ABSTRACT Engaging the ‘method of connective comparison’, this article examines linkages between consumer culture and political debates in apartheid South Africa and early postcolonial Kenya. It does so by considering the history of skin lighteners, commodities that were both common and controversial. Largely unnoticed by commentators at the time, the growth of a black consumer market for skin lighteners in Kenya was tied to the earlier emergence of such a market in South Africa. This history also reveals how, in both countries, matters of consumer culture and anti-racist politics were often refracted through the prism of the United States.

中文翻译：

---

种族隔离的南非和早期后殖民时代的肯尼亚的消费文化和“黑色是美丽的”

摘要本文采用“关联比较方法”，考察了种族隔离的南非和早期后殖民时代的肯尼亚的消费文化与政治辩论之间的联系。它通过考虑皮肤增白剂的历史来实现，这些商品既常见又具有争议。当时的评论员基本上没有注意到，肯尼亚皮肤增白剂黑色消费市场的增长与南非此类市场的早期出现有关。这段历史也揭示了在这两个国家，消费文化和反种族主义政治问题如何经常通过美国的棱镜折射。