Monday, April 26, 2010

Definition of ghetto

  • formerly the restricted quarter of many European cities in which Jews were required to live; "the Warsaw ghetto"
  • any segregated mode of living or working that results from bias or stereotyping; "the relative security of the gay ghetto"; "no escape from the ghetto of the typing pool"
  • a poor densely populated city district occupied by a minority ethnic group linked together by economic hardship and social restrictions
    wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn
This is the definition of ghetto. I've always wondered why young people today use the word ghetto to describe something that is old or crappy? Saying things like "that's so ghetto" is usually in reference to an object that is broken or a person that acts like a stereotypical black person. I know that words and their meanings change over time but the way the word is used today usually implies something to do with the stereotypical black community.

Any thoughts?
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3 comments:

  1. KyleApril 26, 2010 at 6:46 PM

    I agree that when someone uses the word "ghetto" to describe something they are usually saying that it is old, used, broken, etc or that is stereotypically black. While I don't agree with the use of this word in these circumstances, I can see where people get the idea. Ghettos have that negative connotation attached to them because they are often times run down and unpleasant places. The word is also attached to stereotypical black aspects because of the large percentage of African-Americans that live in ghettos. Although I believe that it is wrong to use the word "ghetto" in either of these circumstances, it is far worse when it is used in a way that insults the black community.

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  2. ChishalaApril 27, 2010 at 7:59 PM

    i agree about it being wrong to use this word to insult someone but i never thought it wrong to use, mainly because i have used in a joking manner to describe mostly illmannered actions, i have not done this in a long time,and now come to think of it, it falls under the package of is it right for minorities to use certain aspects of their situations to make jokes and it is ok whereas it is not right for another ethnic/racial group to do the same thing
    but yah i have always thought of ghetto to refer to mostly 'black', whatever that means
    i think in my case, i makes me think of crude, gangster, and even this word gangster is used today to mean other things

    i wonder what other people think

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  3. Nick FriedmanApril 28, 2010 at 5:19 PM

    To me it simply is an example of words being stripped of their original meaning and taking on new forms. We use sick to describe something amazing, cool does not refer to temperature, and similarly Ghetto is now something run down etc.

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