Why We Need to Stop Using the Word "Ghetto"

If you think something is stupid, do you call it "gay" or "retarded"? Chances are, you've learned how offensive and hurtful that is and long ago phased that language out of your vocabulary (assuming it was ever in the mix). But what about poverty slang? Do you use "trashy" or "ghetto" to describe something inferior? There's a greater chance that you do. So my question is: Why is denigrating the poor still acceptable?

Let me be clear, though I'm not proud of it: I've used "ghetto" as an adjective. I've popped it into a sentence when someone doesn't understand other synonyms, when I've said, "I grew up in the sticks" and I got blank stares. It's not high-minded communication, but sometimes, I'll admit it's intentional. I'm not trying to denigrate others; I'm trying to examine and explain my own past. Do I need to find a better word? Do you? No question, the answer is yes.

I'm careful to not use terms like "white trash," which implies anyone not white is automatically "trash" in a similar scenario. Similarly, I reclaim "trailer trash" to get people to think twice. Looking at me as an adult, I'm not a stereotype of someone who grew up in a trailer, though I spent formative years in a double-wide with my single mom. It was the first home post-divorce she could afford to buy. That's not trashy; that's perseverance, that's survival.

In my Midwestern home town, you can cross one major street and end up in either the so-called "white ghetto" or "black ghetto." Though I no longer do, I felt for years that this was an appropriate designation. My city has a nasty history of race relations that folks still can't work out, and I felt that it helped people understand where I was from when I explained that even the poor were intentionally segregated. It's an awkward conversation to have in the first place; I'm often trying to ease into talking about race and poverty in the most accessible, widely understood terms.

But it's a lot more complicated than that. The history of the word "ghetto" is largely overlooked when we debate its meaning, so here are a few reminders: the word is often thought to derive from the Italian borghetto, or "borgo," similar to the English "borough"; in Italy, it first meant the site of a new city outside the older walled one. Jews (as well as Romas, gay people and other persecuted groups) were often segregated into so-called ghettos, or de-facto concentration camps, during the Holocaust. The term is defined by any number of dictionaries as a segregated or isolated area, inhabited by a minority ethnic group. You can't just decide a word does or does not have meaning. The word "ghetto" has a specific history, one you can even look up.

As blogger Tamara Winfrey Harris explained over on Race in America, "ghetto" often invokes the idea of a predominantly black, poor area but also an inferior one. Winfrey Harris references Urban Dictionary definitions, in which synonyms for "ghetto" include everything from "cheap" to "gangsta" to the N-word. Look no further than sites like Stuff Ghetto People Like, a racist parody of Stuff White People Like. The difference, of course, is that Ghetto People puts a photo of black youth on the About page and most of the content is overtly racial, including its blogroll. (Not to mention how boring and obnoxious these unoriginal "What X Like" sites have become.)

Winfrey Harris also looked at how "ghetto" is used to define a larger (perceived) social problem such as "ghetto parenting," in which children are left to be raised by the streets and fend for themselves. Babble.com's Strollerderby blog tamely named the term "inappropriate," while Essence's Yolanda Sangweni explained that "using the phrase 'ghetto' more often than not means you're talking about black, Hispanic and poor people."

People don't like to be told that their language is offensive, that they might want to consider less insulting synonyms. They cry "thought police!," get defensive, and disengage. But when we put these issues on the table, what we're implicitly demanding is that people alter how they think about these topics. If you're going to ask people to stop using "ghetto," you've got to get them to stop stereotyping the poor and people of color, right?

Photo credit: Wrote