But some races revere it more than others perhaps?
Because it's a 'status symbol'...and a reasonably affordable 'status symbol'. I would think this fact would be easily understood as you are an 'intellectual'. Americans define themselves by their material possessions...the need to
have at the expense of the American worker, long term internal economy, and personal credit rating reigns supreme.
Black Americans, suffering years of religious and cultural loss, have, sadly, made material possession and clan status values the defining points of their identity in this country. Over the last 25 years, as the middle class was slowly squeezed into the lower-middle class, American marketing followed the trend and pushed for that socio-economic dollar. In the 1990's, with Federal interest rates low, easy credit became available for the lower middle and poor classes. This was done to offset the outsourcing of traditional production jobs. With the rise of TV as the 'definer of consensus American reality' the poor economic classes, combined with pathetic public education, were unable to resist the lure of items that they could use to differentiate themselves from the peers.
The Ipod or Iphone follows in the same vein as the boom box, Air Jordans, pager, cell phone, car phone, leased vehicles, etc that the lower classes buy to temporarilly alleviete the depression of their purposeless existence. These material possessions, like a drug fix, only work for short periods and must be satiated with the next generation of 'shit' to buy and the cheap credit (with outrageous interest rates!) needed to buy it.
While this is easy to see for a true 'intellectual', the trick is to not fall into the trap of generalizing about cultural and racial bias...as this is exactly what the elites in America want. Let the little people fight over percieved differences while the rich make off with all the money.
there is no enemy anywhere - Lao Tse
