[2006alum]

+1. I think we'd all be better if the term "ghetto" were retired from modern parlance.

Why?

From my good friend Merriam Webster:

"The etymology of Italian ghetto was formerly the subject of much speculation, but today there is little doubt that the word comes from the Italian dialect form ghèto, meaning “foundry.” A foundry for cannons was once located on an island that forms part of Venice, where in 1516 the Venetians restricted Jewish residence. The word ghèto became the name for the area and was borrowed into standard Italian as ghetto, with the meaning of “section of a city where Jews are forced to live.” From there it passed into most other European languages. Since the late 19th century, the meaning of ghetto has been extended to crowded urban districts where other ethnic or racial groups have been confined by poverty or prejudice."

Unless you're gaslighting me, you answered your own question. Not to mention, the Merriam Webster I consulted online defines it as such:

Definition of ghetto
 (Entry 1 of 2)
1: a quarter of a city in which Jews were formerly required to live
2: a quarter of a city in which members of a minority group live especially because of social, legal, or economic pressure
3a: an isolated groupa geriatric ghetto
b: a situation that resembles a ghetto especially in conferring inferior status or limiting opportunity the pink-collar ghetto

Here's a few more trenchant takes on the term:

NPR: 

This current use of "ghetto" is also curiously mismatched to the history of ghettos. Venice's ghettos were home to prosperous merchants. Warsaw's ghettos housed resistance fighters. Harlem was a ghetto when it hosted a transformative literary and cultural movement. Chicago's Bronzeville was home to the black professional class — ghettos, by removing citizens' freedom to live where they want, force schoolteachers next to drug dealers, working families next to whorehouses.

But slang references to "ghetto culture" don't refer to any of those legacies, or to the perseverance it takes to survive under such limitations. ("You surviving in the ghetto," raps Busta Rhymes, "you can make it anywhere.") Instead, they reduce ghetto life to poverty and poor behavior. Acting ghetto. Being ghetto. Dressing ghetto.

The Washington Post, reviewing Mitchell Duneier's Ghetto: 

Ultimately, Duneier’s vision is bleak. His book describes the ghetto as a historical process rooted in racial discrimination, spatial segregation and political powerlessness. Absent a genuine commitment among the American public to helping the black poor, that process continues.

Te-Nehisi Coates: 

Ghetto, in its most unironic usage, is a word for people you don't know. It's word that allows you to erase individuals and create boxes. 

With respect, I think its original invocation in this thread was very much in line with Coates's definition: as something other and undesirable, to be shunned and avoided.

[2006alum]

+1. I think we'd all be better if the term "ghetto" were retired from modern parlance.

Why?

From my good friend Merriam Webster:

"The etymology of Italian ghetto was formerly the subject of much speculation, but today there is little doubt that the word comes from the Italian dialect form ghèto, meaning “foundry.” A foundry for cannons was once located on an island that forms part of Venice, where in 1516 the Venetians restricted Jewish residence. The word ghèto became the name for the area and was borrowed into standard Italian as ghetto, with the meaning of “section of a city where Jews are forced to live.” From there it passed into most other European languages. Since the late 19th century, the meaning of ghetto has been extended to crowded urban districts where other ethnic or racial groups have been confined by poverty or prejudice."

Unless you're gaslighting me, you answered your own question. Not to mention, the Merriam Webster I consulted online defines it as such:

Definition of ghetto
 (Entry 1 of 2)
1: a quarter of a city in which Jews were formerly required to live
2: a quarter of a city in which members of a minority group live especially because of social, legal, or economic pressure
3a: an isolated groupa geriatric ghetto
b: a situation that resembles a ghetto especially in conferring inferior status or limiting opportunity the pink-collar ghetto

Here's a few more trenchant takes on the term:

NPR: 

This current use of "ghetto" is also curiously mismatched to the history of ghettos. Venice's ghettos were home to prosperous merchants. Warsaw's ghettos housed resistance fighters. Harlem was a ghetto when it hosted a transformative literary and cultural movement. Chicago's Bronzeville was home to the black professional class — ghettos, by removing citizens' freedom to live where they want, force schoolteachers next to drug dealers, working families next to whorehouses.

But slang references to "ghetto culture" don't refer to any of those legacies, or to the perseverance it takes to survive under such limitations. ("You surviving in the ghetto," raps Busta Rhymes, "you can make it anywhere.") Instead, they reduce ghetto life to poverty and poor behavior. Acting ghetto. Being ghetto. Dressing ghetto.

The Washington Post, reviewing Mitchell Duneier's Ghetto: 

Ultimately, Duneier’s vision is bleak. His book describes the ghetto as a historical process rooted in racial discrimination, spatial segregation and political powerlessness. Absent a genuine commitment among the American public to helping the black poor, that process continues.

Te-Nehisi Coates: 

Ghetto, in its most unironic usage, is a word for people you don't know. It's word that allows you to erase individuals and create boxes. 

With respect, I think its original invocation in this thread was very much in line with Coates's definition: as something other and undesirable, to be shunned and avoided.