Ghetto Case

The word “ghetto” evokes a sense of danger and criminal activity for some. For others, it produces images of poverty and destitution. And for fewer and fewer, it evokes a sense of home. Although one’s first thought may jump to Los Angeles’ slums, ghettos have been around since the medieval ages. In those times, persons of Jewish heritage were segregated to certain areas where they “…resided, administered their own affairs, and followed their customs.” There are three popular usages of “ghetto”, “…the Jewish diaspora in early modern Europe and under Nazism, the sociology of the black American experience in the twentieth-century metropolis, and the anthropology of ethnic outcasts in Africa and East Asia” (Wacquant, 2004). Ghettos, throughout history, have been used to segregate, define, and bind groups of lower social status.

Despite the many connotations to the word, this paper will focus on American ghettos, and thus, “…the sociology of the black American experience…” (Wacquant, 2004). Seen in most major metropolitan areas, American ghettos have evolved in time, effectively changing itself due to outside pressures and, at the same time, changing the area around it. But what is a ghetto? Although many would claim familiarity with the word, “ghetto,” who can define it, plainly?

I asked three friends a simple question: “How do you define the word ‘ghetto’?” When I was given a short answer, I tried to draw out more information by asking what other associations they might have with the word.

Two of the people I interviewed are current Pasadena City College students. Alex is an 18 year-old Chinese-American male who lives in Monterey Park, California and Jason is a 23 year-old male living in Pasadena, California. Jason is the only interviewee with mixed ethnicity, as he is both “White” and Mexican. Both students were born and raised in southern Californian suburbs. My third interviewee is Julie, a 26 year-old Irish-American female currently residing in Boulder, Colorado. She recently completed a Master’s Degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Boulder and received her undergraduate degree from the University of Massachusetts. She was born and raised in rural, suburban Galloway, New Jersey.

These three people were chosen to, hopefully, provide a wider range of opinions and attitudes; Alex represents a “model minority,” Julie represents an “average White” person, and Jason is a middle ground (or perhaps a new category altogether) between the minority and the majority. None of the three believe they have ever lived in or by a ghetto, though they are all familiar with the term in some form, and often multiple forms. All three are educated up to some level of college, were raised in the United States, and were raised in a house. Their opinions will serve as general public opinion, in this paper, in consideration of the effect of the word “ghetto,”