What does “Ghetto” mean to you?
In 2 sentences or less. Or a few phrases. What thoughts are invoked by this phrase?
The Black Rock Projects
Burningman 2010
BRP Flickr pix
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In 2 sentences or less. Or a few phrases. What thoughts are invoked by this phrase?
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Because I grew up and lived in ghettos for most of my life, the word usually brings a sense of familiarity and a sense of “home”. The experience has taught me to be alert and aware of my surroundings and to walk confidently where ever I go. The concept of a “ghetto” is somewhat bittersweet for me, and would likely take more than a few phrases to describe entirely.
to me “ghetto” looks like, tattered clothing soiled in piss and crap. broken crack pipes in the street and shady characters lingering in the dark corners slanging, begging, or robbing.
I lived in Washington Heights in upper Manhattan. I didn’t think of it as a ghetto at the time, but it fits all the descriptions according to Wikipedia- poor, racially segregated, high crime, politically disenfranchised and suffering from urban decay. It’s a Dominican neighborhood and on a hot night it actually felt like I was in the Dominican Republic. Old men sat on milk crates and played dominos on the sidewalk. Meringue music and the smell of fried plantains flowed from open windows. I used to go to an old theater that showed dollar movies and sit in the balcony. It looked like a lush and majestic theater after the apocalyps. Paint was peeling and cracked, the massive chandelier looked like it had been beaten with a bat, and most of the threadbare chairs were broken or covered with duct tape. You could smoke and I wasn’t the only one who snuck in a pint of rum to mix with my coke. Boyz n the Hood was out that year and it would have been pretty real to see at that theater. But, I think I saw Phenomenon… That’s the one where John Travolta can move things with his mind. LOL!! Weird.
Doh! I just noticed the two sentence minimum.
The condensed version…
heat, smells, music, decay and alcohol. And phenomenon.
I think of old shows like Good Times and One Day At a Time. I especially think of a very young Janet Jackson playing the character of an abused and abondoned Penny!
Fat Albert and The Junk Yard Band.
Kenton Schawe
the ghetto will make or break you. its the salt of the urban earth and the sole of a city!!
Jessica Hydle
I know it when I see it, but it takes too much to explain. Are they building a Ghetto? Because that is a whole different story. Well I used to live next to the ghetto when I was in Manhattan. Personally I’d describe it as a community, first and foremost. It may not be the safest place in the world but they all have the sense of a self contained community.
Mimi Cake
Walmart. Omigosh, I lived next to a ghetto in manhattan also. The 9th Avenue projects at 24th-26th. It was fine. Safer maybe, because they were real families with kids. Not some crazy loner in a huge chelsea loft contemplating electric koolaid.
Sarah Bird
ghetto is making something from nothing… or at least a lot less than is needed to do the job “right”. ie: a ghetto fabulous outfit (trying to look like $5000 with $50), a joke-of-a housing development, a suped-up 91 corola with spining rims, a gold spray painted shopping cart (its not real gold!), a playground made from sofa’s and leftover industrial pipe and tires, and the list goes on
Brandon Chase
Socio-economically challenged.
Vince Cruz
@Jessica and Mimi – What-a coinkidink, I grew up in a ghetto in Brooklyn by Coney Island! Sh*t, I almost got robbed for my shoes. No more Pumas!
A.J Herrejon
Water and Corn Flakes … cuz you have no Milk !
Colin Chapman
When people don’t walk on the sidewalks, but in the middle of the street.
Rob Lemen
Sarah Palin’s sense of style, and definition of ‘educated.’
Tara Hyde
I kinda like the ghetto-fab appeal. A little trashy, over the top, yet fabulous… Love to hate it, hate to love it…
Chris Carlson
Noun-turned-adjective primarily used to describe a person’s low-class or impoverished behavior, dress, or speech. Can be applied to places and things also in adjective form.
Leah Nichols
Agreed on trying to look rich when u are poor. Fake bling. Clearly fake designer knock offs at all types. (Read: Louis Vuitton shopping cart.) Duct tape as an adhesive to anything. Bonus points if it’s on your car. Over the top adorned fingernails. Aggressive dog breeds. And of course riding dirty on any mode of public transportation.
Suz Po
ghetto is an extreme spatial concentration of people that are bound together by class, race, ethnicity, etc. a non-intentional community.
Brett Saunders
Me.
Nathan Grey
yo mamma was ghetto last night when she smoked all of her crack without sharing!
southparkstudios.com/clips103740
John Peters
Ghetto is an odious term in common usage that replaces the 1960s usage jig-rigged.
Eddie Adams
so for this project we should create the new ghettos? like in west oakland it’s no longer one ethnicity that copes here. now we have ppl who can’t afford to live in the city, so that brings artists, tech ppl, lesbians (I haven;t seen guys here yet), burners (duh), ppl who rent our empty spaces to make pot farms or other, in contact with the ppl who… See More live on welfare, have 4 kids in a one bedroom, prostitutes -drug ones or pimped ones, and the crazy dysfunctional family that is the ghetto (loud mouthed mofo-’s who survive on the basic instinct, get mine b4 u get yours, might is right, and so on.)
Seth Aure
West Oakland.
Sam Perez
invisible to other people!
Shaun Josephs
Close friends and family on the inside and scarier then hell from the outside.
River Forest
depends. are we talking urban or rural? ghetto in the city is a whole lot diff.
Artem Peplov
“Bleak desolation.”
Regardless of geography, ghettos are places where the “have-nots” live. The quality of life, as most of humanity views it, can be abysmal.
Carl, what I’m curious about is how we can communicate this. For good reasons most of BRP focuses on the positive cultural reflections of ghettos – music, vibrant art, the roles in the sub-culture… What isn’t talked about are the causes (why ghettos exist): poverty, inequality, racism (coupled with overpopulation and class/caste systems).
What it really comes down to is distribution of wealth – today money is the currency of power. (Oooh, side note – is that why electricity is carried via a current?) I would love to see (or build) an art piece that helps get this point across. Something pretty direct — like a fake giant pile of cash blatantly earmarked as “war funding” littered with broken dreams: articles about violence, images of impoverished people, foreclosure notices, just depressing stuff.
Eh – this could be way too morose, but I think we have an opportunity to encourage serious reflection with this project – about WHY ghettos exist, WHEN they came into existence, and what role they will play in our “Tomorrow”.
Nicole Hanks
I tend to think of historical ghetto’s. I lived in venice where it is considered to have had the first ghetto and in rome, where I lived near the jewish ghetto. These areas were a little cheaper and a little dirtier. in the us, I think the popular use of the term differs from what a ghetto as a place can represent. “That’s ghetto” has very negative connotations and thus $aybe unfairly reflects upon the ghetto as place.
Miranda
when i hear “ghetto” I typically take it to mean poor. Also makes me think of a highly condensed housing block with people living there where crime is rampant.
When I hear the word “ghetto,” I think of two things. In the more historical sense, I think of any district where certain groups were concentrated to live, separately from others, often for discriminatory reasons. In the more colloquial sense, I think of densely-populated urban areas, often characterized by high-crime and poverty.
I think of not being allowed to go home after 8pm because it’s too dangerous, cat calls from car windows and road hockey. I think of people referring to where they live depending on their ‘hood’ and not their street and freestyling and freestyling and freestyling!!!!
Palinor – I actually feel like ghetto’s are community oriented. they are low income yes but it seems where the is lack in funds the is more heart and more willingness to support one another there’s a darker side to ghetto’s as well, where’s there poverty there’s also crime. I dunno I see it as a paradox of dark and light, it seems to be the perfect model of where the entire world seems to be at. Balancing between it all
Separation from the dominant culture, a place where people will get to know you- and you them. A place where creativity can flourish, but at the same time can stop people from dreaming big. The Ghetto does not lock you out of the community just because you are homeless or fallen on hard times………( Its also a great place to run an auto mechanic business in your driveway…..yeah!)
the energy and ingenuity of the ‘ghetto’ is unrivaled. with all the woes of human suffering come some of the greatest strengths of our species. creativity, community and joy.