The “Ghetto” Mentality

“Ghetto” was originally used to refer to the Venetian Ghetto in Venice, Italy, in which Jews were required to live. The corresponding German term was Judengasse. The term “ghetto” came into widespread use during World War II to refer to Nazi ghettos that Nazis forced certain groups of people to live in. The term "ghetto" came to be commonly used to refer to any poverty-stricken urban area. In the U.S., "rural ghetto" is used to describe mobile home parks, farm labor housing tracts, and Indian reservations. Urban neighborhoods where Hispanic immigrants settled in the late 20th century, called “barrios,” are comparable to ghettos, because most immigrants are clustered in culturally isolated enclaves. "Ghetto" is also used figuratively, in a classist manner, to indicate geographic areas with a concentration of any type of person, for example a “gay ghetto” or “student ghetto.” The word, in recent years, has also been used in slang as an adjective to describe how city-like, thug-like or low-class something or someone is. Black and White segregation was, for a time, decreasing fairly consistently, but for most metropolitan areas and cities in the beginning of the 21st century, segregation is on the increase again. Despite these pervasive patterns, many changes for individual areas are small. Racial segregation in the U.S. is most pronounced in the housing market. Although people of different race might work together, they are still very unlikely to live in integrated neighborhoods. This pattern differs only by a small degree depending on different metropolitan areas. Thirty years after the Civil Rights Movement, the nation remains a residentially segregated society in which Blacks, Hispanics, Asian Americans and Whites inhabit neighborhoods of vastly different quality. Cities throughout history have contained distinct ethnic districts. But rarely have they been as isolated and impoverished as the “Black” neighborhoods found in cities today.
Due to segregated conditions and widespread poverty, some Black neighborhoods are called "ghettos." The use of this term is controversial and, depending on the context, can be offensive. Most of these neighborhoods are in northeastern cities where masses of Black people moved to during what was considered the Great Migration. In the period from 1914 to 1950 over a million Blacks moved out of the rural, southern states to escape the inescapable racism of the South, to seek employment opportunities in Northern urban environments, where they could pursue what was widely perceived to be a better life. “Black” ghettos started out well, economically. In the Midwest, ghettos were built on the high wages from manufacturing jobs. The Black ghettos of the mid-20th century appear to have been much less dangerous than those of today. As time passed, the “ghetto” became a place where Black people wanted an out. Ghettos became an image of poverty and crime. Poverty constitutes the separation of ghettos from other, suburbanized or private neighborhoods. The high percentage of poverty tends to reproduce constraining social opportunities and inequalities in society. Families wanted to get their children out of these areas or artists wanted to have their music get them out. It became a symbol of inferiority and confinement.
If the ghetto has been a shameful symbol of pressed confinement and presumed inferiority imposed by an oppressor, if it is today still the scene of such misery and crime, why should rap so proudly celebrate its being "ghetto music". Why not use rap's success, what Ice-T calls "its penetration to the heart of the nation" to break out of the ghetto mentality and insure that the hip hop community will never again be ghettoized but will constitute a global and multiracial great community?
The answer involves a fascinating dialectic of the pride of shamed and oppressed minorities, where such a minority, in order to assert its ethnic self-respect against its shameful treatment by the oppressor, ends up taking pride in the very things which the oppressor regards and imposes as shameful. We can see this dialectic at work in such black language inversions as "bad" meaning "good" (that “bad” chick) or the affectionate use of the term "nigger" which in white discourse was a term of shame. “Nigga” has become a casual word in the vocabulary of urban language. Related to this dialectic of pride and shame is a dialectic of reciprocal exclusion in which the excluded oppressed minority reasserts itself by taking pride in its exclusion and the ethnic purity such exclusion guarantees, and where it reciprocally excludes the dominant majority as somehow inferior, dangerous, and unworthy of inclusion, just as the majority reciprocally excluded it for similar reasons.
Pride in the ghetto is an empowering reaction to the shame of the ghetto and the scornful, oppressive segregation by white society. In that sense it is an extremely positive reaction of black pride, which must be encouraged. 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 rundown houses and deteriorating projects, nor were all of its residents poverty-stricken. For many Blacks, the ghetto was "home." It was a place representing authentic “blackness” and a feeling, passion or emotion derived from having to rise above the struggle and suffering of being Black in America. Langston Hughes relays in his poem "Negro Ghetto" and "The Heart of Harlem:” "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." Playwright August Wilson used the term "ghetto" in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom and Fences, both of which draw upon the author’s experience growing up in the Hill district of Pittsburgh, a Black ghetto.
Some ghettos have been known as vibrant cultural centers, for example, Harlem, N.Y. in the 1920s and 1930s. Many Black artists and musicians, such as Notorious B.I.G., John Lee Hooker, Tupac Shakur, Nina Simone and Cab Calloway were born and raised in ghettos, and much of their music comes from their own experiences and life in those neighborhoods or their own experiences with desegregation, for example, Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five's "The Message” tell of the woes but also the die-hard loyalty that came with living in the ghetto. The 1970s sitcom Good Times was modeled after life in the Cabrini-Green housing projects of Chicago. The show portrays a Black “ghetto” family that always triumphs over adversity, but it has been criticized for painting too rosy a picture of how the ghetto really was.
The danger of such reactive ghetto pride is that it can turn into a policy of exclusionary prejudiced isolation where topics and audiences that do not belong to the ghetto are denied access to hip hop culture. Words of KRS-One about the necessity of ghetto consciousness for rap, like the warning of Naughty by Nature for outsiders to "stay the f**k out of the ghetto", could be misinterpreted as simply advocating such an exclusionist attitude. This thought is not so simplistic; for example, it is "ghetto consciousness" not actual ghetto living that KRS-One demands of the rap audience, and such consciousness may perhaps be obtainable or imaginable through sympathetic understanding of rap's message and one's own non-ghetto experience of humiliation, alienation, and oppression. For such woes, are experienced also outside the ghetto; and their pervasiveness helps explain the global success of rap.
In any case, exclusionist ghetto prejudice runs the risk of reinforcing the walls of hate and distrust which created the oppressive ghetto segregation in the first place. So unless ghetto pride is preached with recognition and tolerance of what lies outside the ghetto and with a willingness to share rap's ghetto message with all people of the world, rap's ghetto pride may simply build up the isolating ghetto walls from the inside in reaction to the hateful walls already imposed by racist white society from the outside. Yet surely what we want is that "the walls come tumbling down".
But since white society has not shown similar tolerance and recognition of rap, why blame hip-hop for mixing ghetto pride with exclusionary ghetto prejudice? No blame is being cast, and such prejudice and separatism may be necessary steps in the journey to full social and cultural liberation. It is right is to question whether chauvinist ghetto isolation or greater interracial tolerance and global respect for black culture should be the ultimate aim of hip-hop. And one way of seeing the problems of chauvinistic ghetto isolation without getting embroiled in the passionate controversies of current black cultural politics is by considering the painful history of the original ghetto dwellers, the Jews, who dramatically exhibit the dialectic of the shame and pride of minority oppression and its related dialectic of isolationist exclusion.
It would be best for rap to combine its pride as ghetto music with a positive openness to the social world that lays outside the ghetto yet perforce influences it. Rap needs to continue Public Enemy's commitment to reach out and "teach the bourgeois", to spread rap's powerful and much-needed message of somatic, social, and political liberation far beyond its original ghetto community. It needs to do this as much for the ultimate good of that ghetto community as for the good of the world, which envelops and impacts on that community. In celebrating itself as ghetto music rap needs to remember what so many of its songs remind us: the horror and misery of ghetto life. We should never forget that rap's roots, inspiration, and political commitment rest firmly in the actualities of the ghetto; but this does not mean that the actual ghetto represents rap's ideal. Progressive rap should aim to transform the ghetto and the wider world, not simply idealize the former and exclude the latter.
There has been a shift in the predominate themes contained within the music. Much of rap ceased to challenge political oppression and instead exploited violence and misogyny to sell songs. Gangsta rap is a hip-hop genre that focuses primarily on the negative aspects of inner city life. The lyrics often glorify criminal activity and degrade women. This genre of hip-hop has been a source of tremendous controversy and is often cited as the cause of the increase in violence. This is particularly true amongst black youth.
Many gangsta hip-hop artists justify their music by claiming they are only retelling the experiences of their lives on the streets. However, the song lyrics often reveal an overabundance of curse words and no substance. According to Urban Dictionary.com, many artists have been forced to create artificial 'ghetto' images for the sake of a lucrative career. Many young people idolize these artists and imitate their behavior. Rap and Hip Hop promotes a thug lifestyle, one that centers on not fulfilling an education, but instead doing drugs, and spitting rhymes while doing so. Though not all rap and hip hop focuses on these themes; most of old rap speaks of getting through hardship. The whole “get paid and laid” idea is more geared toward the newer generation of rap and hip-hop.
Hip-hop is not just a style of music. It is a culture borne of poor, inner-city life in America that has evolved into the rallying cry of those unable to negotiate the nuances of the mainstream. It now serves to glorify formerly stigmatized characteristics of the lower class, preventing the impetus for upward mobility. Beyond the music, hip-hop culture encompasses street codes of behavior and an overall defiance of social convention. It is this defiance of mainstream life that is at the root of much of the underachievement now plaguing black youth. Hip-hop custom infers that young blacks that emulate mainstream attitudes are exhibiting weakness. This, of course, is a cardinal sin within that culture. Black youth thus feel encouraged to avoid the important concept of deferred gratification at a life juncture most critical to future achievement. Hip-hop also promotes the accumulation of gaudy symbols of success and to get them fast. When young men prance around with their flashy "bling," they illustrate their worthiness to the opposite sex. Materialism becomes a means for winning sexual conquests. Yet another is cultivating one's thug factor through braided hair, baggy clothing, and ghetto diction and street reputation.
Talented inner-city youth who should be smart enough to realize the importance of preparing themselves for the future too often can be demoralized and oppressed into hip-hop conformity. The culture of hip hop can cause some of our best black students to be branded with accusations that they are "acting white" or not "keeping it real." Moreover, many teens that aspire to normal jobs are subjected to ridicule since the hiphop imperative respects only fast money, regardless of legality. Sadly, even when hiphop devotees do take positive steps and attempt to enter the mainstream job market, they often find themselves devoid of the skills necessary for the best career paths. Because hip-hop is frequently the cultural norm for inner-city young blacks, it is only natural for these young people to see no harm in applying for a job with unsightly cornrows, baggy clothing and using less-than-acceptable English, having the “ghetto” mentality.
But what about the differences between black and white youth consumers of hiphop culture? Why do they seem not to be as adversely affected as black youth? For white youth, hip-hop tends to serve as little more than a medium for rebellion, much like rock and roll was during the 1950s. Only rarely do the children of the white middle class try to take on hip-hop as a way of life. Thanks to the global reach of the American entertainment industry, it is no surprise that angry and underprivileged youth in Europe, Africa and Asia are now enthusiastically embracing hip-hop. It's important not to forget that hip-hop culture was intertwined in the violent rioting of black and Arab youth in France. Recall how the rioters dressed and conducted themselves in a thug-like manner, as well as the hip hop music they blasted while torching vehicles and property.
Being “ghetto” has become a badge of honor, and now even the word ratchet is being used in place of “ghetto”. People glorify the ratchet lifestyle. If people could go back to 1995 and before, they could say that hip-hop was uplifting. A good example would be when you could listen to a song for five minutes and all you heard was Rakim bouncing outrageous similes and euphemisms off his tongue and Eric B. blessing the ones and two’s. Not only was there depth in those types of tracks, but also there was creativity and ingenuity. What about groups like Afrika Baambata whose songs lasted as long as infomercials? Eric B. & Rakim and Baambata are perfect illustrations of the true hip-hop culture because they were innovators and trendsetters. Back in the early 1990’s rappers such as Queen Latifah would not stand for the brought down of hip-hop and where it was leading. They have always been opposed to mainstream artists who sacrifice artistic integrity in the lure for more money and how they degrade woman.
Now in the 2000’s, you have the opposite of what rappers have been trying to prevent for years. You have rappers such as 50 Cent talking about how he loves money, Gucci Mane beating girls up -beat is a slang for sex- and everyone’s favorite rapper Lil Wayne saying to “f**k these bit**es” and even dudes. Hip-hop has taken a turn for the worst. African Americans make up the majority of the demographics of hip-hop listeners. Does hip-hop culture degrade or uplift African Americans? How would activist of our past answer this question if they were alive today? Right now, this hip-hop culture is definitely degrading to the race. However, there are cases where you might not find this in a lot of rappers. People like Soulja Boy Tell’em, Drake and Hurricane Chris have ruined the purpose of this culture, whereas rappers such as Ludacris, Nas and even Eminem have been continuing the real meaning of hip-hop. Now, what if activist like Malcolm X, Martin Luther King and more were still alive? Which side would they take to where hip-hop leads? They would choose that it has degraded African Americans. For what these people have struggled, hip-hop has gone the opposite way of what they fought in support of.
In The Hip Hop Generation, author Barkari Kitwana asserts once rap music embraces a social responsibility towards its audience, major political reforms would be imminent. Present hip hop music needs to get out of the “ratchet” upholding and focus on what messages they can spread, what the “OG’s” spread back in the day. With millions of people across the Eastern Seaboard affected by Hurricane Sandy’s destructive force, Hip Hop icon KRS-One responds with a powerfully informative song titled “Disaster Kit”. With this song, KRS-One gives listeners tips on how to survive natural and manmade disasters over an ominous piano loop and hard hitting kicks and snares produced by legendary Hip Hop Reggae artist Mad Lion. Moved by the tragedy that is still unfolding across the United States, KRS-One says, “This is an opportunity to show the world what Hip Hop is capable of. Obviously this project isn’t about raising money or making money. This is purely about knowledge and survival; I truly hope the world benefits from these words.”