Originally Posted by Brian Ratliff
A ghetto is what the residents make it.
According to the
Cultural Adoption section of
Prof. Kim Pearson's article, the word
ghetto in American usage originally described:
... an overpopulated, poor section of a city, usually inhabited by ... co-cultures as a result of economic or social pressures. Soon after the mainstream adoption of this meaning, the term also came to signify any mode of sub-standard living or working as the result of stereotype or biased treatment.