcher, Microsoft Research

Bambi Haggins, Arizona State University, Tempe

Mary Beth Haralovich, University of Arizona, Tucson

Heather Hendershot, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Michele Hilmes, University of WisconsinMadison

Nina Huntemann, Suffolk University

Elana Levine, University of WisconsinMilwaukee

Robin Means-Coleman, University of Michigan

Mireille Miller-Young, UC Santa Barbara

Isabel Molina-Guzmn, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Laurie Ouellette, Communication Studies, University of Minnesota

Carrie Rentschler, McGill University

Kim Sawchuk, Concordia University

Leslie Steeves, University of Oregon

Rebecca Wanzo, Washington University

A list of books in the series appears at the end of this book.

How Black Women Transformed US Pop Culture

aria s. halliday

2022 by the Board of Trustees

of the University of Illinois

All rights reserved

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Halliday, Aria S., 1990 author.

Title: Buy Black: how Black women transformed US pop culture / Aria S. Halliday.

Description: Urbana: University of Illinois Press, [2022] | Series: Feminist media studies | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: lccn 2021046453 (print) | lccn 2021046454 (ebook) | isbn 9780252044274 (hardback) | isbn 9780252086359 (paperback) | isbn 9780252053269 (ebook)

Subjects: lcsh: Consumer behaviorUnited States. | African American women in popular culture. | African American consumers. | African American women Social conditions. | Group identityUnited States.

Classification: lcc hc110.c6 b89 2022 (print) | lcc hc110.c6 (ebook) | ddc 658.8/3430973dc23

lc record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021046453

lc ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021046454

It is difficult to include all of the food, people, places, prayers, songs, and conversations over the past decade that helped create this book, but I will definitely try. To Rayvon Fouche for keeping me focused when I wanted to burn it all down, for being supportive in more ways than I thought I needed, and for always asking the questions nobody wanted to answer; I am abundantly grateful for your mentorship and friendship, Ray. Thank you Marlo David, for always asking about and supporting my life beyond academia; youve taught me so much about life purpose, vision, and graceful balance. To Shannon McMullen and Cheryl Cooky: thank you for supporting an ambitious dissertation project. To Ms. Juanita Crider, Mr. Bill Caise, and the rest of the Purdue Black Cultural Center family: you all kept me grounded when I felt lost in a sea of whiteness; thank you for embracing me and always encouraging me to bring all my talents to bear. To the cutest family that kept my love for sweets and great debates intact in Indiana: thank you Stephen and Melissa Horrocks. All of my love to my Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., sorors, especially Nadia Brown, for mentorship, insomnia talks, and sisterhood; and Veronica Rahim, for friendship chicken and so much more.

At the University of New Hampshire and in the New Hampshire community, thank you to: (the late) Burt Feintuck, Katie Umans and the UNH Center for the Humanities, Michele Dillon, Brett Gibson, and Reginald Wilburn for support and resources; Siobhan Senier, Avary Thorne, and all of my Womens Studies students, especially Peri Sanechiaro. Many thanks to Nora Draper for so many chats about book development and for reading chapters, Elyse Hambacher, Kabria Baumgartner, Chanda Prescod-Weinstein (and, Michael Burnham), Jade Caines Lee, and Kristen Butterfield for all our lunches and dinners; Dennis Britton, Chryl Laird, Tamsin Whitehead, and Tonya Evans (WE MADE IT SIS!) for community. Loretta Brady, thank you for freedom seders, pandemic flour delivery, and joy.

At the University of Kentucky, I am abundantly grateful for communities that embraced me and reminded me how important this work is with enthusiasm and genuine interest despite Zoom fatigue and a global pandemic that made personal interactions rare. Special thanks to DaMaris Hill, Melynda Price, Anastasia Curwood, Regina Hamilton, Elizabeth Williams, Srimati Basu, Jackie Murray, Nikki Brown, Nazera Wright, Frances Henderson, Blanche Bong Cook, Mel Stein, Ellen Riggle, and Michelle del Toro (you are the best!). I am appreciative of the UKAAAS Summer Writing Group for helping me stay focused on many Fridays when I would rather have been in bed. Cheers to brunch buddies, Jazmine JWells Wells and Lauren Whitehurst; I cant wait to celebrate this accomplishment with yall and an absurd number of drinksWE GOT PHDs AND $HIT!

For the Barbie chapter, specifically, many thanks to the Strong National Museum of Play staff, especially Michelle Parnett (curator), Tara Winner-Swete (cataloger), and Beth Lathrop (director of libraries) who made sure I had everything I needed during my February 2016 and June 2019 Strong Research Fellowship visits. The Strongs financial support for research on Black dolls and Black girl play illustrates how important this work is and that there are institutions that are interested in and encourage it. Thank you to the Childrens Museum of Indianapolis staff for their assistance during my visit in 2015 and for followup emails and images, specifically Jennifer Noffze (collections manager) and Andrea Hughes (lead curator); Lori J. Durante, founder of the Museum of Lifestyle and Fashion History in Delray, Florida; Darlene Powell Garlington, PhD, consultant for the Shani doll collection; Stacey McBride-Irby, creator of So In Style dolls, for our great conversations and all your lovely ideas; Stephen Sumner, creator of the Nicki Minaj charity doll and designer for So In Style dolls, for your brilliance and creativity; Dr. Ann duCille, author of Skin Trade, for your encouragement, interest, and suggestions; Elizabeth Chin, author of Purchasing Power; Yla Eason, creator of Olmec Toys; Tuesday, Lynne, and Doris Connor, seamstresses for Shindana Toy Company; Robin Bernstein, author of