The people who lived within that walled section of the city were Jews. Nearly a hundred years later in Thomas Coryat's Coryat's Crudities (1611), the word first appeared in written form in the English language: 'a place where the whole fraternity of the Jews dwelleth together, which is called the Ghetto.'įrom this passage it can be extrapolated that the early history of the word refers to a distinct section of a city, usually separated from the rest of the city by walls or gates. To the foundry existing in the city-state of Venice in the early 1500s. There is tacit acceptance among scholars, however, that the word derives from the Italian verb gettare (to pour or to cast), a reference The Oxford English Dictionary, in seeking to trace its etymology, admits to a lack of clarity. The derivation of the word ghetto is important. What links these writers is their reference to the mean streets of the ghetto, where life was hard but, despite poverty, crime, and rampant drug activity, dreams could be born that would transport people to a better way of life. This theme was echoed in the later work of other African American authors such as Countee Cullen, Claude McKay, Ralph Ellison, and Lorraine Hansberry. In the latter Hughes captures the essence of this term: The buildings in Harlem are brick and stone In the early twentieth century there were descriptions of a 'negro ghetto' in Langston Hughes' plays and in his poem 'The Heart of Harlem' (1945). This powerful image has been aptly captured in popular culture, especially literature. African American or Latino ghettos do not always contain dilapidated buildings or deteriorating housing projects, but may signify home, places with an authentic racial identity or 'soul' that yields a desire and yearning for life and the overpowering drive to rise above the immediate physical surroundings. In some instances, a sense of belonging and self-identification emerged from these negative connotations.Ī sense of belonging evolved from the racial homogeneity and experience of shared persecution within the confines of the ghetto. It communicated a kind of substandard living that could usually be ascribed to persistent discrimination against such communities, but also toward immigrants in general.

Sections of cities, usually housing recent immigrants of African American or Latino origin, came to be referred to by this term. In the second half of the twentieth century the word ghetto in American culture was used to describe overpopulation and poverty in urban settings.

Lvov Ghetto Diary by David Kahane