What is ghetto?

You can easily pick a ghetto person from a crowd.  It is usually very obvious from the way that some of them dress and their mannerisms.  Many of them are rude, unkempt, gaudy, obnoxious, loud and sloppy.  They leave a trail of trash and filth everywhere they go.  The clean people in a neighborhood have a difficult time keeping the area tidy, for all of the mess that the ghetto folks create in their wake.  City workers have their hands full with maintaining and cleaning the inner cities because people don’t know how to use a trash can.

Most of the time ghetto people are ignorant.  There is no reasoning with ghetto persons.  They can do no wrong and they usually aren’t very open minded people.  It makes no sense to argue with them, because you will subject yourself to abusive language and obscenities.  If you do get into a confrontation with one, be prepared to hurt them, get hurt or go to jail.

A lot of uninformed people automatically assume that all Blacks and Latinos are ghetto.  I disagree, and have seen ghetto attributes in almost every race and ethnicity of American (not naturalized citizens). Ghetto has more to do with a person’s attitudes and the way they carry themselves, than it has to do with a person’s race, or economic status. 

In former places of employment, I frequently encountered wealthy White people who exhibited some very low class behaviors.  On another occasion, I saw a group of young White people dump a box of fried chicken bones and disposable cups in a condo parking lot.  And, that was in an upscale, suburban retirement community. 

I am not sure whether these people were nouveau riche or old money rich, but they behaved like they were bottom feeders, with little home training.  On the flip side, I know many people who live in poverty, yet they carry themselves with manners, sophistication, and grace.  I guess it depends more on the individual and their upbringing.

For some reason, ghetto people seem to gravitate towards certain places.  Some can be found in laundry facilities located in low to middle income neighborhoods.  I am not saying that all people who use laundry facilities are ghetto.  What I am saying is that if you aren’t too careful, there is a high probability that you will bump heads with them there.   In the South, we call laundry facilities “wash houses”, so don’t be confused if I use the term interchangeably. 

Case in point: I was once at a wash house with a friend and we were doing our laundry.   There were three little boys, running amuck at the wash house, unattended.  They were there with a woman, who I assume was their mother.  I did hear her tell them a few times to take a seat and be quiet.  However, her orders were largely ignored. 

They would sit for a few minutes and then get up and start running all over the place, playing with the equipment.  The little boys were jumping up on the tables meant for patrons to fold their clothes.  They were slamming the washing machine doors and behaving like straight Bebe’s kids.  When we were coming up as children, there was no way we could get away with that.  These children of today are a different breed.

Well, my friend and I were seated, waiting for our clothes to complete a wash cycle.  My friend had advised the little boys to stop playing in the laundry mat.  He noticed that they played with a large oscillating fan.  He was worried that they would either damage the fan or that the fan would topple over on them.  So, he told them to stop messing with it.  The little boys walked away and got their mother. 

She came over to where we were seated and asked my friend if he told her son to leave the fan alone.  He said that he did.  The lady was ready for an argument, but I told my friend not to say anything to her, for I knew where it was going.  Her children were angels in her eyes and could do no wrong.  People like that don’t appreciate it when other adults correct their children. The woman sternly told my friend not to say anything to her children and walked away cursing under her breath.  Never mind the fact that her children were out of control. Ghetto!

Here’s what makes the woman’s behavior so asinine:  If those children were to damage any of the business owner’s property, I doubt that their mother would have a dime to pay for the damage.  If the children were to fall and hurt themselves on the property, she might have used it as an opportunity to sue the business owner.   She’s not setting a good example for her children or teaching them to respect other people’s property or authority.

I am not wishing her a bad omen or anything but she might have her hands full with legal problems later on.   Other people won’t be so forgiving about her children’s bad behavior.  They may take the attitude that if their parents didn’t teach them anything, then they are just shit out of luck in life. 

Certain people should not even be allowed to procreate.  Take for instance this other woman who was doing her laundry on another day. She was busy running her mouth on the phone as her two little girls played unattended.  The little girls weren’t older than 3 or 4 years old.  They were pushing each other around inside of the laundry carts.  Their mother was on the phone cursing loud enough for everyone in the wash house to hear her conversation.  At one point I heard her say to the other person on the phone, “My name can’t be out there like hers, because my p***y is clean”.  And seconds later she said, “Bitch, I’ll mud stomp that ho!” 

Now, after she ended her conversation, Rhianna’s stripper song “Pour it Up”, was playing over the wash house radio system.  Ms. Thang was singing it to her little girls and having them to repeat the lyrics to the song.  WTF?  I can’t believe these people are raising children.  Society is royally fucked.

© Copyright 2014 Susan Broadbelt