officialdjx | 4/20/2009
For the unenlightened – which constitutes, say, anybody who uses this term to connote the urban black impoverished – the term “ghetto” originated as a reference to secluded Jewish quarters in Italy.
That’s so ghetto.
It’s an idiom that signals a crude remark or uncouth manners or just general unruly behavior.It is a grossly inaccurate statement, the brother of “hot ghetto mess” and the second cousin of “Indian giver”. It is representative of our lowest rung, the socially invisible and the politically marginalized. It is an incubator where ugly behavior and nihilism lives, a place to be shunned at all costs by higher society. It is what employers see when they look at an applicant’s address, and decide whether to call him or her back based on just that. It is naming your child Tanisha, Shanquita, Lovita, or Amare. It is yelling and cackling in the movie theater. It is long press-on finger nails, loud gum popping, skimpy outfits, tattoos, gold teeth and myriad children running around. It is {fill in the blank with favorite example]. “It” is our ghetto. Classifying a group of people as this one word is irresponsible at best and hurtful at worse. It goes without saying - and of course I am now saying this - that not everyone from impoverished neighborhoods act uncouth or give their children concocted names.
Read Rest of article here: Ghetto Matters: “That’s so Ghetto”
