Parallel Reality of the Ghetto

In reading "American Apartheid" by Douglas Massey, one can't help but have their eyes opened and nod in agreement while reading. Massey's defining passage (so far) is found on page 57 where is says that public housing, in the words of historian Arnold Hirsch, represents a "second ghetto," one "solidly institutionalized and frozen in concrete." At first when reading this, you can't help but be defensive enough to naively think that there is no way people permit ghettos to happen, for people to allow a second world as the ghetto to exist. However, in thinking about the passage of time and the research that Massey has collected, it seems that people not only let ghettos form, but have let them thrive as part of the everyday norm.

Ghettos today are seen as a regular pattern of life - just enough accepted neighborhood. In fact, it appears that ghettos are breeding grounds for a parallel world of survival, hopelessness, and desolation. While ghettos are a stark contrast to the way many live, people can easily count off the ghetto sections of their city with ease. They know where they are and know who lives there, but yet avoid those sections at all costs. They are seen as untouchable, almost quarantined sections of the city whose boundaries cannot be permeated. People do not pass through the "wall" in order to leave or to get in and help.

It is ironic to look at how the ghetto has not only played a permanent role in how people live, but also in pop culture. Music, movies, books, and television shows are famous for telling the success stories of making it out of the ghetto, or the supposed glamorous life of living on the street. Rap stars are notorious for this, and somehow put a cool, hard edge on the perks of living in the ghetto that might be enviable to some that are totally unaware of the unfortunate living situations these people face daily living in the real ghetto. Unless the public wakes up and realizes the almost 3rd world country living environments in which some people live in America, the fear is that the ghetto will continue its cyclical nature.