This book examines how black children who grow up in an impoverished environment construct their social reality, and how this process influences their perception and creation of self. It argues that these children develop a lifestyle and adopt values based on an identity grounded in racism, social disparity, violence, and poverty.

Contructing Social Reality: Self-Portraits of Black Children Living In Poverty makes a valuable contribution to the scholarship by investigating the phenomenon of poverty from cognitive, linguistic, and experiential perspectives in the lives of disadvantaged black adolescents.

1. Introuction
2. The Course of Construction
3. Primary Socialization and Construction of Reality
4. Listen: Do You Hear What I Hear?
5. "Showdown" : Impact of Mass Media and Popular Culture
6. Reality Is Socially Constructed! Causal Network