Ghetto Booty. Ghetto Fabulous. Ghettopoly? When did inner city life become so marvelous and enviable?

The word, ghetto, originated in seventeenth century Italy, as a word Venetians used to describe the area where Jews lived. 1611 Venice is a far cry from twenty-first century inner-city America.

I’ve lived in poor areas. I’ve visited many clients in poor areas. And I can tell you — things aren’t ‘fabulous.’

Now, ghetto booty. That one I find particularly offensive. It’s like when people make fun of Jennifer Lopez. What’s so bad about having a big butt, having some shape, being who you were born to be? The intimation I hear from these comments reminds me of the Baby Got Back song where the back up singer, making fun of Valley Girl speak, says, “she looks like a total prostitute.”

Ghetto Fabulous. What’s that about? If people aren’t making fun of black folks with gold teeth, gold jewelry, gold hair — then they’re trying to imitate us.

Ghettoploy. I shouldn’t even dignify this. It takes all sorts of stereotypes, balls them up, and calls it Monopoly.

The ghetto is not fabulous. In Los Angeles, the murder rate in a twelve square mile radius of South Central is a million times the murder rate of Santa Monica — a city of a little less than twelve square miles, twelve miles away — which has almost no murders. Citywide services are sometimes non-existant, and people are scraping by for a living. Now there’s nothing glamorous about that.

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