Ghetto Reputation

In the article The Construction of the Ghetto by Massey and Denton, there are several policies and practices that still has its effect on racial structure today. Among the several practices and policies are the Government Issue (GI) Bill for veterans and housing loans. At a political view, the GI Bill for veterans helped them buy houses at a lower price due to their contribution in the war. Since White veterans have the GI Bill, they moved out to the suburbs during 1940-1970, which was during the time of suburbanization. Because Black veterans did not receive the GI Bill, they were unable to move out and buy houses. This effect is still present today, considering that in the statistics, Blacks are less likely than Whites to own houses.

This not a new problem. Wacquant points out there is an ‘epistemological obstacle’ in the study of American ghetto. Ghetto life is seen in a very diluted and negative view from outside and above (Wacquant, 1997).

communities of sou ghetto status areas which segregate the minorities from the rich and poor, a ripple

How we dress, talk, and behave can have life or death consequences, with young people particularly at risk. Myself would define it as the ultimate black urban experience. More importantly, I was more engaged to read the book eager to base my own personal experience of my black urban neighborhood to compare to the residents interviews Anderson tackles and the assertion Anderson makes between street" persons from "decent" persons and families, with decent families tending to accept mainstream values, while street values are part of an oppositional culture. In addition, I wanted to see if he is accurate about his assumptions that the constant threat of violence to the circumstances of life among the ghetto stir from poor lack of living-wage jobs, dearth of basic public services, the stigma of race, the fallout from rampant drug trafficking and use, and the ensuing alienation and lack of hope for the future. After just finishing chapter one and two I was amazed and shocked by his knowledge and illustration on the distinction along with the relationships between “street” and “decent”

It all commence in the 1516’s when ghetto came to our creation. The term ghetto is really originated from the jewish quarter in venice. Ghetto was a place that they isolated jews from other

However, Wacquant brings the term “inner city” to light, breaking down its meaning: “black and poor.” Living in Chicago gives one an exemplary example of the term “inner city” meaning “poor, black ghettos.” The references to “inner city” schools being synonymous with “poor quality” and “mostly African American” are damaging to urban terminology and creating a predetermined perspective of those who call the “inner city” home. The “hypersegregation” of the city of Chicago is a topic within itself, but the institution of segregation is, without question, existent here. In addition, “inner city” is becoming a label which implies unavoidable incarceration.

The housing crisis in Detroit illuminated the grave economic reality of migrant black families living in the industrial Midwest. In order to holistically analyze the ramifications of the black labor movement, historians must understand the inextricable link between fair housing and the lack of financial capital for generations of black families. The rise of surbanization and red-lining tactics prompted white flight from Detroit’s predominately white neighborhoods, such as Dearborn. “During and after World War II, blacks flooded into Detroit’s Lower East Side: Paradise Valley” (Sugrue 36). Neighborhood deterioration, coupled with disproportionately high-rents and low Home Owners Loan Corporation appraisal scores, led to private-sector discrimination practices by predatory bank loaners and real-estate brokers in the West and East-Sides of Detroit—particularly the Eight-Mile, Paradise Valley, Oakwood, and Sojourner Truth Housing areas (Sugrue 43, 77).

Growing up in the ghetto is one of the toughest endeavours anyone can go though. I’m not talking about a ghetto that's inherited by nothing other than a single race as defined, but the stereotypical ghetto with guns and poor housing, houses without doors, that make a Sunday driver want to get out of there as soon as possible before they get mugged or worse. Living in South Lansing on Martin Luther King Jr. and right next to Board of Water and Light weren’t the worst ghettos in Michigan, however, they still weren’t the best place for anybody to live around. Once when I was living in Traditions, on MLK Blvd., two people were shot right in our backyard, which wasn’t even a surprise for us because something like that was always happening around

Segregation proved to be powerful in the city as to this day the South Side still shows remnants of the “Black Belt.” Figure [2] below shows racial demographics of a recent census of Chicago and the resemblance to the map of covenants in figure [1] can clearly be seen. Chicago’s role as a home for it’s residents proved positive for some but problematic for most. A system that always favored the wealthy and white was true for the city and while some areas were strong enough to fight this trend, as a whole Chicago was

These policies directly targeted racialized bodies, specifically African Americans, by concentrating them within urban ghettos away from white communities. Accordingly, urban planning policy such as the Urban Renewal Act of 1949 “intensified segregation by destroying integrated communities and creating segregated ones” and the only option for residents was to move projects that were built to “confine blacks to ghetto areas” (Fullilove 74). This demonstrates that urban planning policy served a significant role in concentrating black bodies in urban ghetto to create borders between whites and African Americans. Thus, it is apparent that African Americans were not part of the body politic and institutional powers actively worked to segregate blacks from whites. The lack of urban planning efforts to create a habitable built environment led to the poor living conditions that African Americans were subjected to. For example, African American neighborhoods in St. Louis degraded into slums after zoning policies “permitted liquor stores, nightclubs, and prostitution housing not found in other residential districts” (Rothstein 8). This shows how polices led to the formation of slums and the complete disregard to the quality of living of black residents because they were “unworthy” of a healthy built-environment. Thus, the

On a related note, the formation of residential segregation is rather discrete but it is certainly well rooted and can be traced back to the end of slavery where White Southerners were forced to ratify the 13th amendment (George 12). In response a caste system was created in which, “Negroes were to remain a dependent laboring class; they were to be governed by a separate code of laws; they were to play no active part in the South’s political life; and they were to be segregated socially” (George 13). This desire to create a new system of inequality led to the separation

Initially, while segregation in housing was legal, African-Americans were forced to live in certain neighborhoods, most of which were overcrowded and underfunded as the wealthier whites moved from city to suburb (“Housing”). In addition, the more prosperous African-Americans who had the ability to move into better neighborhoods were unable due to many suburbs not allowing minorities to live there or refusing to sell homes to minorities. Because a substantial segment of the middle-class white population moved to the suburbs, known as “white flight”, “cities became more polarized between the affluent and the poor” (“Fair”). The racist separation into lesser areas and increased poverty rates for African-Americans led to their continued economic oppression following civil rights legislation by forcing them to live in neighborhoods with worse conditions, such as poverty and overcrowding. Furthermore, as mortgage and foreclosure rates increased from financial discrimination, the quality of these neighborhoods began to decline rapidly. In 1990, houses within these lower rated neighborhoods were almost twice as likely to face overcrowding, and the estimated value of homes previously in the ‘A’ zone was $230,000, while in the ‘D’ zone, they were approximated to be worth just $89,000 (Appel and Nickerson). This stark contrast in value

Throughout history, the poor and undesirable classes of societies were always placed in separate living areas. For the undesirable poor and African Americans of America, the ghetto was created to keep them out of certain settlements. In his book, Dark Ghetto: Dilemmas of Social Power, Kenneth B. Clark describes the ghetto as having an "invisible wall" that surrounded it. People who live in ghettos have their social dynamics, behaviorism, and overall health negatively impacted by racism and segregation. Life in the ghettos is considered to be both harsh and dangerous due to the high crime rates and violence.

King of Rock n Roll, Elvis Presley, had a song in 1969 that took a drastic turn in theme from many of his other tunes relating to love, dancing and rock n roll. This song tells a tragic story which has very realistic connotations to the social problems of crime and poverty that were not only applicable to 1960s society but to our 21st century society. In this paper I will examine that song, titled “In the Ghetto”, highlight how the themes of the song relate to social disorganization, and further examine how the main character’s neighborhood takes the characteristics of a socially disorganized ecological environment perfectly.

Carson et al (2001, p.114) refers to focus groups as “A research technique that collects data through group interaction on a topic or topics”. They also suggest that the central distinctive characteristic of focus groups is group interaction, which generates a mass of data, which would be