Ghetto

At one time or another, most underprivileged racial/ethnic or religious communities in the United States have been described as a “ghetto.” These poverty-stricken communities, in which minorities are typically overrepresented, are deemed “bad neighborhoods” because they suffer disproportionately from social problems such as crime, family disruption, and reliance on government assistance. The use of this loaded term is contextually specific, describing the poorest-of-the-poor Little Italys, shtetls, and Chinatowns at particular periods across the U.S. social landscape. This is mainly because a minority group's association with the ghetto shifts as it collectively experiences upward mobility. In other words, as time passes, what was once a predominantly poor Irish neighborhood slowly becomes a poor Dominican barrio.

The term ghetto was originally intended as an anti-Semitic slur describing segregated Jewish communities across Europe during the Middle Ages. The subordination and expulsion of Jews from mainstream society was initially fueled by the spread of Christianity. During the 20th century, the Nazi party reinvigorated anti-Semitism, and many Jews fleeing the Nazi Holocaust were able to escape to the United States. Although the word ghetto failed to take root there as a derogatory statement describing Jewish American communities, it has come to denote segregated subordinate communities inhabited by poor Blacks and Hispanics in the United States.

Across time periods and nations, the establishment of ghettos has been driven largely by discrimination and intolerance. Although these factors influenced the emergence of the U.S. ghetto, they were compounded by the rise of the industrial economy, the arrival of millions of minorities and immigrants to [Page 547]U.S. cities, and metropolitan expansion. Accordingly, these dynamics further complicate our understanding of the U.S. ghetto. This entry looks at the contemporary debate over the creation and sustenance of the U.S. ghetto. It generally addresses (a) the cultural/attitudinal adaptation to inequality, (b) the debate over race versus social class, and (c) policy prescriptions for alleviating social problems in these distressed communities.