Molefi Asante is one of the authors, who demonstrated a unique approach to understanding history and underlining the importance of knowledge. His book It’s Bigger than Hip Hop is the collection of thoughts about different historical events that should never be forgotten, and the history of a ghetto is one of the concerns that bother the author. The chapter “What’s Really Hood? A Conversation with the African-American Ghetto” helps to realize the importance of knowledge of a longer history of the Jewish ghettos and their possible connection to and impact on the African-American ghettos, US segregation policies, and the relations developed between different groups of people.
The article introduces a ghetto as the place where people are forced to live. It has a long history that began in 1611. It was introduced as “a walled-off and gated section in cities where Jews were confined” (Asante 34). In Italy, such areas were offered to a working group of Jews and characterized by a number of strict regulations. Jews did not have a choice but had to follow the orders of native citizens. In fact, the history of a ghetto is full of complications and concerns on the basis of which the segregation policies occurred.
The war periods made ghettos rather dangerous areas because people, who lived there, underwent numerous humiliations, discriminations, and repressions. More than 300 ghettos were found in the Soviet Union, the Baltic States, and several European countries that were the Soviet Union’s neighbors between 1939 and 1945 (Asante 36). The penalty for people, who wanted to leave those areas, was certainly death. The knowledge of the situation during that period can make the reader realize how cruel and terrible a human nature could be.
Though people, who had to live in the ghetto territories in the USA, had different conditions and outcomes, the essence of a ghetto remained to be the same – the absence of choices, freedoms, and opportunities. The segregation policies of the United States could not be avoided. Black people had to survive using their skills and abilities even if they did not have the same opportunities as other people had. Unfortunately, the roots of ghettos could not be neglected.
The color of skin was the reason for why some people could be successful, and some people could not achieve the same opportunities. The information of the article helps to understand that one of the main mistakes made by the majority of Americans is the idea that “the poor are poor because of their own faults … that the poor should get out of it on their own … the poor are undeserving” (Asante 51).
In general, I think that the form of the article and the way all information is given are powerful indeed. The reader should not deal with dry facts presented in an essay form. It is an interview, with a ghetto as an interviewee. Asante makes the reader accept the ghetto as something alive that could understand its nature, the reasons for existence, and it possible effects on people. I believe that such writer’s approach is effective indeed, and people can enjoy the reading process learning more about the history of a ghetto and the lives of people, who forced to be in ghetto areas and tried to survive by any possible means, and evaluating the impact of history on present days.
Works Cited
Asante, Molefi, K. It’s Bigger than Hip Hop. New York, NY: St. Martin’s Press, 2008. Print.