Editing Ghetto (section)

== Ghettos in the United States ==
=== Early ghettos ===
[[File:Children in the Ghetto and the Ice-Cream Man. Chicago Ill. (FRONT).jpeg|thumb|''Children in the Ghetto and the Ice-Cream Man''&nbsp;— postcard from 1909 in [[Maxwell Street]], [[Chicago]]]]
[[File:The_Ghetto_of_Chicago.jpg|thumb|right|A scene of Maxwell Street in Chicago circa 1908. The title reads "THE GHETTO OF CHICAGO". The image has been colorized and is taken from a souvenir guide to Chicago printed in 1908. Note the signage in [[Yiddish]] that reads 'Fish Market'.]]
The development of ghettos in the United States is closely associated with different [[History of immigration to the United States|waves of immigration]] and internal urban migration. The [[Irish Americans|Irish]] and [[German Americans|German]] immigrants of the mid-19th century were the first ethnic groups to form [[ethnic enclave]]s in United States cities. This was followed by large numbers of immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe, including many [[Italian Americans|Italians]] and [[Polish Americans|Poles]] and Russians between 1880 and 1920. Jewish immigrants were part of the earliest German wave, as well as comprising numerous immigrants from Eastern Europe, the Russian Empire at the time.<ref name="Glaeser">[[Edward Glaeser|Glaeser, Ed]]. 1997. "[http://www.bos.frb.org/economic/nerr/rr1997/spring/glsr97_2.htm Ghettos: The Changing Consequences of Ethnic Isolation] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101021081419/http://www.bos.frb.org/economic/nerr/rr1997/spring/glsr97_2.htm |date=2010-10-21 }}." ''Regional Review'' 7(Spring). Boston, MA: [[Federal Reserve Bank of Boston]].</ref> Most remained in their established immigrant communities, but by the second or third generation, many families were able to relocate to newer housing built in the [[suburb]]s after World War II.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Sklare |first=Marshall |title=Jewish identity on the suburban frontier: a study of group survival in the open society |last2=Greenblum |first2=Joseph |date=1979 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=978-0-226-76176-3 |edition=2. |location=Chicago}}</ref>

These ethnic ghetto areas included the [[Lower East Side#Culture|Lower East Side]] in [[Manhattan|Manhattan, New York]], which later became notable as predominantly [[Jews|Jewish]], and later still as Chinese and Latino. [[East Harlem#History|East Harlem]] was once predominantly Italian and in the 1950s became home to a large [[Stateside Puerto Ricans|Puerto Rican]] community. [[Little Italy]]s across the country were predominantly Italian ghettos. Many Polish immigrants settled in areas of other nationals, such as [[Lower West Side, Chicago|Pilsen]] of Chicago and [[Polish Hill (Pittsburgh)|Polish Hill]] of [[Pittsburgh]]. Since the late 20th century, [[Brighton Beach]] in [[Brooklyn]] has become the home of predominately Jewish Russian and Ukrainian immigrants, who left after the [[Soviet Union]] lifted some migration restrictions and later after its fall.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://forward.com/news/162963/changing-face-of-brighton-beach/|title=Changing Face of Brighton Beach|first=Anna|last=Kordunsky|website=The Forward|date=17 September 2012 }}</ref>

{{Anchor|African American ghettos}}
=== Black or African-American ghettos ===
{{See also|Racial segregation in the United States|American ghettos}}
A commonly used definition of a ghetto is a community distinguished by a homogeneous [[Race (human categorization)|race]] or [[ethnic group|ethnicity]]. Additionally, a key feature that developed throughout the [[Post-industrial society|post-industrial]] era and continues to symbolize the demographics of American ghettos is the prevalence of poverty. [[Poverty]] constitutes the separation of ghettos from other, suburbanized or private neighborhoods. The high percentage of poverty partly justifies the difficulty of [[Human migration|emigration]], which tends to reproduce constraining social opportunities and inequalities in society.<ref name="Darity, William A. 2008">[[William A. Darity Jr.|Darity Jr., William A.]], ed. 2008. "Ghetto." Pp. 311–14 in ''[[International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences]]'' 3(2). [[Gale Virtual Reference Library]]. Retrieved 25 October 2012.</ref>

[[File:Chicago ghetto.jpg|thumb|Chicago ghetto on the [[South Side, Chicago|South Side]], May 1974]]
The term ghettos has been commonly used for some time, but ghettos were around long before the term was coined. Urban areas in the U.S. can often be classified as "black" or "white", with the inhabitants primarily belonging to a homogenous racial grouping.<ref name="SethiSomanathan2004" /> This classification can be traced back as early as the year 1880 as African Americans were living in their own neighborhoods.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Logan |first1=John R. |last2=Zhang |first2=Weiwei |last3=Turner |first3=Richard |last4=Shertzer |first4=Allison |title=Creating the Black Ghetto: Black Residential Patterns Before and After the Great Migration |journal=The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science |year=2015 |volume=660 |issue=1 |pages=18–35 |publisher=PMC |doi=10.1177/0002716215572993 |pmid=26600571 |pmc=4654963 }}</ref> Sixty years after the American [[civil rights movement]] of the 1950s and 1960s, most of the United States remains a [[residential segregation in the United States|residentially segregated]] society in which black people and white people inhabit different neighborhoods of significantly different quality.<ref name="SethiSomanathan2004">{{Cite journal |title=Inequality and Segregation |first1=Rajiv |last1=Sethi |first2=Rohini |last2=Somanathan|author2-link=Rohini Somanathan |journal=[[Journal of Political Economy]] |volume=112 |year=2004 |issue=6 |pages=1296–1321 |doi=10.1086/424742 |citeseerx=10.1.1.19.6596|s2cid=18358721 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |author-link=Douglas Massey |last=Massey |first=Douglas S. |title=Segregation and Stratification: A Biosocial Perspective |journal=[[Du Bois Review]] |volume=1 |issue=1 |year=2004 |pages=7–25 |doi=10.1017/S1742058X04040032|s2cid=144395873 }}</ref>

Many of these neighborhoods are located in Northern and Western cities where African Americans moved during the [[Great Migration (African American)|Great Migration]] (1914–1970), a period when over a million<ref name="pbs">{{Cite web |title=Retired Site — PBS Programs — PBS |url=https://www.pbs.org/wnet/aaworld/reference/articles/great_migration.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080318115540/https://www.pbs.org/wnet/aaworld/reference/articles/great_migration.html |archive-date=18 March 2008 |access-date=5 July 2017 |website=Retired Site — PBS Programs — PBS}}</ref> [[African Americans|African-Americans]] moved out of the rural [[southern United States]] to escape the widespread racism of the South; to seek out employment opportunities in industrial cities; and to pursue what was widely perceived to be a better quality of life in the North and West, such as [[New York City]], [[Detroit]], [[Cleveland]], [[Chicago]], [[Pittsburgh]], [[Los Angeles]], [[Oakland, California|Oakland]], [[Portland, Oregon|Portland]], and [[Seattle]].<ref name="pbs" /> African Americans found they had to struggle with white ethnic groups in Northern and Midwestern cities; many of them more recent European immigrants. Often they were restricted to areas of older and poor housing in the new cities where they settled.

The social disruption and economic competition following World War I, as veterans returned to the US, resulted in an outbreak of racial violence of whites against blacks in many of these Northern cities, such as Chicago, Omaha; Washington, DC, and others. Southern industrial cities were also affected. Such racist attacks were extremely violent, in some cases they included burning or bombing homes of African Americans;<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Logan|first1=John R.|last2=Zhang|first2=Weiwei|last3=Turner|first3=Richard|last4=Shertzer|first4=Allison|date=2015-06-09|title=Creating the Black Ghetto|url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0002716215572993|journal=The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science|volume=660|issue=1|pages=18–35|doi=10.1177/0002716215572993|pmid=26600571|pmc=4654963|issn=0002-7162}}</ref> many innocent blacks were killed. African-American leaders described 1919 as the [[Red Summer]] because of the widespread racial outbreaks and white attacks on mainly African Americans.

Two main factors ensured further separation between races and classes, and ultimately the development of contemporary ghettos: the relocation of industrial enterprises, and the movement of middle to upper class residents into suburban neighborhoods. Between 1967 and 1987, economic restructuring resulted in a dramatic decline of manufacturing jobs, which had formerly provided good livings for unionized, working-class blacks and whites. The once thriving northern and western industrial cities survived by a gradual shift to service and financial occupations. Subsidized highways and suburban development in the postwar period had pulled many middle and upper-class families and related businesses to the [[suburb]]s. Those who could not afford to move were left with disrupted neighborhoods and economies in the inner cities. African Americans were disproportionately affected and became either unemployed or underemployed, with little wage and reduced benefits. A concentration of African Americans predominated in some [[inner city]] neighborhoods.<ref name="Darity, William A. 2008" />

It is also significant to compare the demographic patterns between black people and European immigrants, according to the [[Labour economics|labor market]]. European immigrants and African Americans were both subject to an ethnic division of labor. Because of discrimination, African Americans were often restricted to the least secure division of the labor market. David Ward refers to this stagnant position in African-American or Black ghettos as the 'elevator' model, which implies that each group of immigrants or migrants takes turns in the processes of social mobility and suburbanization; and several groups did not start on the ground floor. The inability of black people to move from the ground floor, as Ward suggests, is dependent upon [[racism|prejudice]] and [[racial segregation|segregationist]] patterns established in the South prior to World War I, where most African Americans were disenfranchised by the turn of the century and deprived of political power.

After the [[wikt:exodus|exodus]] of African Americans to the North during and after World War I, they had to compete with numerous European immigrants; thus, African-Americans were diminished to unskilled jobs. The slow rate of advancement in black communities outlines the rigidity of the labor market, competition and conflict, adding another dimension to the prevalence of poverty and social instability in African-American or Black ghettos.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Ward |first= David |title=The Ethnic Ghetto in the United States: Past and Present |journal=Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers |series=ns |volume=7 |issue=3 |year=1982 |pages=257–75 |jstor=621990|doi= 10.2307/621990|bibcode= 1982TrIBG...7..257W }}</ref>

==== Effect of World War II on development ====
In the years following World War II, many [[white Americans]] began to move away from inner cities to newer suburban communities, a process known as [[white flight]]. White flight occurred, in part, as a response to black people moving into white urban neighborhoods.<ref name="Keating">{{Cite book |last=Keating |first=William Dennis |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=O0bnHQAACAAJ |title=The Suburban Racial Dilemma: Housing and Neighborhoods |publisher=Temple University Press |year=1994 |isbn=978-1-56639-147-4}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Frey |first=William H. |title=Central City White Flight: Racial and Nonracial Causes |journal=[[American Sociological Review]] |volume=44 |issue=3 |year=1979 |pages=425–448 |jstor=2094885 |doi=10.2307/2094885}}</ref> Discriminatory practices, especially those intended to "preserve" emerging white suburbs, restricted the ability of black people to move from inner cities to the suburbs, even when they were economically able to afford it. In contrast to this, the same period in history marked a massive suburban expansion available primarily to whites of both wealthy and working-class backgrounds, facilitated through highway construction and the availability of federally subsidized home mortgages ([[United States Department of Veterans Affairs|VA]], [[Civil Rights Act of 1968|FHA]], [[Home Owners' Loan Corporation]]). These made it easier for families to buy new houses in the suburbs, but not to rent apartments in cities.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.public.asu.edu/~wplotkin/DeedsWeb/fha38.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081229152840/http://www.public.asu.edu/~wplotkin/DeedsWeb/fha38.html |url-status=dead |title="Racial" Provisions of FHA Underwriting Manual|archive-date=December 29, 2008}}</ref>

The United States began restructuring its economy after World War II, fueled by new [[Globalization|globalizing]] processes, and demonstrated through technological advances and improvements in efficiency. The structural shift of 1973, during the post-Fordist era, became a large component to the racial ghetto and its relationship with the labor market. [[Sharon Zukin]] declares the designated stratum of African-Americans in the labor force was placed even below the working class; low-skill urban jobs were now given to incoming immigrants from [[Mexico]] or the [[Caribbean]]. Additionally, Zukin notes, "Not only have social services been drastically reduced, punitive and other social controls over the poor have been increased," such as law enforcement and imprisonment.<ref name="Zukin, Sharon 2002">{{Cite journal|last=Zukin|first=Sharon|year=2002|title=How 'Bad' Is It?: Institutions and Intentions in the Study of the American Ghetto|journal=International Journal of Urban and Regional Research|volume=22|issue=3|pages=511–20|doi=10.1111/1468-2427.00155|doi-access=free}}</ref>{{Rp|514}} Described as the "urban crisis" during the 1970s and 1980s, the transition stressed regional divisions according to differences in income and racial lines—white "donuts" around black holes.<ref name="Fischer, Claude S. 2000">{{Cite journal |last1=Fischer |first1=Claude S. |first2=Gretchen |last2=Stockmayer |first3=Jon |last3=Stiles |first4=Michael |last4=Hout |title=Distinguishing the Geographical Levels and Social Dimensions of U.S. Metropolitan Segregation, 1960–2000 |journal=Demography |volume=41 |issue=7 |year=2004 |pages=37–59 |doi=10.1353/dem.2004.0002|pmid=15074124 |s2cid=9493288 |doi-access=free }}</ref> Hardly coincidental, the steady separation occurred during the period of civil rights laws, urban riots and [[Black Power]]. In addition, the ''[[International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences|International Encyclopedia of Social Sciences]]'' stresses the various challenges developed by this "urban crisis", including:<ref name="Darity, William A. 2008" />{{Rp|313}}

{{Blockquote | style=font-size:100% |[P]oorly underserviced infrastructures, inadequate housing to accommodate a growing urban populace, group conflict and competition over limited jobs and space, the inability for many residents to compete for new technology-based jobs, and tensions between the public and private sectors left to the formation and growth of U.S. ghettos.|author=|title=|source=}}

The cumulative economic and social forces in ghettos give way to social, political and economic isolation and inequality, while indirectly defining a separation between superior and inferior status of groups.{{Citation needed|date=November 2021}}

In response to the influx of black people from the South, banks, insurance companies, and businesses began denying or increasing the cost of services, such as [[bank]]ing, [[insurance]], access to jobs,<ref>[http://www.core.ucl.ac.be/services/psfiles/dp99/dp9913.pdf Racial Discrimination and Redlining in Cities] {{Webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071130210614/http://www.core.ucl.ac.be/services/psfiles/dp99/dp9913.pdf |date=November 30, 2007}}</ref> [[Race and health in the United States|access to health care]], or even [[supermarket]]s<ref>{{Cite journal |title=In poor health: Supermarket redlining and urban nutrition |first=Elizabeth |last=Eisenhauer |journal=[[GeoJournal]] |volume=53 |issue=2 |pages=125–133 |year=2001 |doi=10.1023/A:1015772503007|bibcode=2001GeoJo..53..125E |s2cid=151164815 }}</ref> to residents in certain, often racially determined,<ref name="eastny">Thabit, Walter, [https://books.google.com/books?id=TWo8OFJpFtAC ''How East New York Became a Ghetto'']. {{ISBN|0-8147-8267-1}}. Page 42.</ref> areas. The most devastating form of [[redlining]], and the most common use of the term, refers to [[mortgage discrimination]]. Data on house prices and attitudes toward integration suggest that in the mid-twentieth century, segregation was a product of collective actions taken by non-black people to exclude black people from outside neighborhoods.<ref name="vigdor">{{Cite journal |last1=Cutler |first1=David M. |author-link=David Cutler |first2=Edward L. |last2=Glaeser |author-link2=Edward Glaeser |first3=Jacob L. |last3=Vigdor |title=The Rise and Decline of the American Ghetto |journal=[[Journal of Political Economy]] |volume=107 |issue=3 |year=1999 |pages=455–506 |doi=10.1086/250069 |citeseerx=10.1.1.587.8018 |s2cid=134413201 |url=http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:2770033}}</ref>

The "Racial" Provisions of the FHA Underwriting Manual of 1936 included the following guidelines which exacerbated the segregation issue:
{{Blockquote | style=font-size:100% |Recommended restrictions should include provision for: prohibition of the occupancy of properties except by the race for which they are intended&nbsp;... Schools should be appropriate to the needs of the new community and they should not be attended in large numbers by inharmonious racial groups.<ref name="Keating" /><ref>[[Federal Housing Administration]], ''Underwriting Manual: Underwriting and Valuation Procedure Under Title II of the [[National Housing Act of 1934|National Housing Act]] with Revisions to February, 1938'' (Washington, D.C.), Part II, Section 9, Rating of Location.</ref>}}

This meant that [[minority group|ethnic minorities]] could secure [[mortgage loan]]s only in certain areas, and it resulted in a large increase in the residential [[racial segregation]] and [[urban decay]] in the United States.<ref>{{Cite crabgrass}}</ref> The creation of new highways in some cases divided and isolated black neighborhoods from goods and services, many times within industrial corridors. For example, [[Birmingham, Alabama]]'s interstate highway system attempted to maintain the racial boundaries that had been established by the city's 1926 racial zoning law. The construction of interstate highways through black neighborhoods in the city led to significant population loss in those neighborhoods and is associated with an increase in neighborhood racial segregation.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Connerly |first=Charles E. |title=From Racial Zoning to Community Empowerment: The Interstate Highway System and the African American Community in Birmingham, Alabama |journal=Journal of Planning Education and Research |volume=22 |issue=2 |pages=99–114 |year=2002 |doi=10.1177/0739456X02238441|s2cid=144767245 }}</ref> Residential segregation was further perpetuated because whites were willing to pay more than black people to live in predominantly white areas.<ref name="Glaeser" /> Some social scientists suggest that the historical processes of [[suburbanization]] and decentralization are instances of [[white privilege]] that have contributed to contemporary patterns of [[environmental racism]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Pulido |first=Laura |title=Rethinking Environmental Racism: White Privilege and Urban Development in Southern California |journal=Annals of the Association of American Geographers |volume=90 |issue=1 |year=2000 |pages=12–40 |doi=10.1111/0004-5608.00182 |hdl=10214/1833|s2cid=38036883 |hdl-access=free }}</ref>

Following the emergence of anti-discrimination policies in housing and labor sparked by the [[civil rights movement]], members of the [[African-American middle class|black middle class]] moved out of the ghetto. The [[Civil Rights Act of 1968|Fair Housing Act]] was passed in 1968. This was the first federal law that outlawed discrimination in the sale and rental of housing on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion and later sex, familial status, and disability. The [[Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity]] was charged with administering and enforcing the law. Since housing discrimination became illegal, new housing opportunities were made available to the black community and many left the ghetto. Urban sociologists frequently title this historical event as "black middle class exodus", or [[black flight]]. [[Elijah Anderson (sociologist)|Elijah Anderson]] describes a process by which members of the black middle class begin to distance themselves socially and culturally from ghetto residents during the later half of the twentieth century, "eventually expressing this distance by literally moving away."<ref>{{Cite book| last=Anderson| first=Elijah| title=Streetwise: Race, Class, and Change in an Urban Community| year=1990| publisher=The University of Chicago Press| isbn=978-0-226-01816-4| pages=[https://archive.org/details/streetwiseracecl0000ande/page/2 2]| url=https://archive.org/details/streetwiseracecl0000ande/page/2}}</ref> This is followed by the exodus of black working-class families.<ref name="Disadvantaged">{{Cite book| last=Wilson| first=William Julius| title=The Truly Disadvantaged: The Inner City, the Underclass, and Public Policy| year=1987| publisher=The University of Chicago Press| isbn=978-0-226-90131-2| url=https://archive.org/details/trulydisadvantag00wilsrich}}</ref>{{Rp|49}} As a result, the ghetto becomes primarily occupied by what sociologists and journalists of the 1980s and 1990s frequently title the "[[underclass]]." [[William Julius Wilson]] suggests this exodus worsened the isolation of the black underclass&nbsp;— not only were they socially and physically distanced from whites, they also became isolated from the black middle class.<ref name="Disadvantaged" />{{Rp|7–8}}

==== Theories on the development of Black ghettos ====
Two dominant theories arise pertaining to the production and development of U.S. ghettos: race-based and class-based; as well as an alternative theory put forward by [[Thomas Sowell]].{{Citation needed|date=November 2021}}

===== Race-based theories =====
First are the race-based theorists, who argue the importance of [[Race (human categorization)|race]] in ghettos. Their analysis consists of the dominant racial group in the U.S. ([[White Anglo-Saxon Protestants]]) and their use of certain racist tactics in order to maintain their [[hegemony]] over black people and lengthen their spatial separation. Race-based theorists offset other arguments that focus on the influence of the [[economy]] on segregation. More contemporary research of race-based theorists is to frame a range of methods conducted by white Americans to "preserve race-based residential inequities" as a function of the dominantly white, state-run government. Involving uneven development, mortgage and business discrimination and disinvestment—U.S. ghettos then, as suggested by race-based theorists, are conserved by distinctly racial reasoning.{{Citation needed|date=November 2021}}

===== Class-based theories =====
The more dominant view, on the other hand, is represented by [[social class|class-based]] theorists. Such theories confirm class to be more important than race in the structuring of U.S. ghettos. Although racial concentration is a key signifier for ghettos, class-based theorists emphasize the role and impact of broader societal structures in the creation of African-American or Black ghettos. Dynamics of low-wage service and unemployment triggered from [[deindustrialization]], and the [[Intergenerationality|intergenerational]] diffusion of status within families and neighborhoods, for instance, prove the rise in socioeconomic polarization between classes to be the creator of American ghetto; not [[racism]].<ref>Shelton, Jason E. "Ghetto." ''Encyclopedia of Race, Ethnicity, and Society''. 2008. SAGE Knowledge. Web. 25 Oct. 2012.</ref> Furthermore, the [[culture of poverty]] theory, first developed by [[Oscar Lewis]], states that a prolonged history of poverty can itself become a cultural obstacle to socioeconomic success, and in turn can continue a pattern of socioeconomic polarization. Ghettos, in short, instill a cultural adaptation to social and class-based inequalities, reducing the ability of future generations to mobilize or [[Human migration|migrate]].<ref name="Fischer, Claude S. 2000" />

===== Alternative theory =====
An alternative theory put forward by [[Thomas Sowell]] in ''[[Black Rednecks and White Liberals]]'' asserts that modern urban black ghetto culture is rooted in the white [[Cracker (term)|Cracker]] culture of the [[North Britain|North Britons]] and [[Scotch-Irish Americans|Scots-Irish]] who migrated from the generally lawless [[Anglo-Scottish border|border]] regions of Britain to the American South, where they formed a [[redneck]] culture common to both black and white people in the [[antebellum South]]. Characteristics of this culture included lively music and dance, violence, unbridled emotions, flamboyant imagery, illegitimacy, religious oratory marked by strident rhetoric, and a lack of emphasis on education and intellectual interests.<ref name="Sowell">{{Cite journal | last = Sowell | first = Thomas | date = May 16, 2015 | title = Black Rednecks and White Liberals | url = http://www.capitalismmagazine.com/2005/05/black-rednecks-and-white-liberals/ | journal = Capitalism Magazine}}</ref> Because redneck culture proved counterproductive, "that culture long ago died out...among both white and black Southerners, while still surviving today in the poorest and worst of the urban black ghettos",<ref name="Nordlinger">{{Cite journal | last = Nordlinger | first = Jay | date = September 9, 2005 | title = "Black Rednecks and White Liberals", by Thomas Sowell | url = http://www.nationalreview.com/article/215370/chewing-nails-jay-nordlinger | journal = National Review}}</ref> which Sowell described as being characterized by "brawling, braggadocio, self-indulgence, [and] disregard of the future",<ref name="Nordlinger" /> and where "belligerence is considered being manly and crudity is considered cool, while being civilized is regarded as 'acting white'."<ref name="Sowell" /> Sowell blames liberal Americans who since the 1960s have embraced black ghetto culture as the only "'authentic' black culture and even glamorize it" while they "denounce any criticism of the ghetto lifestyle or any attempt to change it."<ref name="Sowell" /> Sowell asserts that white liberal Americans have perpetuated this "counterproductive and self-destructive lifestyle" among black Americans living in urban ghettos through "the welfare state, and look-the-other-way policing, and smiling at 'gangsta rap'."<ref name="Nordlinger" />

==== U.S. characterizations of "ghetto" ====
Contemporary African-American or Black ghettos are characterized by an overrepresentation of a particular ethnicity or race, vulnerability to crime, social problems, governmental reliance and political disempowerment. [[Sharon Zukin]] explains that through these reasons, society rationalizes the term "bad neighborhoods." Zukin stresses that these circumstances are largely related to "racial concentration, residential abandonment, and de-constitution and reconstitution of communal institutions."<ref name="Zukin, Sharon 2002" />{{Rp|516}} Many scholars diagnose this poorly facilitated and fragmented view of the United States as the "age of extremes." This term argues that inequalities of wealth and power reinforce spatial separation; for example, the growth of [[Gated community|gated communities]] can be interconnected with the continued "ghettoization" of the poor.<ref name="Fischer, Claude S. 2000" />

Another characteristic to African-American or Black ghettos and spatial separation is the dependence on the state, and lack of communal [[autonomy]]; Sharon Zukin refers to [[Brownsville, Brooklyn]], as an example. This relationship between racial ghettos and the state is demonstrated through various push and pull features, implemented through government subsidized investments, which certainly assisted the movement of white Americans into the suburbs after [[World War II]]. Since the 1960s, after the de-constitution of the inner cities, African-American or Black ghettos have attempted to reorganize or reconstitute; in effect, they are increasingly regarded as public- and state-dependent communities. Brownsville, for instance, initiated the constitution of community-established public housing, anti-poverty organizations, and social service facilities—all, in their own way, depend on state resources. However, certain dependence contradicts society's desires to be autonomous actors in the market. Moreover, Zukin implies, "the less 'autonomous' the community—in its dependence on public schools, public housing and various subsidy programs—the greater the inequity between their organizations and the state, and the less willing residents are to organize."<ref name="Zukin, Sharon 2002" />{{Rp|517}} This should not, however, undermine local development corporations or social service agencies helping these neighborhoods. The lack of autonomy and growing dependence on the state, especially in a [[Neoliberalism|neoliberal]] economy, remains a key indicator to the production as well as the prevalence of African-American or Black ghettos, particularly due to the lack of opportunities to compete in the global market.<ref name="Zukin, Sharon 2002" />

The concept of the ''ghetto'' and ''underclass'' has faced criticism both theoretically and empirically. Research has shown significant differences in resources for neighborhoods with similar populations both across cities and over time.<ref>{{Cite journal|year=2008|title=Symposium on the ''Ghetto''|journal=City & Community|volume=7|issue=4|pages=305–407|doi=10.1111/cico.2008.7.issue-4}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Small|first1=Mario L.|last2=McDermott|first2=Monica|year=2006|title=The Presence of Organizational Resources in Poor Urban Neighborhoods: An Analysis of Average and Contextual Effects|journal=Social Forces|volume=84|issue=3|pages=1697–1724|doi=10.1353/sof.2006.0067|s2cid=44243405}}</ref> This includes differences in the resources of neighborhoods with predominantly low income or racial minority populations. The cause of these differences in resources across similar neighborhoods has more to do with dynamics outside of the neighborhood.<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Logan|first1=John|title=Urban Fortunes : The Political Economy of Place|last2=Molotch|first2=Harvey|publisher=University of California Press|year=1987|isbn=978-0-520-06341-9|location=Berkeley}}</ref> To a large extent the problem with the ''ghetto'' and ''underclass'' concepts stem from the reliance on case studies (in particular case studies from Chicago), which limit social scientist understandings of socially disadvantaged neighborhoods.

===== Internal characterizations =====
Despite mainstream America's use of the term ''ghetto'' to signify a poor, culturally or racially homogenous urban area, those living in the area often used it to signify something positive. The black ghettos did not always contain dilapidated houses and deteriorating projects, nor were all of its residents poverty-stricken. For many African-Americans, the ghetto was "home": a place representing authentic [[African-American culture|blackness]] and a feeling, passion, or emotion derived from rising above the struggle and suffering of being black in America.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Smitherman |first=Geneva |title=Black Talk: Words and Phrases from the Hood to the Amen Corner |location=New York |publisher=Houghton Mifflin Company |year=2000 |isbn=978-0-395-96919-9 |url=https://archive.org/details/blacktalkwordsph00smit_0}}</ref>

[[Langston Hughes]] relays in his "Negro Ghetto" (1931) and "The Heart of Harlem" (1945)  poems:<ref>[[Langston Hughes|Hughes, Langston]]. [1945] 2007. "[https://books.google.com/books?id=B62nIpB4cmEC&pg=PA89 The Heart of Harlem]." Pp. 89–90 in ''I Speak of the City: Poems of New York'', edited by S. Wolf. New York: [[Columbia University Press]].</ref>

{{Poem quote|text=The buildings in Harlem are brick and stone
And the streets are long and wide,
But Harlem's much more than these alone,
Harlem is what's inside.|char=|sign=|title=|source="The Heart of Harlem" (1945)}}

Playwright [[August Wilson]] uses the term "ghetto" in ''[[Ma Rainey's Black Bottom]]'' (1984) and ''[[Fences (play)|Fences]]'' (1985), both of which draw upon the author's experience growing up in the [[Hill District (Pittsburgh)|Hill District]] of Pittsburgh, a black ghetto.<ref name="Glaeser" />

==== Modern usage and reinterpretations of "ghetto" ====
Recently the word "ghetto" has been used in [[slang]] as an [[adjective]] rather than a [[noun]]. It is used to indicate an object's relation to the inner city and also more broadly to denote something that is shabby or of low quality. While "ghetto" as an adjective can be used derogatorily, the African-American or Black community, particularly the [[hip hop]] scene, has taken the word for themselves and begun using it in a more positive sense that transcends its derogatory origins.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?isbn=1456766406|title=The Goshen Dilemma|last=Stuart E|first=Heflin Sr|pages=26}}</ref>

In 1973, ''[[Geographical Review]]'' claimed "The degree of residential segregation of the black community is greater than for any other group in urban America, yet black people have not had the political power necessary to exercise any significant degree of control over the improvement of the basic services necessary for their health, education, and welfare."<ref name="Geographical Review 107">''Geographical Review'' 107</ref><ref name="jstor.org">{{Cite journal |title=Geographical Record |journal=Geographical Review |volume=63 |issue=1 |year=1973 |pages= 106–17 |jstor=213241}}</ref> Scholars have been interested in the study of African-American or Black ghettos precisely for the concentration of disadvantaged residents and their vulnerability to social problems. American ghettos also bring attention to geographical and political barriers, and as [[Doreen Massey (geographer)|Doreen Massey]] highlights, that racial segregation in African-American or Black ghettos challenge America's democratic foundations.<ref name="Fischer, Claude S. 2000" /> However, it is still advocated that "One solution to these problems depends on our ability to use the political process in eliminating the inequities... geographical knowledge and theory to public-policy decisions about poor people and poor regions is a professional obligation."<ref name="Geographical Review 107" /><ref name="jstor.org" />