U really call Compton a ghetto? (Los Angeles, San Francisco: 2014, mortgages, unemployment)
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I have lived outside of Baltimore for 10+ years and yes Baltimore is ghetto as hell. However, California cities like Oakland and sometimes Richmond and Compton rank higher in terms of crime rate. This year, Baltimore jumped from the 12th most dangerous city in America to the eighth. The only crime category in which Baltimore ranks higher than these CA cities homicide and sometimes assault.
Baltimore looks run-down because it is an ancient city by American standards that has been ravaged by White Flight and de-industrialization. However, poverty in Baltimore is in some ways less extreme than some CA cities. Maryland is the wealthiest state in the nation. Baltimore has the statistically third best job market in the country. The Baltimore-Washington corridor has the best job market and highest median incomes in the country, period. All of that money does trickle down to even the cuttiest corners of the hood in Baltimore in the form of drug money and even government jobs.
On the other hand, California is mired in a depression. Unlike stereotypically ghetto cities like DC and Baltimore, most kids in the ghetto in San Francisco in Oakland don't wear the latest $300 Nikes and the latest Polo Ralph Lauren and authentic Gucci and Prada. Kids in the hood in the Bay still wear baggy Girbaud shuttle jeans and tall tees and are about ten years behind the East Coast in terms of fashion. This is because of poverty. Also, blatant racism and the oppression of Blacks is much more apparent in California cities as Blacks have much less opportunities there. Cities like Baltimore and DC have large upper and upper middle class Black populations, whereas most CA cities do not. Poverty is more acute in California because the astronomical cost of living keeps poor people poor. Californians pay much more for everything. Also, CA cities are flooded with immigrants from the third world which is the reason why the Golden State is undeniably the Tigris and Euphrates of the vast majority of Black, Latino, Pacific Islander and Asian gangs in America. Gangs of all races are much more visible in California cities than anywhere on the East Coast.
Historically, California ghettos do not need validation for how "hard" they are. Every ghetto in America wants to be compared to Compton and South Central, including Baltimore. Kids in the hood in Baltimore to New Jersey to North Carolina to Georgia try to emulate California gangs by starting their own bastardized sets of Bloods and Crips and try to check each other over colors like, well, Compton. Baltimore Bloods, who are not at all affiliated with L.A. Bloods other than watching Colors, also name their sets after streets in Compton. Ironically, 90% of these Baltimore and other East Coast Blood/Crip sets have never even seen the streets in L.A. that they name their gangs after.
It's all relative. By LA or Southern California standards, Compton would be the ghetto mostly due to the high crime rate and history of gang violence. However, based on aesthetics alone what's considered ghetto here might look more like a working/middle class neighborhood in comparison to the ghettos in Chicago, Detroit, Baltimore, and NYC, etc. Ghettos in East Coast and Midwest cities typically don't include single family homes with nicely manicured front lawns.
Appreciate your perspective. You wouldn't believe the number of silly Americans on this forum who claim LA looks third world. They have no idea what they are talking about because they haven't traveled out of the country in most cases and don't realize that even Europe has slums far worse than anything one would see in Southern California.
Compton has all but shed its checkered past. And being originally more of a suburb of Mighty Los Angeles rather than a "ghetto", since it doesn't situate within the city, it has also had to endure stigma, prejudice and in some cases, envy lobbed at L.A's reputation.
places like 'some' nicer areas of compton, long beach, carson, etc, "look" like nice suburbs as you drive down.
It's not until knowing the people (who I actually knew and grew up with, so this isn't a put down) that you realize what the real prob is. In those other places in the US, where it's an obvious ghetto (projects, very poor) it's limited to that, but isn't seen once your beyond those projects. But here, our projects are smaller and less, however, it trickles into the suburbs, so our suburbs also have gangster kids and hood children as well as some older "OG's". It all adds up to total a lot more gangster/hood mentality.
I think what some people don't understand is that it doesn't look like a "ghetto" area that you would in places like Detroit or back east.
I worked near South Central LA and it was made up for the most part of smaller stucco houses that were well maintained. If you drove through coming from the east coast you would be schocked to find out this was the "bad area".
I think what some people don't understand is that it doesn't look like a "ghetto" area that you would in places like Detroit or back east.
I worked near South Central LA and it was made up for the most part of smaller stucco houses that were well maintained. If you drove through coming from the east coast you would be schocked to find out this was the "bad area".
Here's a bit of history I was able to find online...
"While Compton would eventually be home to a large number of Afro Americans, in 1930 there was only one black resident. In the late 1940s, middle class African-Americans began moving into the area, mostly on the west side. Compton grew quickly in the 1950s. One reason for this was Compton was close to Watts, where there was an established community of African Americans. The eastern side of the city was predominately white until the 1970s. Despite being located in the middle of a major metropolitan area, thanks to the legacy of Griffith D. Compton, there still remains one small pocket of agriculture from its earliest years.
During the 1950s and 1960s, after the Supreme Court declared all racially exclusive housing covenants unconstitutional in the case, Shelley v. Kraemer, the first African American families moved to the area. Compton's growing African American population was still largely ignored and neglected by the city's elected officials. Centennial High School was finally built to accommodate a burgeoning student population. At one time, the City Council even discussed dismantling the Compton Police Department in favor of the County Sheriff's Dept. in an attempt to exclude blacks from law enforcement jobs. This slowly began to change when, in 1958, the first African-American ran for a City Council seat. However, it would be another three years before an African-American would actually be elected to the City Council in 1961."
I gather here that Compton started out as respectably as any other Los Angeles suburb. But like amy others, time and misfortune took its toll.
But there definitely appears to be social and demographic renovation occuring latey...
Good post Mr. Opiniated - I have a question though. Was the LA County Sheriff's Department at the time legally allowed to "exclude blacks from law enforcement jobs", while city governments could not do likewise? This is how I read it and if seemed very interesting. If this is so, it is information I did not have before - and I will definitely be researching. Primarily I am interested in why the city could hire blacks but not the county. Any clarifcation you can provide will be appreciated.
Also - I realize this was a quote - so if you can't answer the question - please give your source. Thanks.
Baltimore looks run-down because it is an ancient city by American standards that has been ravaged by White Flight ...
This is a textbook example of dishonest syntax, a sort of passive voice on steroids. Of course, it is impossible for someone who is not present to ravage a place. Oh, those absentee ravengers! Who will stop them?
I know, we drove through there about a year ago and I did not understand all the hype. If CA residents consider Compton a "ghetto" they have obviously not witnessed the true oppression of ghettos in St. Louis, Gary, Detroit, Chicago, Houston etc.
Being a midwesterner and being used to Chicago and Detroits thugs and stories of murder I found even the worst areas of Los Angeles nowhere near the filth of the midwest's vagrant areas. Not to mention ours are also plagued by horrible weather conditions and homeless people actually being found frozen to death.
You drove through Compton and heard stories of murder in the Midwestern high-crime cities.
When you're ready to actually experience something, try living in or at least going for a walk through Compton or any ghetto late on a warm summer night.
Quote:
Originally Posted by TheRealAngelion
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Appreciate your perspective. You wouldn't believe the number of silly Americans on this forum who claim LA looks third world. They have no idea what they are talking about because they haven't traveled out of the country in most cases and don't realize that even Europe has slums far worse than anything one would see in Southern California.
Don't have to go to the third world slums as their dwellers come to us and show us their way of life. We're so cultured now. Viva diversity!
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