Chicago columnist forgets the power of racialization

How fitting that a mere three days before I move to Chicago I am reminded of the plethora of blog coverage in my hometown city.

Last week, Chicago Sun-Times Columnist Mary Mitchell (at right) wrote a column titled, "Ghetto parenting dooms kids." In this column, she listed the components of said "ghetto parenting," including brawling with your significant other in front of your child, cursing at your child, and putting your child off on family and friends so you can "hang out on the street."

As one might imagine, the column invoked some strong reactions. Lisa Belkin of the New York Times blogged about Mitchell's use of the word "ghetto" as a term for lousy parenting, asking readers to offer their thoughts. Many said Mitchell's writing was downright racist, while others said Mitchell was merely misguided and still another replied (rather rudely I'd say,) "Ghetto is as ghetto does."

Mitchell eventually wrote a follow-up column, "C'mon, you know ghetto when you see it," in which she insisted, "it's not about race or poverty, it's just plain foul behavior." She cited Britney Spears as an example of ghetto parenting and Lindsay Lohan as an example of ghetto behavior. Mitchell asserted that the ghetto is no longer a place where poor black people live, "trapped in a cycle of poverty and despair."

While Mitchell may not have intended for "ghetto" to link up with race so plainly, she failed to recognize and take into account the tremendous historical racialization of the ghetto. Just because she herself does not think the ghetto refers to Chicago's housing projects does not mean others do not conjure up racialized images when they hear or read about "ghetto parenting." As commenter 12 on Belkin's blog stated:

"Mitchell is overlooking a very important point in this discussion: the word 'ghetto' has a history and a meaning; she may have attempted to coin the phrase 'ghetto parenting' but she didn't coin the word 'ghetto' and it is simply not at her whim to decide what it means."

If Mitchell is correct that the definition of ghetto has expanded to include Spears and Lohan, it certainly hasn't departed from its former designation to poor black families and neighborhoods. Typing "ghetto" into a Google search yields the following Wikipedia explanation:

"Recently the word 'ghetto' has been used in slang as an adjective rather than a noun. It is used to indicate an object's relation to the inner city or black culture, and also more broadly, and somewhat offensively, to denote something that is shabby or of low quality."

(I know, I know, Wikipedia is not the most reliable, but many people get their facts from the site. Furthermore, because Wikipedia is user-generated/edited, the information presented can be said to be a consensus on a given topic.)

A Google image search is even more off-putting, as a majority of the photos feature black men and women.

I believe that Mitchell had good intentions. I don't think she intended to speak in racialized (or worse yet, racist) terms. Mitchell's hope that ghetto does not equal black is well and good, but it is idealistic and untrue: Society has yet to decouple ghetto and black.

And if the issue of "what ghetto means" is beyond the scope of Mitchell's intended argument, perhaps she should not have tried to reinvent poor parenting in such a racialized way.

Photo Credit: Chicago Sun-Times