Black Corona: Race and the Politics of Place in an Urban Community / Edition 1

by Steven Gregory

Overview

In Black Corona, Steven Gregory examines political culture and activism in an African-American neighborhood in New York City. Using historical and ethnographic research, he challenges the view that black urban communities are "socially disorganized." Gregory demonstrates instead how working-class and middle-class African Americans construct and negotiate complex and deeply historical political identities and institutions through struggles over the built environment and neighborhood quality of life. With its emphasis on the lived experiences of African Americans, Black Corona provides a fresh and innovative contribution to the study of the dynamic interplay of race, class, and space in contemporary urban communities. It questions the accuracy of the widely used trope of the dysfunctional "black ghetto," which, the author asserts, has often been deployed to depoliticize issues of racial and economic inequality in the United States. By contrast, Gregory argues that the urban experience of African Americans is more diverse than is generally acknowledged and that it is only by attending to the history and politics of black identity and community life that we can come to appreciate this complexity.


This is the first modern ethnography to focus on black working-class and middle-class life and politics. Unlike books that enumerate the ways in which black communities have been rendered powerless by urban political processes and by changing urban economies, Black Corona demonstrates the range of ways in which African Americans continue to organize and struggle for social justice and community empowerment. Although it discusses the experiences of one community, its implications resonate far more widely.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780691029368
Publisher:	Princeton University Press
Publication date:	06/10/1999
Series:	Princeton Studies in Culture/Power/History
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	296
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.25(h) x (d)

About the Author

Steven Gregory is Associate Professor of Anthropology and Africana Studies at New York University.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations ix
Acknowledgments xi
PART ONE 1
Chapter One: Introduction 3
Chapter Two: Making Community 20
Chapter Three: The Movement 55
Chapter Four: The State and the War on Politics 85
PART TWO 107
Chapter Five: Race and the Politics of Place 109
Chapter Six: A Piece of the Rock 139
PART THREE 179
Chapter Seven: Up Against the Authority 181
Chapter Eight: The Politics of Hearing and Telling 218
Chapter Nine: Conclusion 248
Notes 253
References Cited 267
Index 279

What People are Saying About This

Manning Marable

Gregory's great insight is to focus on the ways in which the dynamics of class and race inform the actual patterns of daily struggle in real communities. Black Corona represents a significant contribution to the study of contemporary black urban life.

From the Publisher

"Gregory's great insight is to focus on the ways in which the dynamics of class and race inform the actual patterns of daily struggle in real communities. Black Corona represents a significant contribution to the study of contemporary black urban life."—Manning Marable, Professor of History and Director, Institute for Research in African-American Studies, Columbia University

Editorial Reviews

"Gregory's analysis of race, ethnic, and class contacts and cooperation is clear and well written. . . . [A] welcome addition to the sparse ethnographic literature on middle-class African America."

Choice

An excellent case study and microanalysis of a single community. It is a well written and documented confutation of black stereotypes and their communities. . . . A classic piece of urban anthropology.

Isis - Wilbur C. Rich

[Gregory] investigates class within race, race within place, and place within politics. . . . [He] makes important points about the structuring of black identities in reaction to racial, class, and gender hierarchies. . . .

American Journal of Sociology - Mary Pattillo-McCoy

Gregory employs the discipline of anthropology to penetrate the many myths and clichés that obscure the dynamics of black life in an urban community. Corona is the perfect subject for his investigation.... Black Corona is ideal for the community organizer, neighborhood historian, or academic.... [A] well-researched and beautifully written study.

New York Amsterdam News - Bill Batson

An excellent case study and microanalysis of a single community. It is a well written and documented confutation of black stereotypes and their communities. . . . A classic piece of urban anthropology.
— Wilbur C. Rich

Isis

[Gregory] investigates class within race, race within place, and place within politics. . . . [He] makes important points about the structuring of black identities in reaction to racial, class, and gender hierarchies. . . .
— Mary Pattillo-McCoy

American Journal of Sociology

Gregory employs the discipline of anthropology to penetrate the many myths and clichés that obscure the dynamics of black life in an urban community. Corona is the perfect subject for his investigation.... Black Corona is ideal for the community organizer, neighborhood historian, or academic.... [A] well-researched and beautifully written study.
— Bill Batson

New York Amsterdam News

Gregory gives an up-close look at community organization in a black middle-class community that defies stereotypes by outsiders about urban pathology and the disorganization and chaos that are supposed to exist in black neighborhoods.

Booklist

"Gregory gives an up-close look at community organization in a black middle-class community that defies stereotypes by outsiders about urban pathology and the disorganization and chaos that are supposed to exist in black neighborhoods."

Booklist

Winner of the 1998 Anthony Leeds Prize, Society for Urban Anthropology

From the Publisher