ABSTRACT
This chapter explores racially stigmatized interactions to better understand the role of marketplace consumption in managing them at the micro-political level. It investigates the relationship between social boundaries and consumption behaviors. The chapter provides historical context for the struggle against stigma specific to the Black middle class in the USA. It also provides a brief overview of the dominant approaches in the field for understanding the relationship between the marketplace and racial inequality. The chapter focuses on people's subjective assessments of their own efforts to manage institutionalized social inequality, of which racism is a particularly troublesome type. It utilizes theory on boundary-making to illuminate certain aspects of anti-racist resistance in consumption. Boundary placement is largely focused on imposing boundaries that isolate stigma's symbolic harm and cut it away.
