Welcome to Political Science Level 2, Lesson 1: The Ghetto 1

In this lesson, you will learn about:

The original ghetto
Sharecropping
The first Black ghettos
The Depression
Redlining and Urban Renewal
Crack cocaine distribution

Primary Objectives

By the end of this lesson, you will understand:

How the ghetto came to be
Where the word ghetto comes from
How the New Deal excluded Black people
What Redlining is
What Urban Renewal is
How crack was distributed throughout Black ghettos
How children in the ghetto are at a systemic disadvantage

Additional Objectives

By the end of this lesson, you may understand:

Why Black people were refused reparations
What caused an increase in Black emigration to the north of the US
What the FHA were responsible for
How housing projects were developed
The direct link between Black ghettos in the US and the exploitation of Black people in Africa, South America and the Caribbean
The damage caused by integration
How corporate Hip Hop contributes to the maintenance of the ghetto

In the global lingua franca, the word “ghetto” has become synonymous with “Black.”

Using coded language, people can refer to the Black community in a derogatory manner without the use of any slurs. Forms of entertainment or speech can be declared “too ghetto” for particular audiences, and Black people can be ostracised from society without race ever mentioned. But how did the word ghetto come to be synonymous with Black people?

Today, the majority of the global Black community lives within impoverished ghettos. Whether in Bahia or Baton Rouge, Lagos or London, Black people find themselves living mostly in areas deemed undesirable. But why is this the case, and has it always been this way?

GHETTO ORIGINS

Linguists chase the word ghetto back to the Italian word “getto”, which means “to cast off”, and “borghetto”, which means small neighbourhood. The Venetian slang word “ghetto” and the Griko “ghetonia” also both refer to a neighbourhood, and the Hebrew word “get” refers to a bill of divorce.

The first time the word “ghetto” appeared in writing was when an English traveller described a place where Jews lived as “the Ghetto” in 1611. It referred to a walled-off and gated section in cities where Jewish people were confined, mostly in Italy. During this time, Jews were forced to abide by a curfew and wear yellow star badges and berets for identification by the Christian majority.

The word “ghetto” became widely used in the early 20th century when the Nazis set up slums for Jews in the 1930s. This was decided by Adolf Eichmann, a top Nazi official, who implemented a programme of systematic genocide that attempted to eradicate the entire Jewish population of Europe.

THE BIRTH OF THE BLACK GHETTO

In the USA, after the Civil War had ended in 1865, Black people were supposed to receive reparations. William Sherman, a general in the Union army, developed the plans for reparations. 40 acres and a mule were promised to the recently freed, and this policy was known as Special Field Orders No. 15.

However, when Abraham Lincoln was murdered that same year, his replacement, Andrew Johnson, revoked William Sherman’s reparations orders. The few Black people who had already received land had it taken away from them, and strict laws were imposed to hinder the recently freed. Although slavery was formally abolished, there was no restitution. It was as if the inmates of a prison had their cell doors opened, while all other exits remained bolted, chained and locked.

Black people were then forced into the vicious cycle of sharecropping, which became known as Slavery 2.0. This forced Black people to pay rent to white landowners from their yearly farming yield in exchange for living on their land. This vicious cycle meant that at the end of the year, the sharecropper was always in debt, meaning they could never free themselves. This, combined with peonage, vagrancy laws and Jim Crow de-citizenising, made it impossible for Black people to own land in the Southern States.

In the Northern States, things weren’t much better for Black people. Between 1865-1876, Black people weren’t allowed to work in factories or join unions, which reduced their employment options to the worst jobs. Many Black people were also prevented from moving to find work due to legal restrictions.

In 1914 however, World War I began. This global conflict caused many Black people to move to industrial hubs in large numbers such as New York City, as many of the white working class were drafted into the US army. Additionally, an increase in factory workers was needed in order to keep up with the industrial demands of the war. After WWI many Black people remained in the Northern States and more journeyed looking for work, with over 2 million migrating from the South. Then the Great Depression hit.

THE DEPRESSION AND THE NEW DEAL

The Great Depression was a huge economic collapse that occurred from 1929 through the 1930s. Unemployment increased as the worldwide production of goods and global income decreased massively. Across the world, no group was hit harder than Black people, who bore the brunt of the Depression’s effects both in Africa and throughout the West.

Franklin D. Roosevelt, the US President, had a plan to alleviate people from poverty during this time. However, he decided to cut Black people out of it. The New Deal was the name given to his plan. Social Security, which refers to benefits given to retirees and the unemployed, and Mandatory Minimum Insurance were developed to combat poverty. These acts however excluded domestic and agricultural workers, who made up more than 67% of the Black workforce.

The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) was developed under the New Deal, guaranteeing mortgages for up to 90% of the purchase price, which meant that people who wanted to buy a home only had to cough up 10% rather than the 25%-30% pre-FHA. Home ownership skyrocketed, but the FHA refused to guarantee mortgages in Black communities due to a process called “redlining.” Black people couldn’t receive loans at all, and private lenders replicated the government’s policy and position.

WHAT IS REDLINING?

Redlining refers to a process in real estate where the FHA would categorise different areas within cities. Affluent white neighbourhoods were outlined on maps in blue and considered “Type A” housing; working class white neighbourhoods were outlined in yellow and considered “Type B” housing, and Black neighbourhoods were outlined in red and considered “Type D” housing.

These maps were created for FHA manuals and private lenders. The FHA advised banks to stay away from areas with what they described as “inharmonious racial groups” and recommended that cities enact racially restrictive zoning policies to prevent Black home ownership. The FHA also refused to give mortgages to anyone associated with a redlined area.

The second great migration occurred from 1940-1970, as 4.5 million Black people moved from the South to the North for work. In response to this, cities decided to segregate their industrial and residential areas. Black areas were tagged as industrial neighbourhoods, and this prevented them from undergoing any new construction or improvements. These areas became the ghettos of the USA.

Despite this, however, prior to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Black people lived viably in redline areas. These communities were propped up by Black-owned businesses and institutions. But the 1960s and 1970s saw the emergence of Urban Renewal, called “nigger removal’” behind closed doors.

WHAT IS URBAN RENEWAL?

Urban Renewal was designed to transform poor neighbourhoods into new, architecturally attractive structures. Under Urban Renewal, the Black areas of the USA were razed and rebuilt as Black people were forced to leave their homes. Eminent domain, which refers to the process where the state seizes property for government or private use, was enacted. Hazardous, cheap housing was then built for the newly displaced Black families. These became known as housing projects. For every 10 homes the US government destroyed, they built just 1 unit in the projects. This created the cramped conditions of the US ghettos today.

The Black areas that weren’t razed under Urban Renewal instead had motorways built through them. This separated the Black residents from the rest of the city as white people moved out to the suburbs. The new motorways allowed these newly suburban whites to still get to the cities to work. Between 1950-1970, 70 million whites moved to the suburbs from the cities, taking jobs with them and moving businesses out of the ghettos.

Soon after, the factories that were dotted around industrial cities left for countries overseas. These factories were the primary source of income for Black families and their disappearance led to impoverishment. Corporations instead used the labour of the neo-colonies, as this was a cheaper option. The factories were built far cheaper and the labourers were paid next to nothing. People from countries such as Haiti, Brazil, Ghana, DR Congo, Indonesia and Bangladesh had their labour extorted by these corporations.

Prison labour was also employed by these corporations. The 13th amendment allowed prisoners to work as slaves to produce goods. This meant that corporations could effectively get the same results for free. American Airlines, Boeing, Dell, Chevron, IBM, McDonald’s, Microsoft, Motorola, Sony, Victoria’s Secret, Toys R Us and Nike have all used prison labour. The mechanisation of many low-skilled jobs also left many people well below the poverty line.

Integration was also another blow to the Black masses. After segregation ended, the Black middle class, who were often the business owners in Black neighbourhoods, left the ghettos for the suburbs, taking their businesses to white areas and leaving the poor behind.

After the disappearance of Black-owned businesses, exploiters took their place. Cheque cashing services that capitalise and exploit low earners who are unable to afford a bank account appeared. Next, pawn shops that capitalise on poor people who need to liquidate personal belongings emerged.

Fried chicken and Chinese restaurants that serve unhealthy food, and liquor stores that sell cheap alcohol and cigarettes, replaced the Black-owned businesses of just a few years prior. None of these stores were owned by anyone who lived in the ghetto.

CRACK IN THE GHETTO

In the 1980s, Republican Party leader Ronald Reagan declared drugs to be “public enemy number 1.” He promised an all-out war on drug use if elected, utilising white America’s racism to get into the White House. Once president, Reagan’s war on drugs began in 1982, a time when drug use was found to be on the decline. This however was years before the emergence of crack cocaine.

A few years after the drug war was declared, crack not-so-coincidentally emerged in the Black ghettos of the USA. The Reagan Administration publicised the emergence of crack in 1985 in order to build public and legislative support for the war on drugs. The media became saturated with images of Black “crack whores”, “crack dealers” and “crack babies.

The distribution of crack exclusively in Black ghettos and the subsequent criminalising of Black people was a systematic genocide. In 1998, the CIA admitted that the far-right guerrilla armies it supported in Nicaragua during the Nicaraguan Revolution were smuggling illegal drugs into the USA. The CIA made sure these drugs made their way into Black neighbourhoods.

The CIA also admitted that it blocked law enforcement efforts from investigating illegal drugs networks at the height of the war on drugs, as these networks were funding the CIA’s covert operations in Nicaragua. Essentially, the US government tried to kill two birds with one stone; using crack to fund its illegal operations while simultaneously killing off and imprisoning Black America.

During this period, arrests for drug offences skyrocketed as the ghettos were blown away by this epidemic. A lack of employment opportunities meant that selling crack was often the only way to make any money, and this tore families apart. Although nobody in the ghetto owned the means of producing or transporting crack, they felt the effects of the drug the most.

THE GHETTO TODAY

The ghetto today is a century-old prison, with the police acting as the guards to keep the masses in their place. Within the ghetto, a lack of income, clean water, food, access to medical services and education are all intensified. Poverty and health are intrinsically linked, and people in the ghettos have higher rates of diabetes, heart problems and respiratory problems. Health issues then prevent work, ultimately lowering income as the cycle of poverty is perpetuated.

Children who live in the ghetto are twice as likely to suffer from lead poisoning, which can cause serious problems and brain damage. This is because a lot of the housing in the projects is covered with lead paint. All of these health problems then diminish a child’s school performance. Many children are also malnourished due to living in poverty. Schools in the ghetto, despite being the poorest, are also given fewer funds than other schools. The conditions of the ghetto are detrimental to one’s health, not to mention the stress from simply being poor.

In 1999 the US “poverty gap”, which is the amount of money needed to raise everyone’s income to at least the poverty line, was $65 billion. Today, it is $178 billion. In the last 10 years, the poverty rate, the number of evictions and food stamp usage have all increased for the Black masses. Incidentally, during this same period, the richest citizens of America have seen their wealth increase.

Despite segregation in schools formally ending in 1954, the schools of the ghettos are almost completely segregated. Schools in the ghetto have fewer resources per child and much less money due to being funded by local taxes. Even though children are arriving in school with issues such as hunger, domestic violence, homelessness and abuse, these schools get far less money than suburban schools, which have far less of these problems. On any given night in the USA, 562,000 children go to bed hungry, the majority of them being Black.

The US ghetto is portrayed without the racist institutional and political structures that birthed it. People believe that the residents of the ghetto are there due to their own faults, or even worse, that the ghetto is a cool place to be thanks to the corporate control of mainstream Hip Hop.

Hip Hop in the mainstream has been completely co-opted by white American billionaires with racist motives. The glorification of the ghetto, a drug-filled lifestyle, and self-hatred with the use of the word “nigger” are all a result of this. This corporate control has helped cement the words “ghetto” and “Black” together in the minds of people all over the world. Like the minstrel shows of a century prior, white people have been able to satisfy themselves with racist entertainment of their own design.

People claim the ghetto exists due to the lazy, drug-addicted, sexually promiscuous Black criminals that live there. However, the truth is that the majority of ghetto residents are not addicts, criminals, nor on welfare. The individualism that capitalism breeds results in poor people being blamed for their own poverty. When coupled with the Blackness of the ghetto’s residents, it’s an entirely different ball game.

Poor Black residents are seen as undeserving and that they should be able to pull themselves up by the bootstraps and lift themselves out of poverty, like the token examples that are shown in the media. This is all reinforced by pop culture, which unashamedly makes fun of poor Black people. Their lack of education is laughed at, their squalor is glorified, and their struggle is criminalised.

Further reading:

The New Jim Crow, Michelle Alexander
It’s Bigger Than Hip Hop, M. K. Asante, jr
American Apartheid, Douglass Massey and Nancy Denton
The Strange Career of Jim Crow, C. Vann Woodward