hey yo, no one has to go through your little test in order for their offense to be legit. just get that, all right?

I didn't say anything about a test. However, if your idea of "ghetto" comes from TV or something, that may be exactly why you're offended. If you've lived and worked there, it might be a different story. I don't know what your particular situation is, but if you think your offense is some kind of social service, you may need to take a look around. You're entitled to your own opinions, but don't make them uninformed snap judgments, for the sake of our world.

Lots of people call this and many other areas a/the "ghetto", including the people who live in it. Many choose to exemplify a certain style associated with the ghetto culture, whether they are white or black, no matter what geographical region they hail from. Obviously it is an integrated part of modern culture.

Whether or not ghetto is a derogatory term depends completely on whether people connotate negative stereotypes with it and then use them to subsequently judge the character of those living there. Note that ghetto is, at least originally, a historical term from the Holocaust.**

We're not going to ignore the sometimes not-so-nice things that come with describing a place as a ghetto: racial segregation, economic turmoil, discrimination and prejudice, aesthetic issues, social unrest. We all KNOW these things. Refusing to acknowledge them, glossing over and Victorianizing our worldview, is exactly what perpetuates the negative stereotypes and divides the haves and have-nots.

This shirt is, at least to me, subtlely making a political statement, albeit ironic. Who WOULD send a postcard--"Hi Mom and Dad, I'm here in the sunny Ghetto!" Yep. That's why we find it darkly humourous. But as well, it makes a true statement. Areas like the South Side of Chicago are hurting for tourism and general growth dollars the rest of the City and North Side snap up. It's certainly not because there's anything wrong with the people who live here. It's because people have this skewed idea of the culture, people who exhibit a lot of unfounded xenophobic fear and associate offense with categorizing so that one can make a difference.

We call things like they are because living a truth is way more progressive than living lots of lies.

And politics aside, this is the edgy, can't-find-it-anywhere else humour that places like Threadless are made for. Okay, so maybe you can find it elsewhere, but you know, a lot of places would be too afraid of this very same reaction to sell things like this shirt. Threadless knows that its consumer base contains enough intelligent people that they will "get it". And the people who don't--well, they're entitled to that choice, too.

And so ends my soapbox.


**see, Oxford English Dictionary, ghetto, n.

" 1. The quarter in a city, chiefly in Italy, to which the Jews were restricted.

2. transf. and fig. A quarter in a city, esp. a thickly populated slum area, inhabited by a minority group or groups, usu. as a result of economic or social pressures; an area, etc., occupied by an isolated group; an isolated or segregated group, community, or area."

dude, I get all of that, read my other posts (and someone already defined ghetto, and I clearly remember my social studies teacher defining it for my class in 8th grade).

Intelligent people should get that there will be some debate. Intelligent people often enjoy debate and understand why it's something that should be done. If everyone nodded their heads in approvement over this shirt, I'd be a little concerned.

Intelligence aside, I simply don't find dark humor funny. It just kind of depresses me. People will always have different humor and different ways of expressing their frustration with the world.