@article{walker_black_2000, title = {Black {Is} {Profitable}: {The} {Commodification} of the {Afro}, 1960–1975}, volume = {1}, issn = {1467-2227, 1467-2235}, shorttitle = {Black {Is} {Profitable}}, url = {https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/enterprise-and-society/article/abs/black-is-profitable-the-commodification-of-the-afro-19601975/7F271CF2DC644D3D50177CFDFFD208F8}, doi = {10.1093/es/1.3.536}, abstract = {The Afro originated in the United States as a style worn by a tiny minority of cosmopolitan black women and developed as a prominent symbol of racial pride in the mid-1960s. Responding to the Afro's grassroots popularity, the African American beauty culture industry mounted a largely successful effort to transform the style from political statement to fashion commodity. But the commodification of the Afro was not exclusively a cynical exploitation of a political symbol. Rather, the selling of the Afro often entailed a complex blending of ideals, goals, and motivations based, to varying degrees, on considerations of fashion, politics, and the bottom line.}, language = {en}, number = {3}, urldate = {2021-07-04}, journal = {Enterprise \& Society}, author = {Walker, Susannah}, month = sep, year = {2000}, keywords = {Business History and gender}, pages = {536--564}, }