The word “ghetto” has been appropriated by many different social groups in the past. While each appropriations definition at first seems different, they are all essentially the same definition. Through history the word “ghetto” has gone from predominately being a noun to more recently being used as an adjective.
The etymology of the word “ghetto” is actually unknown according to the Oxford University Press (Domonoske). In Hebrew it means” get”, in Italian it means “little town”, in Venetian it means “foundry”, and in German it means “street”. All possibilities have fairly different meanings which leads the etymology of the word to be a mystery.
The first occurrence of a ghetto was in Venice during the early 1500s (Roth). Jewish people fled to Venice in June 1509 as refugees during the War of the League of Cambrai. Most of them settled in San Cassiano, but they began to run into issues with the Christians who wanted to expel them. The Christians, however, wanted to expel the Jews from their cities, but needed them for their money lending. The solution the Christians made to appease their anti-Semitist feelings, but maintain their economic relationship was the segregate the Jews in the city from the Christians. In March 1516 the Venetian State approved the proposal that the Jewish people would have to live in the Ghetto Nuovo, which means “New Foundry”(Finlay). This forced segregation of the ghettos was upheld by the law in Venice.
Shakespeare displayed this relationship between the Christians and Jews in the Ghetto in his comedy play The Merchant of Venice. In this play a character had to enter a ghetto to find Shylock, a Jewish man who lent money to the Christians. The ghetto was described as having poor living conditions and the streets being filled with people. This was written in London during 1598 and noted major stereotypes of Jews during this time. The ghetto was a product of the disregard and hatred of a group of people who were apart of the minority. As the nineteenth century approached, the number of ghettos began to decrease as Jews weren’t legally forced to continue living in them.
The next instance of ghettos being formed was during the Holocaust. Hitler forced the Jews to be segregated in Germany. This segregation was on a whole new level compared to in Venice. The Nazis also enforced the ghettos through law and the living conditions were meant to hurt the Jewish people. The ghettos were poor, densely packed cities that received very limited amounts of resources. The amount of food that was brought in was strictly regulated. Ghettos were formed to gain better control of the Jews. The Nazis controlled their lives and restricted the Jewish people from being able to gain economic status. The ghettos weren’t only created to control the Jewish population, but also used them to make their genocide easier. Everyone was gathered in one place and it was easy to load them up on a train in their ghetto and take them to a Nazi camp.
One of the bigger ghettos during this time was Warsaw. Warsaw was literally fenced off from the rest of civilization. This ghetto was surrounded by brick walls, fences covered in barbed wire, and was heavily watched over by guards. The use of ghettos was to take control of a minority and to belittle them by stripping away their resources and providing poor living conditions with no help or way to escape. If someone tried to escape they would be shot right away. Ghettos ceased to exist as the war began to decline and the Nazis were losing their power.
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, one definition of ghetto is, “A quarter in a city, esp. a thickly populated slum area, inhabited by a minority group or groups, usually as a result of economic or social pressures; an area, etc., occupied by an isolated group; an isolated or segregated group, community, or area.” This definition matches the descriptions of the ghettos in Venice and in Nazi Germany. The Jewish people, who were the minority group in both Venice and Nazi Germany, were segregate as a result of social pressure and pushed to live in populated slum areas. This definition however can also be applicable to some communities today. During the late 19th century ghettos in Brazil began forming. These impoverish slums calls favelas began to get filled with former slaves. More people began moving from the countryside of Brazil to the city. The is a common trend where lower income groups would move into cities to be closer to work. The amount of people in the city rise, but conditions never improve.
Also by 1960 African Americans reclaimed the word “ghetto” from the Jewish predecessors. Unlike the Jewish, African Americans were not directly forced into ghettos. They were passively forced into ghettos because of race prejudice, economic situations, and cultural differences. After World War Two, “white flight” happened where white city-dwellers began moving to more suburban areas to avoid the increasing amounts of minorities. This only caused the cities to fit the definition of a ghetto more. Since high income families weren’t living in the neighborhoods the conditions quickly fell as the white people in power didn’t find the imminent need to upkeep the neighborhoods. Realtors would use illegal strategies such as redlining to keep these minority groups stuck together in poor conditions.
It was when minorities in ghettos were denied loans and if they were given a loan it would be very expensive. This practice was not done only because the realtors were racists but also because they didn’t want minorities spreading out wherever they wanted. Eventually redlining became illegal in America, but it didn’t stop smaller towns and areas from continuing the practice is shady manners. Also, the effects of red lining are still felt today. “Three out of four neighborhoods ‘redlined’ on government maps 80 years ago continue to struggle economically” (Jan). This was not the only reason why these neighborhoods started to become severely segregated. The racial violence was so intense that some white supremacist believed touching a minority could give them disease. They fiercely protected their properties against incoming minorities. It would be dangerous for an African American family to move into a predominately white neighborhood. They had to stay in the ghettos to remain safe.
Big ghettos that were main cultural conversation points in the 60s were in cities like Chicago, New York, and Detroit. In 1966 the Ebony editorial called out their concern for the poverty and families who lived in these areas saying something had to be done (Domonoske). Not only did editorials call out these conditions, but so did big rock stars like Elvis Presley. In 1969 Elvis released a song called “In the Ghetto” which talks about a small boy who grows up poor in the ghetto. As he follows the boy growing up as he gets involved in learning to steal and fight in the streets at night. By writing this song Elvis addresses the vicious cycle that exists in these ghettos that passively bind its residents to be stuck there. This cycle was heavily influenced by racist government policies that never gave the people a chance to excel in life and move out of the ghettos.
While these ghettos were mainly talked about for their poor living conditions and poor socioeconomic status, great culture bloomed from these crowded areas of minorities. Harlem was one of the well-known ghettos and is also accredited for the Harlem renaissance in the 1920s. Harlem still maintains this hub of great culture that has a lot of influence in pop culture today. Some of the best rappers have grown up in Harlem such as A$AP Rocky and Azealia Banks.
Now the word ghetto takes on a whole new meaning. Previously it has been used as a noun to name the place that minorities live, but now it is being used as an adjective. As I went to high school I started to learn a lot more slang and indirectly began to pick it up from my peers. During high school people would say this slang sounded “ghetto”. This automatically gave my new way of speaking a negative connotation. As I became a little older, I began to appreciate this slang. It’s something that helped me identify as a New Yorker. If I talked with my cousins from Ohio they were fascinated by all of the “New York City slang” and made me sit down and teach them everything I knew. This slang that originated in the ghetto also brought together people online on social media. On Instagram, New York City memes began popping up and gaining popularity.
Even in pop culture the word “ghetto” has been used as an adjective. On a Saturday Night Live sketch, four women compared the parts of their lives that were. “so ghetto”. One talked about a date that asked to split the bill and called it “so ghetto”(Barford).This word ghetto is beginning to detach from its original meaning and is beginning to be used to describe actions that are considered unsophisticated or lacking class. This however, begins to spark conversation about whether or not using the word “ghetto” in this way is offensive and possibly racist
This word that was used to name a place that the Jewish minority was forced to live is now being debated as a racist term. When someone describes an action as being ghetto, it typically comes with a negative connotation. It’s hard to dissociate the word ghetto from African Americans, so it’s hard to adopt the definition of ghetto to describe actions that are considered unsophisticated. When a person describes an outfit, slang, or action as ghetto it makes the lives of the people who live in ghettos to be put down and belittled. . I believe that using this word as a way to describe something of low quality or low class is extremely offensive and puts down the minorities. Many of these people struggle in the ghettos and do try everything they can to move out, but this oppression has been a long time in the making and is extremely hard to break.
The evolution of this word is extremely interesting. Seeing it grow to be a part of the culture is very interesting. Ghettos will probably be around for a long time in the future as this oppression and will probably grow in its usage and definition as more people hopefully stand up and talk about the poor conditions of ghettos.
Barford, Vanessa. “Is the Word ‘Ghetto’ Racist?” BBC News, BBC, 15 Jan. 2016, www.bbc.com/news/magazine-35296993.
Finlay, Robert. “The Foundation of the Ghetto: Venice, the Jews, and the War of the League of Cambrai.” Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, vol. 126, no. 2, 1982, pp. 140–154. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/986357.
Goudsouzian, Aram. “Evolution of a Place Called the Ghetto.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 22 Apr. 2016, www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/evolution-of-a-place- called-the-ghetto/2016/04/20/b10702b0-c90c-11e5-88ff- e2d1b4289c2f_story.html?utm_term=.cbfa264bbcd5.
Jan, Tracy. “Redlining Was Banned 50 Years Ago. It’s Still Hurting Minorities Today.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 28 Mar. 2018, www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2018/03/28/redlining-was-banned-50- years-ago-its-still-hurting-minorities-today/?utm_term=.2d2825952163.
Roth, C. “The Origin of Ghetto, a Final Word.” Romania, vol. 60, no. 238, 1934, pp. 67–76., doi:10.3406/roma.1934.4192.
