[2006alum]

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.

Well, I originally used the term to describe the neighborhoods surrounding USC.  I used it because it was in line with my personal experience and observations in those neighborhoods based on my understanding of the term.  In other words, those neighborhoods are run down and have high crime rates.  There was nothing racial in my mind when I used the term "ghetto."  I have been to similar neighborhoods that are primarily inhabited by caucasians, and I would call them "ghettos" as well.  Changing the word won't change the neighborhood.

Well, we can agree to disagree, but I think the term today is used almost exclusively to refer to high-poverty, high-crime urban neighborhoods that are predominantly black (i.e., the neighborhoods surrounding USC). At least, that's always how I've heard it used. And I'm not aware of any high-crime, high-poverty urban caucasian neighborhoods in the United States, nor ones commonly referred to as "ghettos." Indeed, per the Merriam Webster note that "the meaning of ghetto has been extended to crowded urban districts where other ethnic or racial groups have been confined by poverty or prejudice," I'm not even sure how you can have a majority white "ghetto" in the United States insofar as whites can't, by definition, be an "other ethnic or racial group . . . confined by . . . prejudice," but I'd be curious for examples.

[2006alum]

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.

Well, I originally used the term to describe the neighborhoods surrounding USC.  I used it because it was in line with my personal experience and observations in those neighborhoods based on my understanding of the term.  In other words, those neighborhoods are run down and have high crime rates.  There was nothing racial in my mind when I used the term "ghetto."  I have been to similar neighborhoods that are primarily inhabited by caucasians, and I would call them "ghettos" as well.  Changing the word won't change the neighborhood.

Well, we can agree to disagree, but I think the term today is used almost exclusively to refer to high-poverty, high-crime urban neighborhoods that are predominantly black (i.e., the neighborhoods surrounding USC). At least, that's always how I've heard it used. And I'm not aware of any high-crime, high-poverty urban caucasian neighborhoods in the United States, nor ones commonly referred to as "ghettos." Indeed, per the Merriam Webster note that "the meaning of ghetto has been extended to crowded urban districts where other ethnic or racial groups have been confined by poverty or prejudice," I'm not even sure how you can have a majority white "ghetto" in the United States insofar as whites can't, by definition, be an "other ethnic or racial group . . . confined by . . . prejudice," but I'd be curious for examples.