Review of: “Dark Ghettos: Injustice, Dissent, and Reform,” by Tommie Shelby, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2016.
The poor, the homeless, the disadvantaged, the discarded, and the displaced. All of these people may be caught in a ghetto.
The ghetto is a figurative one for some and a tangible one for others. This book by Shelby explains the nature—and the foreboding power—of ghettos.
Shelby presents a detailed explanation of what a ghetto is and also the profiles of people who tend to reside in them. Ghettos all share common structures, causes, and impacts. It does not matter so much where the ghettos are located. The results of living within a ghetto are often predictable, a ghetto folding back into itself, trapping residents in its grasp and taking them back into the core away from other locations and other kinds of lives.
As in all my reviews, I do not provide exhaustive details about the content of the book in this review. It is the readers’ job to absorb whatever specific information needed for their decisions and actions. The technical information presented here is very revealing.
It is important to be aware of the following note, however: A good background in Economics and Statistics would be very helpful for readers. Knowledge of basic concepts from Sociology would be helpful also.
Among other accomplishments in the book, Shelby dispels the myth that poor people could be more successful if they just tried harder. Shelby makes it clear the ghetto can take on a life of its own as it traps, controls, and condemns residents.
Figuring out how to help people navigate or escape or handle the ghetto is the job of all other citizens who dwell outside its grasp. Shelby gives us technical information here, indeed, including statistics illustrating the reach of the ghettos.
Within each major American city, there is a neighborhood, a community, a zip code, a region that is considered dangerous, hopeless, sad, and depressing. Waiting for outsiders to help, those who live within the clutches of the ghetto bide their time…
The homeless are often trapped in a ghetto – by class, color, income, domicile, and lack of domicile. Not giving up, not giving in, these are the goals of many homeless people. Not all, but many. Many homeless people will tell you: “If I only had X, I could get a job…” or “If I only could get a Y then I could get my old apartment back.”
Sometimes, homeless feel the answer to their predicament comes from within themselves, and they say things like “If only I worked harder and did not waste my money, I could save up enough dough to get in someplace, even in a room or part of an apartment with a roommate who is already established and who would help me out… if only I try…”
Shelby paints a picture of the ghettos, places that are foreboding and evil… places away from the positive light of progress and hope…. hence the use of the work “dark” in the title.