Ghetto

I get annoyed when people use the word Ghetto. The term comes from the segregation of Jewish people pre-WWII, originally in Venice. It has now come to mean pretty much anything that is run down, broke up, high crime, scary, etc. I know that is has become slang and not given a second thought in our culture, and even used as a description to describe a style-like someone is "ghettofabulous" or whatever. But it still bothers me. I hear all the time, wherever I go, whatever state I am in, about the places that I should not go. The bad parts of town, the sketchy parts, the ghetto. Don't go there, be careful driving through there, it's "third world" there, etc. If I hear one more person talk about a place in that way I am going to scream.

Now, in Minnesota I had never been to North Minneapolis until about 5 years ago-never even heard of it. It is labeled as "the ghetto." I was warned in college, I remember, not go to on Lake street. (Which is in south Minneapolis.) That is practically laughable now-I am there all the time. But the fact that I had a warning about that makes me wonder why. I hear people talk all the time about North Mpls and how it's too dangerous, it's the hood, lock your doors, don't even drive through it, etc. Now I live there...so obviously I'm biased. But I have learned a few things, and enough things to make me have a little righteous indignation about this whole "ghetto" concept.

People label what they don't know. People fear what they don't know. I think in all honesty that because North Minneapolis is predominately black and Lake Street is full of every culture-people label it as dangerous and scary and ghetto. I know whats in the papers, and I know more crime does go down....but on a day to day bases, just walking around in the neighborhood, it is very normal. I admit I had apprehensions, felt really uncomfortable, and was nervous at times. But that is ENTIRELY because I was living out of the fears of my stereotypes, I was not used to being the minority, and I had a lot of baggage in my head from media to sort through. After living here for almost 3 years, it is now my normal. Because it is normal, the fear is gone. It took awhile, but still.

Okay now to get to why I get so mad. Why do Christians, of all people, avoid places that people call the ghetto?!? It seriously is making me very upset lately. Jesus spent his ministry on the streets, hanging out with the oppressed and the people who who were put out by the majority culture. Christians are the last people to be avoiding these places! How are we to clothe the naked, feed the hungry, proclaim freedom to the oppressed, and release the chains of injustice if we never set foot in the "scary" places, if we don't know anyone's story????

Okay don't get me wrong, I know it is not everyone's calling to live in a ghettoized area. I believe God called me to live in North Minneapolis, and that is why I am here. But I pray against self righteousness because of it, and I pray I only find my identity in Him and not in what I do here. But it is outrages to me that we live in a country that ghettos exist and Christians don't care. That Christ followers choose to avoid places because they are supposedly unsafe for them. Who is going to make these places disappear? I believe it is our job as Christians-because how can we be truly free if our brothers and sisters who live but a few miles from us are not?!?

You may not be called to live in these places, but please don't make it worse by contributed to the segregation. Why are these areas like that? Who lives there? Where are the resources? What are the solutions? Choose to be part of the solution!!! You don't have to move there to do it. But for heavens sake-how do we send money thousands of miles away to poor countries of children we don't know when there are children 5 miles from us who are lacking???

So please, don't tell me not to go somewhere because it's dangerous. First it will make me mad, second I will most likely go there just to prove a point. And that is just arrogant of me. (Remember how I don't want to be arrogant???) And if you do-tell me why it is the way it is, what makes it dangerous, and your first hand experience with it. Unless you can do those things, I just don't think it is appropriate to label something you don't know anything about.