Ghetto

Appearance

The term originates in 1516 in the Venetian ghetto ( Italian. Ghetto di Venezia ) - a plot of land isolated in canals in the Cannaregio region ( Venice ), where it was prescribed to live to Venetian Jews ^[1] .

However, the phenomenon itself appeared much earlier. Usually the Jews settled together on their own, and not under duress. However, in 1239, a decree was issued in Aragon , ordering all Jews to live exclusively in the quarter specifically designated for them ^[1] .

Later, Jewish ghettos appeared in Germany , France , Switzerland and Italy .

In 1555, Pope Paul IV issued a bull, according to which the Jews of all the papal lands were to settle once and for all in designated places fenced by the wall, and did not have the right to leave the ghetto during the night and Christian holidays. The Jews had to go out into the city in special yellow hats. There could be only one synagogue in the ghetto. Inside the settlement, life was regulated by the rabbis. The order was supervised by Christian guardians guarding the ghetto gates. A similar ghetto regime was established in Italy, Germany, the Czech Republic, Poland, and Lithuania. The largest ghettos were in Rome, Venice, Frankfurt am Main and Prague.

Despite the growth of the population, it was not allowed to expand the ghetto territory, as a result of which the overpopulated Jewish quarters very quickly came to unsanitary conditions. Therefore, the word "ghetto" is often called areas inhabited by the urban poor. The system of Jewish ghettos in Europe was crushed during the Napoleonic wars. The Emperor of France claimed in the conquered countries a system of civil law, which did not allow the possibility of discrimination of a person on religious grounds. The last ghetto in Europe - the Roman - was abolished only in 1870, when Rome was annexed to the Italian kingdom during the Risorgimento . In the territories of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, which ceded to the Russian Empire in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, the ghettos were preserved in only a few cities, in which, until 1862, the right to settle Jews outside specially designated streets was restricted.

XX century

In the first half of the 20th century, the idea of ​​a “ghetto” was returned to some newly formed European countries bordering , for example, the ghetto behind desks (see Remediation (Poland) ). It meant segregation in universities: Jews were instructed to sit separately from other students.

During the Second World War, 1939-1945. The Nazis created Jewish ghettos in the occupied cities of Eastern Europe. In essence, these were peculiar concentration camps, whose population was almost completely destroyed. The largest ghetto of the war period was in Warsaw. The armed uprisings of the prisoners of the Warsaw ghetto in April 1943 and the Belostok ghetto in August 1943 inscribed heroic pages in the history of the anti-fascist struggle of the peoples of Europe.

In Muslim countries, compact urban settlements of Jews existed until the 20th century, before the time of mass emigration to Israel. Currently, the term "ghetto" is sometimes used for areas of the city where ethnic minorities live (for example, the Negro ghetto in New York - Harlem).

World War II

During the Second World War, residential areas of the occupied territories of the Third Reich, which were created to destroy the Jewish population, came to be called the word "ghetto". This isolation was part of the policy of the so-called “ final solution of the Jewish question ” ^{[2] [3] [4] [5] [6]} .

The most famous were:

• Warsaw ghetto in Poland,
• Terezinsky ghetto in the Czech Republic,
• Minsk ghetto in the USSR .

Almost all the prisoners of the Jewish ghettos were destroyed during the Holocaust (see The Catastrophe of European Jewry ).

Some historians compare Indian reservations with ghettos. ^[7] Currently, the word "ghetto" is often referred to as areas of US cities inhabited by "colored minorities" - mainly African Americans , Puerto Ricans , Latin Americans , etc.

The conventional definition of a ghetto is a community belonging to a homogeneous race or ethnic group. In addition, a key feature that developed in the post-industrial era and continues to symbolize the demographics of the American ghettos to this day is the prevalence of poverty. Poverty is a hallmark of the ghetto from other suburban or private neighborhoods. A high percentage of poverty partially justifies the migration difficulties that seek to limit social opportunities and inequalities in society ^[8] .

Urban areas in the United States can often be classified as “black” or “white,” whose inhabitants, above all, are united by belonging to the same racial group ^[9] . Forty years after the epoch of Afro-American civil law (1955–1968), the United States is, for the most part, still a segregated society , in which black and white inhabit different areas that differ significantly in quality of life ^{[10] [11]} .

Many of these areas are located in northern cities where African Americans moved during the Great Migration (1914-1950), during which more than a million ^[12] African Americans moved from the rural southern United States to avoid the racism prevalent in those times , seek employment opportunities in urban settings and improve the quality of life, which was higher in the north ^[12] .

These factors provided further racial and class divisions and, ultimately, set the vector for the development of modern ghettos: many industrial enterprises and the resettlement of middle and upper class residents to suburban areas. Between 1967 and 1987, economic restructuring led to a sharp decline in manufacturing jobs. In combination with the relocation of middle class families and business to the suburbs, this led to a significant deterioration in the economic situation in the cities. As a result, blacks faced full or partial unemployment and a multiple decrease in income. Accordingly, in the inner regions of cities such as New York , Chicago and Detroit , “black” communities began to predominate ^[8] .

An illustrative comparison of the demographic picture of black and European immigrants according to the labor market . European immigrants and blacks were committed to the ethnic division of labor, and subsequently African Americans began to dominate the least secure sector of the labor market. David Ward calls this position established in the Negro ghettos as an elevator model, according to which each group of immigrants or migrants participates in the processes of social mobility and urbanization , but some groups cannot start their movement from the first floor. The inability of blacks to climb the social elevator, as Ward suggests, depends on the prejudices and segregation patterns obtained in the south, before the First World War . After the migration of African Americans to the North, most of the vacancies in skilled occupations were occupied by European immigrants, so that blacks became more involved in low-skilled jobs. The low percentage of professional success in black communities is due to the rigidity of the labor market, competition and criminal clashes; adding problems to widespread poverty and social instability in African-American ghettos ^[13] .

In the years after World War II, many white Americans began to move from the centers of cities to suburban areas, a process known as the “ flight of the whites ” ( English White flight ). The “white flight” occurred as a response to the resettlement of African Americans into “white” urban neighborhoods ^{[14] [15]} . Discriminatory practices in "white" areas have limited the ability of African Americans to move from the city center to the suburbs, even if they were economically able to afford it. At the same time, there was a massive expansion of suburban areas, accessible primarily for white middle-class families and higher, contributed to the construction of the highway and the introduction of a mortgage subsidized from the federal budget (V. A., FHA, HOLC). As a result, it was easier to buy a new house in the suburbs than to rent apartments in the city ^[16] .

The United States began restructuring the economy after World War II, demonstrating its technological advances and improvements in efficiency . The structural shift of 1973, during the post-Ford era , became an important component in relation to the ghetto with the labor market. Sharon Zukin declares the definition of blacks in the labor force below the working class : places for low-skilled urban workers are now given to people from Mexico and the Caribbean . In addition, Zukin notes: “The quality of social services is sharply declining, and punitive and social control over the poor is only increasing,” for example, the powers of law enforcement officers and imprisonment increase ^[17] . The “urban crisis” during the 1970s and 1980s put regional authorities under stress, because of differences in income and racial characteristics, a comparison of “White donuts around black holes” appeared ^[18] . It is no accident that a tough racial division occurred during the period of civil rights laws, urban unrest and Black Power. In addition, the International Encyclopedia of Social Sciences emphasizes various problems developed in the era of the “urban crisis” including:

“Poorly maintained infrastructure, poor housing conditions, inability to accommodate the growing urban population of the region, conflicts and competition for limited jobs, the inability of many residents to compete for new jobs based on technology and tensions between the public and private sectors participated in the formation and growth of American ghetto".

Aggregate economic and social forces in the ghetto give way to social, political and economic isolation and inequality.

In response to the influx of “black” people from the South, banks , insurance companies and enterprises began to refuse to provide or to increase the value of their services, such as banking, insurance, employment ^[19] , and health care . Data on housing prices and attitudes towards the integration of African Americans into “white” areas suggest that in the middle of the 20th century segregation was the product of collective action taken to exclude black people from “white” quarters, that is, mortgage discrimination occurred ^[20] .

This meant that ethnic minorities could provide mortgage loans only in certain areas, which led to a significant increase in housing and racial segregation and the decline of cities in the United States ^[21] .

After an anti-discrimination policy in the housing sector, caused by civil rights movements , members of the “black” middle class began to leave the ghetto. The law on the prohibition of discrimination in housing was adopted in 1968. It was the first federal law that prohibited discrimination in the sale and rental of housing based on race, color, national origin, religion, sex, marital status, and disability. Thus, discrimination in the housing sector has become illegal, new opportunities have made it possible for the black community to leave the ghetto. Sociologists often refer to this event as “the flight of the blacks”. Members of the black middle class begin to distance themselves socially and culturally from ghetto residents in the second half of the 20th century. This is accompanied by the relocation of the black working class families ^[22] . William Julius Wilson suggests that this move of the middle and working black classes only worsens the isolation of the black lower class - They not only socially and physically distanced themselves from the white ones, they are also isolated from the black middle class ^[23] .

There are two main theories explaining the emergence and development of the American ghetto. The first is the theory of racial discrimination. It says that the dominant racial group in the United States ( white Anglo-Saxon Protestants ) uses certain racist manipulations to maintain its hegemony over blacks and to continue the territorial division. The researchers argue the influence of the economy on racial divisions. More recent research suggests a number of measures taken by white Americans to preserve housing racial discrimination, supported by a “white” government. The weak development of mortgage loans, business and the withdrawal of capital from American ghettos, as researchers believe, is directly related to racial discrimination. On the other hand, researchers are more inclined to share another theory, a class theory. This theory says that poverty is a more important factor in the structuring of American ghettos than race. Despite the fact that the inhabitants of the ghetto are mainly people belonging to the same racial group, class theory advocates emphasize the role and influence of broader social structures in creating African-American ghettos. The influence of low wages and unemployment caused by deindustrialization, passing from generation to generation, proves the growth of the socio-economic separation between classes, put into the creation of American ghettos; no racism ^[24] . In addition, the theory of poverty, first described by Oscar Lewis, suggests that a long stay in poverty can in itself become a cultural obstacle to social and economic success. In general, opinions in the ghetto are supported on social class separation, which reduces the possibility of migration of future generations ^[18] .

Modern African-American ghettos are characterized by a population of a single ethnic origin, the prevalence of crime, social problems and political powerlessness. Sharon Zukin argues that because of these considerations, the term “bad district” appeared in society ^[17] . Many scientists call this whole situation in the United States as the "age of extremes." This term states that the inequality of wealth and power enhances the territorial division, for example, the growth of expensive cottage settlements can be compared with the process of “gettolization” among the poor ^[18] .

Although the term “ghetto” is generally used to mean poor, culturally or racially homogeneous urban areas, not all homes in black ghettos are dilapidated and cheap, not all ghetto residents suffer from poverty. For many African Americans, the ghetto means the word “home”: the birthplace of genuine African American culture , the place of struggle and suffering for the right to be black in America. An African-American poet and playwright Langston Hughes describes life in the ghetto in his works Negro Ghetto (1931) and The Heart of Harlem (1945). Playwright August Wilson also used the ghetto in his works Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (1984) and Fences (1987), drawing on the experience of living in the black ghetto of Pittsburgh ^[25] .

The Geographical Review, a quarterly magazine, claims that the degree of housing segregation of the black population is greater than in any other ethnic group in America, but black people did not have the political power necessary to exercise control over improving health care, education and welfare ^[26] . Scientists were interested in studying the African-American ghettos precisely because of the low standard of living of residents and their vulnerability to social problems. American ghettos are also faced with the problem of geographic and political barriers, and, as Dorin Massey emphasizes, racial segregation in African-American ghettos challenges America’s democratic foundations ^[18] .

It is impossible to talk about the existence of the ghetto in the historical sense of the word in Russia: despite the fact that the country is multinational, the government in various years prevented the formation of any national communities in megacities. In the 1930s, many small nations were deported from Moscow and St. Petersburg: Latvians, Estonians, Lithuanians, Poles, Finns and Germans, etc., and later Ingush, Chechens, Kalmyks, Crimean Tatars, Greeks, Hungarians, Bulgarians and others.

In the modern history of Moscow, some prerequisites for the formation of certain national communities exist: it suffices to recall the Cherkizovsky market, next to which tens of thousands of Azerbaijanis, Uzbeks, Tajiks, Chinese and Vietnamese lived. Some demographers are also worried about Chinese arriving in Russia (mainly on the Far East and Siberia), who are just inclined to settle next to each other.

Nevertheless, the main danger of the “ghettoization” is not at all connected by the city planners and territorial planners with the danger of national ghettos, but the prerequisites for the marginalization of those places where residential development was done in violation of urban planning regulations. In particular, this applies to areas with a higher density of development, unsecured jobs and sufficient infrastructure, including transport: there is almost a traffic collapse, dramatically reducing the quality of life. Experts see risks as well in the fact that with the general recession of the Russian economy and lowering the solvency of the population, some parts of the Moscow region can expect the fate of the American quarter Pruitt-Aygou .

However, there are other applicants for the title of “new ghettos”: these are areas with dilapidated and / or emergency housing, where there is no work and no opportunity to leave, where apartments and others cannot be sold, indicating the start of the “ghettoization” process in Russia.

• Vishnitser M. L. Ghetto // The Jewish Encyclopedia of Brockhaus and Efron . - SPb. 1908-1913.
• Shterenshis M. Jews: the history of the nation. - Herzliya: Isradon, 2008. - 560 p. - 5000 copies - ISBN 978-5-94467-064-9 .