As I wrap up my week of guest blogging, I want to thank those of you who left such profound posts to my blogs. I agree with all the comments that have been made and I think the idea of boycotting Christmas is a good idea. I think the idea of boycotting anything to protest an issue afflicting the black community is a good idea and I can’t think of two better ones than job discrimination and police brutality.

I think if we realized just how many opportunities we missed out on the minute we showed up to a job interview and someone saw the color of our skin–that’s assuming our resume wasn’t trashed after the employer saw on it a name that was presumed to be black or perhaps even that we graduated from an historically black college–we would take to the streets and revolt. If we saw a statistic of how many black men are stopped, detained, or arrested unfairly by the police compared to white men we’d storm the Justice Department. Or would we?

Black people have evoked tremendous change to improve our conditions, but in the past 20 years, greed, a lack of cohesiveness, and living in a nation with an increasing intolerance for claims of racism, has lulled us into passivity. We look the other way when yet another unarmed brother is shot by a police officer. We tell ourselves that there’s always a logical reason when we see highly skilled black folks (particularly men) who can’t seem to get or keep a job.

We seem to think change ended with the Civil Rights Movement, but we actually have more power now to evoke change than we ever did. The buying power of the black community has made companies wealthy. Black consumers spend more money per capita than any racial group. Granted, that’s a problem considering too many of us don’t own property, have more than $50,000 in savings, or are able to leave an inheritance for our children. But as long as we’re putting our money somewhere, we might as well put it where our mouth is.

It doesn’t have to be Christmas, in fact, with so many consumers during the Christmas holiday I don’t know if doing a boycott then would have as much of an impact. But I say we have a “Black Out” day and show the world just how much power we really have. Let them know that, despite the fact that we are no longer the largest minority, we’re still here, we still matter, and we want better. Who’s down???

That’s right. I said it.

How many times do we give white folks a pass on behavior that we would give a “Go Directly to Ghetto” card to if a black person did it? 

I was thinking about that today as I spent most of the day going from one coffee lounge to the next looking for the perfect spot to complete a freelance article. Can someone please tell me…when did it become appropriate to bring children to coffee houses and lounges? If those aren’t grown up spots then I don’t know what spot is. But I’ve noticed that the more “educated and successful” some folks get, the more they think it entitles them to bring their children to inappropriate places and that ghetto behavior doesn’t apply to them.  

Sure, we talk about “Bay-Bay’s kids” running around acting a fool but “Yuppie’s kids” are worse because yuppies act as though they don’t see their kids crawling over furniture or as though their kids’ annoying whining and screaming makes no sound.

You can at least count on “Bay-Bay” to snatch her kids up every once in a while, which might buy you three, maybe four, minutes of silence. 

I finally ended up at Starbucks. I sat upstairs with the other computer plugged-in geeks so it was pretty quiet. But downstairs I could hear a child having a tantrum. I didn’t think much about it since I figured the parent was probably just picking up a Double Soy Grande White Mocha Latte and moving on. So why was it that when I go downstairs to the bathroom an hour later, Yuppie’s kids were still running around in a room filled with people who were obviously trying to have a peaceful moment? Again, how does it not occur to you that a coffee lounge filled with people quietly working and reading is not the place to let your children go buck wild?

But it doesn’t stop at the coffee lounges. Oh, no. There’s a whole contingency of ghetto yuppies who also think it’s appropriate to bring their children to bars and night clubs. Why was I at a local bar one evening and a yuppie who was hanging out drinking with his friends asked me if he could put his drink down on my table so he could have an extra hand to hold his (what looked to be a) six-month-old baby? He even dipped his finger in the wine and fed it to the baby a few times. I wouldn’t make that up. 

I think we all know that if “Bay-Bay” had brought her baby to the bar and passed her some liquor, some yuppie would’ve called Child Protective Services inside of five minutes.

It don’t matter if you’re black or white…Bringing your baby into a bar. Ghetto!

The problem with using the term “ghetto” is that it falls far short of truly defining the problem or behavior. It allows us to gloss over some rather serious socio-economic issues and side step the kind of self exploration that’s long overdue in our community. The “ghetto” behavior that often gets us to rolling our eyes—teenagers having babies; little boys who can’t think of anything more in life to be than a ball player or a rap star; calling each other “nigger”; sentence structure so bad it sounds like the dialect of a runaway slave; brothers who can’t hold down a job; mothers cussing at their toddlers—is all a symptom of a much larger and deeper problem. The word ghetto doesn’t even scratch at the surface of what are obviously the lingering and ravaging effects of slavery and segregation manifesting itself into a lack of self worth. 

The truth is, if you’re a parent and you’re cussing out your three-year-old on the bus…like it’s part of your a normal everyday conversation…you’re not ghetto; you’ve got a problem that needs to be addressed. If you feel compelled to walk around dressed like an inmate, sans belt, with your pants sagging so low you have to walk with your legs spread wide to keep them up, you’re not ghetto; you’ve got a problem that needs to be addressed. If you are spending all of your money on an expensive car while you live with your momma in Section 8 housing, you’re not ghetto; you have a problem that needs to be addressed. The problem with using the word “ghetto” is that it does little to address the problem.  There’s some serious psychosis going on in a community when its black men are going to jail or being killed in alarming numbers, but nobody wants to listen if you try to denounce the thug behavior that’s destroying them or the thug music that’s influencing them. 

So what is this thing called “ghetto”? At first it was a place—a neighborhood in Venice, Italy where the Jewish were forced to live. In America, the Venetian word was used to describe pockets of urban and rural landscapes where low-income black folks lived. Then somewhere along the way, “ghetto” got super-sized. It went from being a place to a look, an attitude, a style. As Monday’s “Meet the Faith” episode stated, it went from being a noun to an adjective.

For African Americans prior to the 1980s, ghetto-the-noun was where a lot of our folks were from. For most, it was considered a starting point; not a final destination. But then Hip Hop came along and suddenly the ghetto was the place to be.

The ghetto was where rap was born. It was where break dance challenges on street corners unfolded. It was where urban gang bangers recruited their members. Being from the ghetto ensured your hall pass to true African American authenticity and just about everybody seemed to have one.

Rappers who grew up in suburbs outside of New York City were rapping about growing up in the ghetto to help boost their street “cred”. Some of them were even from the bland, little village in Long Island where I grew up. Yes–Long Island, known for its famous South Hampton soirees hosted by the rich and famous, is now also known for producing the likes of such rap groups/artists as Public Enemy, Busta Rhymes, and Rakim. But you wouldn’t know it to hear some of their lyrics. Although inarguably some of the tamest of Hip Hop artists, they each have written songs that touch on ghetto life.

But it was all good…until ghetto got “ghetto”.

When ghetto-the-adjective took over, I think it changed the definition of what it meant to be from the ghetto. Black folks started to use it to describe stereotypes witnessed typically in low-income neighborhoods: A young, single mother with three or more babies’ daddies. Ghetto. Black folks cussing and swearing loudly in public as part of their everyday conversation. Ghetto. Shellacked hairdos. Ghetto. A brother with a bunch of kids he’s not supporting. Ghetto. The images showcased on Sunday’s “Meet the Faith”: pregnant teens in prom dresses with their bare, bulging bellies hanging out of a peek-a-boo designed front; tricked out cars drenched in Louis Vuitton; babies costumed in pimp outfits. Ghetto. Ghetto. Ghetto.

Understandably, many people will argue the issue of ghetto pride and say that black people who put down other blacks are elitist. But the problem is not with ghetto-the-noun; there’s nothing wrong with being from the ghetto. But a lot of black people do feel there is a problem with being ghetto.

It’s not about living in the projects; it’s about having a project mentality. It’s not about how many babies you have but being able to financially support and be a good role model to the babies you have. It’s not about the kind of car you drive; it’s about having the drive for more than a flashy car. Can I get a witness?

In fact, let’s stop insulting the ghetto and call all the baby drama mamas, stripper-dancing six-year-olds, and pants-saggin’ brothers what they really are—a step backwards. Like the “Hot Ghetto Mess” web site moniker states: “We got to do better.”

 What do you think?

To be or not to be “Ghetto?” That’s the question Host Ian Smith will examine on this week’s “Meet the Faith” on BET. Historically, “ghetto”
referred to the areas where Jews were confined to during World War II,
but now it is used mainly to describe the predominately Black, usually
poor, urban core.

For many African Americans, the terms “ghetto” and “ghetto-fabulous”
are used to describe unsavory or shameless Black attitudes and actions
in the same way that “red-neck” is used to describe similar behavior
among White folks. So, tell us what you think. Is being ghetto a good thing or a bad thing?

Rajan Says

Thank God for the Ghetto!

Check out editorial cartoonist Rajan Sedalia’s latest drawing. Here’s his take on the subject.

“What’s ghetto – spending money on gold teeth instead of paying your utility
bill? Or, spending $30,000 on a wedding instead of putting that money down
for a new home? In relative terms, the behavior is the same. Only the
financial quantity is different.

Later this week, I’ll be in Beverly Hills creating a graffiti piece. If it
weren’t for the ghetto, how would people in Beverly Hills know that graffiti
is now cool? Creativity in the ghetto is a necessity when you’re forced to
make ends meet. If it weren’t for the ghetto, I’d be out of a job later this
week.”

Guest Blogger

This week’s Meet the Faith blogger is Nancee Lyons. Nancee is a public affairs specialist for the District of Columbia government and also a freelance education writer. She is currently working on a book of essays that provide a somewhat quirky perspective of the gentrification of her Capitol Hill neighborhood. Some of her essays and viewpoints can be found on her blog at www.myhill.wordpress.com