Essay 2088

From The Chicago Sun-Times…

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Poster boy for a ghetto nation

BY DEBORAH DOUGLAS

My brain exploded again the other day. The detonator came in the form of a teenage girl walking down a city street with a cute waddling toddler. She was having a conversation with a boy on the other side of the street and the f-word figured prominently in her discourse.

It was a ghetto moment.

No, I was not in the ghetto; I was on my way to a hot restaurant for a night of sushi and fruity alcoholic drinks with my girlfriends. Besides, the ghetto is no longer a place in America; it’s a state of mind. If you think you haven’t been there, think again. Whether you are high class or middle class, poor or professional, white or yellow, we’ve become a ghetto nation.

The Chicago Bears’ top draft pick, Greg Olsen, took us there last week when his YouTube-posted, nasty, misogynist rap lyrics made headlines. As a member of the University of Miami’s 7th Floor Crew, Olsen rapped about “mutting” a woman, called her a ho, described his privates and a host of filthy acts. While his lyrics are no different than those of a lot of other rap songs, it makes you wonder why and when women became targets.

Author Jabari Asim puts some of the blame on the ‘80s era of Reagan Republicanism -- the “coarsening of American culture.”

Ronald Reagan “was able to distort the image of African-American women by painting them as welfare queens,” says Asim, author of The N Word: Who Can Say It, Who Shouldn’t, and Why. “During the greed-is-good 1980s, our self-absorption became so great we became capable of degrading our peers and fellow citizens. … I call it the blind adoration of one’s own navel.”

Writer Cora Daniels nails it in her new book GhettoNation: A Journey Into the Land of Bling and the Home of the Shameless. For her, kids in her Brooklyn neighborhood playing cards outside on a school night instead of doing homework underscored the ghettofication of her world. But, she emphasizes, ghetto behavior is not limited to the folks commonly associated with the physical ghetto: poor people of color. It’s not just women afflicted by bad weaves or men wearing gold teeth or diamond grills. Ghetto nation is a place where the worst behavior is celebrated. In this values-free zone, you’re rewarded for devaluing education and a strong work ethic, disrespecting yourself and others, taking instead of giving.

“It’s not where you live, it’s how you live,” the Ivy League-educated Daniels told me in a recent phone conversation. “It’s a mind-set that celebrates the worst of us. There’s a lot of finger-pointing that goes on: ‘It’s only them.’”

Daniels defines the New American Ghetto as a place where “marriage” and “monogamy” are bad words. It’s a place where stripper-like dancing is celebrated as long as it’s on a video and the rapper who wrote the song got a “phat” record deal.

This new, commodified ghetto is inhabited not only by hip-hop stars, but by politicians, celebrities, pundits, athletes and anybody else who allows the narcissistic inclination to profit from the moment to overtake a sense of responsibility to self, family and society. Residents of the ghetto nation create, condone or ignore ghetto behavior. The ghetto is us.

Some of the ghetto’s most prominent citizens include:

Donald Trump. This flashy trash talker gives rap a run for its money; and the worst part is he means it. Making fun of Rosie O'Donnell’s girth, among other classless moments, was a cheap shot. Low blows are ghetto.

Rosie O’Donnell. By engaging in a shout-it-out free-for-all with the Donald, this famous celebrity mom didn’t model good behavior for her kids, our kids or anybody else. Because O’Donnell milked Trump’s vendetta for ratings on “The View,” she is ghetto.

U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. He won’t take responsibility for the goings-on in his office, especially why eight federal prosecutors were dismissed in what looks like politically motivated firings. When a man won’t “man up” and be accountable for his actions or lack thereof, he is ghetto.

Busta Rhymes. Cowed by the rappers’ “no snitching” code of ethics, the entertainer has refused to cooperate with police in the fatal shooting of his bodyguard Israel Ramirez, though he and up to 25 other people witnessed the killing last year during a video shoot in Brooklyn. Moral relativity is ghetto.

Alec Baldwin. He’s ghetto because of the awful way he talked to his tween daughter Ireland a couple of weeks ago. Baldwin is the loudmouth ghetto parent who jerks his kid around, screaming profanities while onlookers stand by in shock.

Natalie Portman. This Harvard-educated actress is ghetto, Daniels says, because on a TV talk show, she promoted pole dancing as a great way to exercise. This once X-rated form of exhibitionism has been publicly celebrated by more than one female celeb and is now entrenched in mainstream culture.

Reality TV. From “Cheaters” to VH1’s “Flavor of Love” and its demon spawn “Charm School,” these shows glorify a voyeuristic, classless ghetto mentality. We’re ghetto for watching.

Anna Nicole. That whole “Who is her baby’s daddy?” freak show was ghetto with a capital “TO.”

Steve Bing. The millionaire filmmaker would not at first acknowledge paternity of his son with actress Liz Hurley. He’s also the daddy of a baby by another rich man’s wife.

A slippery slope
But are these people hurting anybody? Absolutely.

With the rise of the ghetto nation, we are on a slippery, downward slope to the end of decency and polite society. And for people who take this kind of behavior seriously, it’s the end of hope for a better life because they can’t fathom how adherence to a credible moral code or work ethic will work in their favor.

In America, Daniels points out, you can now buy pole-dancing kits for your kids, and pimp and ho costumes for Halloween. This is what the world has come to.

“It’s a part of a larger conversation about how Americans talk to each other,” Asim says from his home in Baltimore. “We’ve replaced constructive dissent with a culture of name-calling that does not move the country forward. Cora is talking about ghetto behavior; I’m focusing on ghetto language, unproductive language.”

Rush Limbaugh embodies the ghetto ethos, Asim says, recalling how the radio host once told a guest to take a bone out of his nose and call him back.

“That behavior is beneath the dignity of the American people and cannot be limited to any particular racial group,” says Asim, who also calls out right-wing pundit Ann Coulter. “Rush Limbaugh is a member of the white elite, yet his conversation rarely rises above the level of the playground. We have a moral obligation to be intelligent, to be compassionate. Both of those things have fallen by the wayside.”

Daniels adds: “Your silence is an endorsement. That is a basic level of how each of us is ghetto. Our expectations have gotten too low.”

Time to evolve
At least the Bears’ Olsen has apologized. And you’d like to think Olsen, with his all-American good looks (have you seen his mood-ring blue eyes and strong, dimpled jaw?) has grown up and out of this infantile, gimme-gimme, make-me-feel good way of relating to the world. He certainly has a lot at stake.

But now it’s time for the rest of America’s ghetto dwellers to evolve and for the rest of us to nudge public tastes back into a respectable, less cringe-worthy range more suitable for mainstream consumption.

So now you know.

If you’ve been bopping your head to catchy songs that denigrate women, you’re ghetto.

If, like Fox News personality Bill O’Reilly, you resort to name-calling when you can’t intelligently wend your way through a debate, you’re ghetto.

If you think debauched behaviors such as overindulging in alcohol and sex, drugging and spewing sexually and racially insensitive remarks are easily cured by a quick stint in rehab (Britney, LiLo, Isaiah), welcome to the ghetto nation.

[Deborah Douglas is the Chicago Sun-Times deputy features editor. She is one of the Fearless Voices of Huffingtonpost.com.]