Is "ghetto" a firable word?

[nuttylawprofessor]

I was just reading a story about a lawyer in Detroit who was demoted because she referred to a certain court as "ghetto." The actual statement was, "People regard the 36th District Court as a ghetto court because of the way you treat people." She claims she was using the term according to the very common slang meaning "backward or messed-up."

I found two other incidents in the past year where people were fired or disciplined by their employers for using the term "ghetto." A teacher was fired for posting that she was "teaching in the most ghetto school in Charlotte" on his Facebook page. A Houston cop was fired after he distributed a pamphlet to other officers called "Ghetto Handbook: Ebonics 101."

So is "ghetto" now an unmentionable word?

 

[hentob]

So is "ghetto" now an unmentionable word?

Gosh, I hope not

I really hate political correctness.

 

[daisax]

Like everything else, context matters. Even in its broadest modern usage (where to kids it sometimes just means "cheap") it's no compliment. Seems like if you're referring to your own employer or workplace in that fashion they would have reason to object, particularly a courthouse or school that might serve a community that would be reasonably offended by being referred to that way.

If somebody took a casual comment about hanging out in the "smoker's ghetto" (another term I've heard for those forced to gather in tiny little areas and restricted from going elsewhere to smoke) and tried to turn THAT into a fireable offense, that would be going overboard, in my opinion.

Referring to your own workplace that way, presumably because of the people you're supposed to be working with? Seems reasonable that there might be repercussions. I don't know if they rise to the level of firing somebody, but it's so hard to fire somebody nowadays that I would suspect there was a history of some sort there and that this was the final straw.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

In the lawyer context, it seems as if the use of the word "ghetto" was a replacement for a different word.

So I think context matters, maybe?

Daisax, we posted at the same time. That was my first thought.

 

[mikehn]

It depends on the context, and who says it. Like if Al Sharpton said it, that would be fine.

 

[Geoff_M]

Context is everything. The example with the Houston police officer seems pretty fireable as it contains a clear racial context. The other two seem more benign. However, I doubt that the teacher was using the word because she thought the school was "messed up" but instead was referring to the racial make-up of the students.

I use the word at work. We have a lot of contract employees here and the cubicles where they work are the smaller than the ones for employees and we put two contractors to a cubicle. The area where their offices are located is jokingly referred to as the "contractor ghetto". But that uses more of the dictionary definition of the word ("a segregated means of living or working resulting from bias") instead of making it a commentary on race.

 

[janey99]

I was just reading a story about a lawyer in Detroit who was demoted because she referred to a certain court as "ghetto." The actual statement was, "People regard the 36th District Court as a ghetto court because of the way you treat people." She claims she was using the term according to the very common slang meaning "backward or messed-up."

I found two other incidents in the past year where people were fired or disciplined by their employers for using the term "ghetto." A teacher was fired for posting that she was "teaching in the most ghetto school in Charlotte" on his Facebook page. A Houston cop was fired after he distributed a pamphlet to other officers called "Ghetto Handbook: Ebonics 101."

So is "ghetto" now an unmentionable word?

I'd like to think I've been around the block a time or two, and I've never the "very common slang" meaning for that term of "backward or messed up." Perhaps if her explanation hadn't been quite so disingenuous, there would have been a different outcome?

Jane

 

[agnes!]

It depends on the context, and who says it. Like if Al Sharpton said it, that would be fine.

How about if it is said with in connection with the Polish cities of Lodz & Warsaw, or Terezin in Czechoslovakia ....

agnes!

 

[Stacerita]

Its all about context. My friends and I use the word ghetto all the time. We usually are calling ourself ghetto, or something we bought ghetto.

 

[Geoff_M]

I'd like to think I've been around the block a time or two, and I've never the "very common slang" meaning for that term of "backward or messed up."

I've heard it used by high-school aged kids in this manner. The term "That's so ghetto" is often thrown around when they want to dismiss something.

 

[janey99]

I've heard it used by high-school aged kids in this manner. The term "That's so ghetto" is often thrown around when they want to dismiss something.

The operative term being "high-school age kids" . . . .

Jane

 

[Geoff_M]

The operative term being "high-school age kids" . . . .

Jane

It won't be the first time something from teenagers has crept into popular culture... if that's where the person describing the court got it from.

 

[cinmell]

Gosh, I hope not

I really hate political correctness.

I agree. Ghetto is not an unmentionable word, at least not that I know of.

 

[Cindy B]

I'd like to think I've been around the block a time or two, and I've never the "very common slang" meaning for that term of "backward or messed up." Perhaps if her explanation hadn't been quite so disingenuous, there would have been a different outcome?

Jane

I've heard it like that all the time... For example, I used to work in a very urban area. I clearly remember students saying to the computer teacher "Hey Ms..____ these computers are so ghetto" after finding out they weren't working. That's just one example.. ghetto doesn't always mean urban.

 

[Cindy B]

I've heard it used by high-school aged kids in this manner. The term "That's so ghetto" is often thrown around when they want to dismiss something.

Not high school, not middle school, but upper elementary (like 3rd and up) around here.

 

[lustergirl]

 

[janey99]

I've heard it like that all the time... For example, I used to work in a very urban area. I clearly remember students saying to the computer teacher "Hey Ms..____ these computers are so ghetto" after finding out they weren't working. That's just one example.. ghetto doesn't always mean urban.

Well, consider me educated by you and Geoffm

I'm still pretty sure the term has no place when addressing the court.

Jane

 

[Wishing on a star]

Nope, I don't see the word 'ghetto' as the big issue.

In the cases mentioned, the comments were made by professionals, sometimes referring to the systems/employers that they worked within...

It is not just the word 'ghetto'.
IMHO, it is the negative and unprofessional 'conduct unbecoming' nature of what was said/written.

And, yes, to me, unprofessional conduct unbecoming related to ones job is grounds for termination.

PS: I have never thought of the word 'ghetto' as being 'screwed up'... It has definite connotations that cannot be denied or brushed off with the 'screwed up' defense.

 

[Wishing on a star]

Well, consider me educated by you and Geoffm

I'm still pretty sure the term has no place when addressing the court.

Jane

Exactly, since when does the fact that something might be known as teenaged slang make it acceptable or appropriate in a professional work setting.

I am pretty sure that if most people started going around using negative slang words to describe their boss, their company, their field of work, etc... they wouldn't have that job for long.

It doesn't have anything to do with the exact word used. It has a lot to do with appropriate behavior, insubordination, etc.

 

[Christopher Robin]

Per Dictionary.com -

ghet-to
1. a section of a city, esp. a thickly populated slum area, inhabited predominantly by members of an ethnic or other minority group, often as a result of social or economic restrictions, pressures, or hardships.
2. (formerly, in most European countries) a section of a city in which all Jews were required to live.
3. a section predominantly inhabited by Jews.
4. any mode of living, working, etc., that results from stereotyping or biased treatment: job ghettos for women; ghettos for the elderly.

Origin:
1605–15; < It, orig. the name of an island near Venice where Jews were forced to reside in the 16th century < Venetian, lit., foundry for artillery (giving the island its name), n. deriv. of ghettare to throw < VL *jectāre; see JET 1