Editing Ghetto (section)

==== 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" />