What is a suburban ghetto? A suburban ghetto is a place where the residents earn between $30,000 and $60,000 a year, live on the outskirts of the city and pay for garbage collection, own two or 3 cars, have two or 3 kids and organize groups for community involvement. This is the suburban description. The ghetto description is this; they live uniformly in similar housing units, practice similar social and consumer behavior, certain firms target them as a stereotypical demographic group, and they are all capable of committing criminal acts such as drug abuse, domestic violence, and murder. So, what sets them apart from inner-city ghettos? Not much.

People assume that suburban areas are safer than urban areas as far as crime is concerned but this is not true. Just as many murders and drug related crimes are recorded in suburban areas as there are in urban areas, the only difference is what we will call "the fear factor." The element in urban areas is more intimidating than that in suburban areas. If one walks down an urban street during dusk, there may be corners littered with thugs shooting dirty looks, and there may be sirens and sudden noises and passing cars pounding out rap music. However, if one walks down a suburban street at disk, the scene may be less intimidating but surprisingly similar.

People face comparable situations wherever they live: financial hard times, family drug problems, juvenile problems, domestic violence, and more, the only factor that truly counts in the difference in suburban living and urban living is the fear factor. There is no more organized crime in urban areas than there is in suburban areas. There is no more alcoholism, sexual assault, drug trafficking, or child abuse in urban areas as in suburban. Media and Hollywood portrayals of the two actually dictate which perception of each people will have.

If a person has never lived in a so-called ghetto environment, how would they ever know whether it is as inhumanly dangerous as society proclaims. The secret to ghetto living is that if everyone knows who you are and what you are about, you are safer than a stranger. You know where to go and when to go there and you know who to piss off and who not to, and you know what makes people tick or snap. If you mind your own business, you have a chance at a normal life.

The reason urban living is not a choice of anyone and is something the residents want to escape is that society stresses higher living standards for people and negatively portrays urban living as below that standard. People will automatically shy away from and deem urban living as undesirable and unfit for a normal human being based on America's social standards, but the truth is a person can live anywhere they want to and live normally if they adjust to the environment.

Now, no one is saying that urban living can not be improved or that the ghetto is a crime free zone without problems, but if communities are neglected by city leaders as far as economic and educational development, how can they expect a positive outlook and not instilled bitterness in the minds of the residents? When suburban schools get all the funding and all the corporate land development contracts, what would naturally become of a neglected community? The difference is money.

The human psyche is and always will be the same. People in suburbs devise schemes, they organize drug cartels, and they commit domestic violence. The police answer more calls for domestic violence in suburban communities than they do in urban communities. The same, if not more arrest is made in suburban communities than urban, the difference here is that there are more convictions of urban residents than suburban.

People in the suburbs have the money to protect their interest in court; people in urban communities do not. People in suburban communities have reputations to uphold, which are known throughout the justice system and social scene by other prominent gatekeepers, yet people in urban areas have no identity and their lives are somehow deemed expendable. Suburban residents supposedly have more at stake than urban residents. So, why would anyone be surprised at the bitterness that dwells within the souls of urbanites?

To blame an urban resident for their social condition is a pathetic and shameful sign of social indifference and snobbery. Social status and mentality are obviously two different things. One can gain the status but the mentality may never change. Thus, if society labels urbanism as a lower standard of living yet possesses and urban mind-set and practices urban lifestyle in a suburban setting, this constitutes the suburban ghetto.

Ghetto is a state of mind. It means unity under extreme circumstances. It means by any means necessary and with whatever it takes. It means discarding the inaccessible values of society and being what that very society has made you to be. It means striving against many obstacles while maintaining a sense of sanity and method of survival. The mine-set of the ghetto is one that develops character in a world where money means more. And in the world of the suburban ghetto, it is all just a state of mind.

© 2003 by CR Hamilton