the term ghetto (Italy: mobile home, neighborhoods, to live)

[theanswer]

For all the insensitive and racist coments about "ghetto areas" in NYC. Funny how they say jewish and italian neighbohoods are "nice." When in fact these same neighbohoods were considered "ghettos." Just remember it was attidudes like that, that created the Holocaust. Never Again! This is about as racist of a board I've ever come across. I am an advocate of free speech, but can it be possible to re-classified this board as a hate board? Here is the definition of ghetto from wiki,

Ghetto
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A ghetto is an area where people from a specific racial or ethnic background or united in a given culture or religion live as a group, voluntarily or involuntarily, in milder or stricter seclusion. The word historically referred specifically to the Venetian Ghetto in Venice, Italy, where Jews were required to live; it derives from the Venetian gheto (slag from Latin GLĬTTU[M] cfr. Italian ghetto (slag)), and referred to the area of the Cannaregio sestiere, the site selected for the Ghetto Nuovo where a foundry cooled the slag (campo gheto). It was later applied to neighborhoods in other cities where Jews were required to live. The corresponding German term was Judengasse; in Moroccan Arabic ghettos were called mellah. The term came into popular, world-wide use during World War 2, in reference to Nazi ghettos ( see below ).

The term now commonly labels any poverty-stricken urban area. In the U.S. the news media created terms like rural ghetto to describe mobile home parks, farm labor housing tracts and Indian reservations to indicate that the poorest areas in the U.S. aren't within major cities. In the United States, urban neighborhoods where Hispanic immigrants settled in the late 20th century (called barrios) are said to be comparable to ghettos, because most immigrants form a culturally isolated enclave and may choose to remain there or associate with their own group.

"Ghetto" is also used figuratively to indicate geographic areas with a concentration of any type of person, with or without poverty (e.g. gay ghetto) or for non-geographic categories (e.g. "sci fi ghetto" [1]). The term is also used to describe an item or an action as cheap or flimsy. Some consider this use of language to be an offensive misapplication[2].

Some people in the U.S. and Europe strongly dislike the term ghetto, believing it to have racist, elitist and culturally insensitive overtones, and the mention of such a word to describe a working-class ethnic community is considered a generalization or an insult. Many social workers and community leaders suggest alternative words to describe these areas like economically disadvantaged areas as the location of the areas are often isolated from its outer worlds.

[Blue Grass Fever]

I have to agree the word "ghetto" has gotten misconstrued over time! By that very definintion, i am "ghetto", lived in the "ghetto" and even lived in the "rural ghetto!" Being blue collar by its very definiton is "ghetto". My friends and family are "ghetto".

On the flip side, words (definition) are like money-some lose value and some gain value. Definitions tend to morph for better or worse.