“Ghetto” as an Adjective?
Okay, so I am getting very uncomfortable with people using “ghetto” as an adjective for something they perceive as trashy or considered to be very “urban” or stereotypically “black.”
I mean, do you actually know what a ghetto is?
In 1500s Venice and subsequently other areas in Europe, they were designated areas where the authorities forced Jews to live.
The most famous ghettos were the city districts where Jews had to stay in during World War II and subjected to miserable living conditions, and many inhabitants of ghettos were systematically killed by Nazis during the Holocaust.
And now ghetto described an overcrowded area in a city, usually populated by a minority ethnic or racial group. These areas are impoverished, have disproportionally high crime rates. These ghettos were formed over hundreds of years of institutional oppression by ensuring that poor people and people of color have fewer resources and fewer options on where they can live.
“Ghetto” shouldn’t be relegated to something you disparage people for because they look or act urban. Ghetto is a tool of systematic oppression and marginalization. So you don’t need to be comparing something that you think looks messy or poor or what you perceive to be very much in-line with urban African American culture in a negative way to be “ghetto.” You want to call something ghetto? Say that gentrification is “ghetto,” say that the unbalanced school systems are “ghetto,” say that the disparities between the rich and poor are ghetto. Cause those are actual analogies to what ghettos have done and the systematically oppressive accomplishments they’ve sought to complete.
THANK YOU
(via tranqualizer)
