The use of the word ghetto can be confining both in a physical and mental sense. Its use can be used to reference the ghettos created to enclose a large group of Jewish residence. In this way, the word ghetto can physically lock away a group of people, keeping them from others who live outside the limits of the gate. However, the term ghetto can also be used as a slang word for the hood or other poverty stricken inner city dwelling. This usage provides me with an image of mental locking away, rather than a physical locking away. This type of ghetto keeps people together in a perpetual cycle in the way of their style of living. The use of the word ghetto, in both old and new context, provides a vivid picture in the way that their inhabitants are affected along with those residing outside both types of ghettos.
The term ghetto, when used roughly 60 years ago, was a locked community that was used to house a large number of Jews to keep them together and under control. They were seen as an example of what not to do for the “outside world.” Meaning, their choices concerning religion were considered incorrect because of their choice to see Jesus differently than other Christians. Those who put the Jews in the ghettos did so to control their station in life, their careers, their rights, and to keep those they did not understand at bay. This reasoning allowed those on the outside to remain in power and gain a feeling of security because they were able to nicely set aside something that was foreign to them.
In the older usage of the term ghetto, people who were kept inside the locked gates were forced to live and exist there under the oppression of those in power. This forced confinement most likely created an animosity and resentment between the two groups of people creating a bigger rift between races and religions. However, it may also have caused the people inside to become closer to one another. The familiarity and comfort of living with those that understand and accept your beliefs and values is a reassuring feeling. I know that my parents, who immigrated to the United States of America, feel better understood and have a better sense of community when surrounded by people who share a common background, religion, and culture. This being said, a physical barrier that keeps people in, can force a bond that may be different than if they were free to come and go at any time. From the readings the author, Elsa Morante, gives a sense of the ghetto and in away portrays it as a certain type of comfort. The comfort of people who know and trust you, people who understand your culture, background, and other aspects of your life.
Much in the same way people who are living in today’s ghettos or hoods are seen, from outsiders, as miscreants and hoodlums. They are not giving an opportunity to be seen in a different light. Instead they are confined or locked in a certain status of life that makes it difficult to overcome. This is what could be seen as a locked way of life because of the difficulty to break out of the cycle of this life style. Even though they are not physically locked into a community there are locked into a stereotype.
In today’s world, the term ghetto strikes within me an image of a dark alley, shady characters, addictions, and poverty. With this image, I associate the mental lock. This mental barrier is what keeps people living in this environment without them moving forward. Being born into a ghetto,hood like environment can be hard to break away from because it is all you have come to know. In the same sense as the old ghetto, this new ghetto also offers a comfort or shelter for those who seek its rush or high. They come together with people who are also looking for the same type of release. This understanding and style of life can be hard to break out of.
However, those of the outside see this modern type of ghetto as something to be avoided and in the same sense as the older ghettos an example of what NOT to become. The modern ghettos formulate a picture that is used to deter people from making certain life choices. No one wants to end up in the bad part of town living in poverty, barely making it by, surrounded by drug dealers or addicts. Much like the Jewish ghettos, these ghettos “teach a lesson” on what it means to make good choices and gives you an image of what to avoid – such as those shady characters, dark alleys, and drugs.
The term ghetto still has a strong meaning today as it did 60 years ago. It still holds with it a great deal of baggage- encompassing the pain of stereotyping, misunderstanding and a barrier that keeps people of different religions or ethnicities separated. Ghettos have as much affect in today’s world on everyone as it did when it was a reference to a Jewish community that was kept in confinement.
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