“Black Lives Matter” is a slogan used by many blacks with the intention of broadening “the debate about state violence” by informing people “of the ways in which black people are intentionally left powerless in the hands of the state” (blacklivesmatter.com). As seen from this popular movement that began in 2014, racial conflicts in urban America continue even after the civil rights movement and the election of a black president. Sociologists and anthropologists argue that race is a social construction, and the concept of social construction of identity helps explain why these conflicts continue to occur. Social identity refers to an individual's association with known groups or categories including race, ethnicity, gender, and so on. People may identify themselves one way, however culture and society can also ascribe certain identities to people, sometimes not in the same way they believe. All societies have different ways of distinguishing between “us” and “them” and when one exists in the same society, there is a potential for inequality, prejudice and discrimination. This problem can be exacerbated when one group takes control of the economy and power. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Today, race is defined primarily by how one perceives oneself and how one is perceived by others. These perceptions may be based on history or phenotypic characteristics such as skin color, but may also include cultural practices, economic needs, or political affiliations. In complex societies like the United States, race is a social construct produced by the dominant group, the group in power, often associated with government, laws, and social control. Being in power, they have the ability to define the boundaries of race, creating racial identity for a large group of people at the macro-level of culture and society. By generalizing all this racial identity, stereotypes can be formed, and as far as those of African Americans and blacks are concerned, many of them are very discriminatory. Identity is not only how others perceive, but, as mentioned above, it is also how one perceives oneself: the micro level of identity. Many African Americans who identify one way are discriminated against due to perceived stereotypes of their racial identity on a macro level. Stereotypes are created at a macro level through media, including news, TV, magazines, and online social media, through science and the social sciences, and through other forms of cultural entertainment in which everyone may categorize people in particular ways to create dominant stereotypes . Unfortunately, black people everywhere and especially those living in urban “ghettos” have stereotypes that include welfare dependency, violence and crime, poverty, unemployment, as well as many others and are seen as lazy, disorganized, and non-performing. alone. However, it should be known that certainly many people of color do not fit these stereotypes formulated by the social construction of race. One author, Steven Gregory, attempts to challenge these stereotypes and show his readers that black people, their personalities and their culture are not responsible for these stereotypes, but have been established through economic and political issues and are imposed through this macro -stereotypes. identity level. In his book, Black Corona: Race and the Politics of Place in an Urban Community, Gregory explores these described issues through his research in a working-class neighborhood called Corona, home to manyAfrican Americans along with people from diverse backgrounds, located in Queens, New York, from the late 1980s to the mid-1990s. Here she uses ethnographic methods, such as oral histories and open-ended interviews with residents, participant observation of neighborhoods and political action meetings, and archival research to challenge representations of the black urban experience in the media, academics, and policy debates public. Through the findings he described in his book, Gregory challenges the stereotypes that Corona's black citizens face. He explains how various problems in these urban communities cause black citizens to get stuck in situations involving their stereotypes. The people he interviews do not fit the stereotypes and some people from this neighborhood are activists, others have a good job and a good family, others belong to the middle class. It seeks to show how many of the black citizens that make up Corona are not all unstable and bad, and explores the causes of the representation of stereotypes that outsiders witness and construct in the identity of black citizens (Gregory 1999: 14-19). Racial constructions in the media and political policies are some of the precursor factors impacting Corona's Black and African American residents and the discrimination they face. The media has a great effect on the black citizens of Corona because of what people see on the news, on TV, and in movies. In black communities like Corona, in order to gain respect on the street, one must engage in violence, some type of crime, or drug dealing. Even if someone doesn't want to do it, they have to at least play the part. This macro-level identity imposes this stereotype on an individual's micro-level identity, meaning that how people may see him or her influences how an individual must see himself or herself. These crimes and acts of violence do not go unnoticed by authorities, and in response, the news may be full of these people committing criminal acts. People on the outside see this, and stereotypes about all black people in the community are reinforced, even though many of them aren't even involved. Many black citizens in Corona were middle class and held respectable professions, yet they were still identified as bad people. For example, in Corona an issue raised in the Neighborhood Stabilization Committee was drug dealing on a certain street. This information was probably publicized in the news and through word of mouth throughout the police force and, even though the police chief claimed that the crime rate was lower than ever (Gregory 1999: 110), the police were still profiling and the people who were living in this area and were not involved would still be involved in the drug trade. Gregory states that “issues related to crime, drugs… carried racial connotations that remained close to the surface of the discourse,” even if the police claimed they were not racially motivated (Gregory 1999: 110). Even in a predominantly middle-class area of ​​Corona, young people were harassed by security guards in a park because they believed they were dealing drugs. One community member said that you might come home from work and they will push you out “because they suspect you are a drug dealer” (Gregory 1999: 123). Community members claimed that the cause of this harassment was due to the media portrayal of black teenagers as drug dealers. Problems with the media's portrayal of the area in which they lived created more difficulties with the portrayal of their identity even when many black citizens were middle class and held respectable professions.The construction of race with respect to political policies promoted by the government also contributed to the struggle over the representation of citizens' identity and the realization of equality. The government and an important agency called the Port Authority had power over Corona's organizations, and as previously mentioned, having power gives you the ability to make others do what you want. For example, the Port Authority's work was involved in the planning and infrastructure of the city, and with this power they could treat each district of Corona as a separate entity so that no one had enough power to oppose them. Black citizens were against it because, as many were middle class and lived in nice areas, some would be clustered in lower class areas with poor immigrants; many not even black. These areas were known to have poverty and other problems, and having black citizens clustered in them would only reinforce stereotypes in the construction of race (Gregory 1999: 182). The Port Authority also wanted to extend a runway for the airport in the northern area of ​​Corona. The citizens of Corona took action against it for the same reasons as before, as it would impact the quality of life in this area. The citizens tried everything to prevent its construction, but with its power the Port Authority managed to “counter community opposition” (Gregorio 1999: 186). Politics and those in power make it difficult for communities to establish and maintain equality and prohibit them from speaking out against discrimination and acting against the social construction of their identity. Along with media and political politics, history also plays a role in the social construction of the identity of black citizens in America. As seen in the film The Story we Tell - Race and the Power of an Illusion, throughout history, politics and economics have had a negative impact on the social construction of the racial identity of African Americans, supporting the same ideas as Gregory. Since the days of slavery, people had the idea that black people were inferior to everyone else because of the connection between slavery and blackness. As America grew and became more white-based, people believed that blacks were inferior, as many people “tried to scientifically prove that blacks and other races were inferior” (Pounder et. Al 2003). People today have simply inherited this ancient stigma from the past, which blossomed when Africans were exploited for the economic gain of powerful white Americans. The study of race and race relations in the United States can be complicated by some issues. It is difficult to define what race is and what differentiates one from another. Different nations and geographic locations have different constructions of what race is. The entire social construct of race changes over time, changes with geographic location, and changes depending on who is asked. Many people, including those conducting the study, may have ethnocentrism, meaning that people like their own culture and this could cause someone to have a bias in the study. Race and race relations are woven into a complex web with many factors contributing to how people perceive them, and it would be difficult to account for them all in one study. However, in his research, Gregory was able to encapsulate almost every angle of the issues he was discussing, even though it was a very complex and broad topic to study. Gregory's description of race, class, and community is comparable to those of today. The definition of community has changed slightly as the Internet has woven an even broader network of relationships between.