That's so...ghetto.

So one thing that is guaranteed to get me annoyed is when someone refers to something as being ghetto...especially if this person saying the statement is not black. In the one semester that I have lived in the midwest (missouri) so far, I have heard soo many non-black people refer to things/people/places as being ghetto and I literally cringed every single time. Being that I am still on Winter Break..woohoo! I was browsing through some blogs/online mags and I came across this article on ClutchMag that I read some time ago about the misuse of the word "ghetto." It pretty much sums up how I feel...here are some bits and pieces from the article..

The word “ghetto” is not synonymous with behavior; it is an ecological condition of dystopian proportions on one hand, and a community of fun and loving and dignified people on the other. Children growing up under these environs need every help they can get to escape the grips, not polarizing terms from elitists that do nothing to affirm their worth.

Before you call someone’s actions ghetto in condescension, remember the connotations. Bad behavior is bad behavior. Rudeness is rudeness. It has nothing to do with salary, as there are rich people who weekly make the news because of “ghetto” behavior. But a rich man’s actions ain’t ghetto…right?

There are more white Americans living in poverty than Black Americans, yet this fact seems to elude many publicized case studies. White people can exhibit habits of the ghetto, but never in my life have I heard a white person being called ghetto. This double standard is a new age attack of the nobility vs. the serf, but one that takes on a racial component as well.

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.

Until Next Time...