But I was shocked when one of my Twitter followers, RuthieAA (aka Ruth Abrams who blogs at Interfaithfamily.com) was upset I used the word “ghetto” in a Tweet. (By the way, that’s what those of us on Twitter call our 140-character posts.) My Tweet? “Someone asked my sister if she was ghetto. She’s not, we decided, unless you mean ghetto enough to punch your teeth in.” My sister was obviously offended by being called ghetto. Though half her childhood was spent in a “ghetto” (Washington Heights), she was decidedly NOT ghetto.
During some serious Twittering (communicating with others on Twitter), we played around with rough definitions of “ghetto.” A food and a person could be “so ghetto” and even “ghetto fabulous” but was it being used pejoratively and was it okay when it wasn’t? RuthieAA seemed to think the word “ghetto” wasn’t racist but she wasn’t altogether sure using the word was kosher. RuthieAA said it seemed like a shibboleth to her. A what? According to Wikipedia, shibboleth usually refers to features of language, and particularly to a word whose pronunciation identifies its speaker as being a member or not a member of a particular group. So, the word “ghetto” was divisive….
I finally asked my friend from back in I.S. 143, the junior high school that skirts Yeshiva University in Washington Heights, what she thought the word ghetto meant. She thought using the dictionary definition of ghetto (which we haven’t yet notably) was “wack” (stupid, no good). She said “I define “ghetto” as a state of mind that transcends race/ethnicity/culture even class. the ghetto state of mind is one of defeat. from Washington Heights to a trailer park in Iowa, a “ghetto person” is one who thinks they’re owed something because of whatever life circumstances they’ve had. they’re someone who is resigned to being where they are with no ability to look ahead.” Then she had to run because her boss was looming over her shoulder. In my friend’s definition, calling anything ghetto definitely was a pejorative.
Even after RuthieAA said that she had heard ghetto used as a compliment: “cleverly making due with too little,” I couldn’t quite look at the word the same way again. Sure, my suburban friends laugh hysterically when I use it but would my junior high school friends if they were in the room? Would Holocaust survivors think it was funny? Some of them had after all been forcibly put in ghettos and some people now argue institutional racism has forced many minorities back into American versions of it.
So in the end, I discovered “ghetto” is not a nice word. And maybe I’ll still use it. Maybe I won’t. But the world won’t roll so easily off my tongue. It won’t feel comfortable. My junior high friend says “being a street thug is a symptom of being ghetto. the street thug doesn’t realize that if s/he punches someone in the face they can go to jail, they can’t see past their anger to the repercussions. this ‘ghetto’ thing is a sensitive topic for me. I feel like it’s used negatively to describe certain living conditions, however people have risen out of such situations (you and I included).” I suppose that RuthiaAA is right, “it’s hard to be welcoming when activating hidden tripwires.”
Memoirs of a Jewminicana 
Aliza,
Are you taking classes in political correctness? That’s just sad.
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No way, girl. But I’d love to take a class that taught me how to stop embarrassing myself and others. I think my friends would be upset with this though. Less laughing that way.
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Well, considering that you yourself are from the ghetto, I would be a little skeptical of non-ghetto dwellers telling you what words not to use to talk about your own sister. Still, worth keeping in mind if speaking to a real live actual survivor of a WWII ghetto. Otherwise I am with Anjelita. –Sarah
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I’m in agreement with Anjelita and < HREF="http://twitter.com/DrewKaplan/status/1650897138" REL="nofollow">am surprised that you might refrain from using this word<>, although it might have something to do with your crowds with whom you hang (I don’t know who they are, but it sounds like they might be quite sensitive to these things).
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Ladies, thank you for being so supportive. Really, really, really.
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Also, UNLIKE other mildly-to-very pejoratives, “ghetto” has never been used, as far as I know, by whites to oppress non-whites. It’s not even a matter of reclaiming as with “dyke.” AFAIK it is a ghetto word to be used by those who are, by their own admission, ghetto.
This usage rose up–and continues to rise–when almost every single Jewish ghetto dweller is dead. In 1947, it would have been different. Sorry, Jews.
Now, I do become irritated when my white friend/neighbor describes the 181st St. (former) Radio Shack as ghetto. Because that Radio Shack was NOT, in point of fact, ghetto. I mean, really. BESIDES, everyone there spoke English just fine. They just weren’t interested in waiting on her! But that is another matter entirely. Not at all like your usage.
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I think Radio Shack is kind of ghetto period. I prefer Best Buy. But I will do Radio Shack in a pinch.
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when i left the little shtetl (not ‘ghetto’) of Boropark, Brooklyn, and went away to college, i encountered a lot of Suburbanites (who were usually not Black or Latino) who used the word “ghetto” to mean “subpar” or “junky”.
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Radio Shack is SO GHETTO!
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I think it depends on how the word Ghetto is used, but I’d likely prefer a meaning that is more accurate to the source, like in the Army, one could make a joke that Field Artillery is ghetto, because the first ghetto was a cannon foundry in Venice, or I have a friend who’s ancestors were from the Pale and Yiddish makes her uncomfortable, because it reminds her of the poverty and oppression of the shtetl, so I could joke with her that she finds Yiddish too ghetto.
As for political correctness, I told my buddy Jesus Gonzalez that I no longer worship him when I decided to convert to Judaism 🙂 Of course, he introduced me to Carlos Mencia.
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