The Myth’s Modern Purveyors: Reviewing Selig and Nielsen

Abstract

Whatever its origins the myth of Black buying power today has really only two sources, The Selig Center for Economic Growth and Nielsen consumer surveys. The two are complicit in promoting the myth but more as silent partners to commercial press, media, and punditry. Selig and Nielsen are clear not to attach claims of Black political or economic power to the myth, but they do provide intellectual cover to those who do, and they are both involved in the myth’s overall promotion. And because their expressed goal is to connect media with ad revenue and not to clarify any actual economic conditions Selig and Nielsen are able to develop unclear methods which produce results inconsistent with economic analyses used to assess the actual material and lived experiences of Black and other communities.