This is important to understanding the nuances of racialized speaking, and relations.  I wish more people cared about these types of discourse.

TRANSCRIPT: How The Ghetto Has Been Commodified: Inteview

Karen
Sternheimer (USC)
In in some strange ways the the ghetto has been commodified. Um can you speak ah
little bit about that and um about how we might wanna ah be more conscious
about ways in which which this idea of of ghetto has been used and commodified.

Nikki
Jones (UC
Santa Barbara)
I mean um somehow we can we can feel as if we’re in in these places just by
virtue of what we are able to purchase. Right ah and…in some way hip hop has
been revolutionary in that it has sensitized people um to the experiences of of
ah um…poor people living in distressed urban neighborhoods. I mean a lot of
that is real. If you listen to Tupac-ah SOME of Tupac [laughs] what he’s saying
is really profound. Right ah for example “I see death around the corner”. I
mean that is something in my own field research that I’ve heard again and
again. And so it’s a powerful message. Um…but there’s also ah way ah in which
ah if that’s the only way that you are in contact with what’s
happening in poor inner city neighborhoods, you’re not getting the whole
picture. Ah and and and d that can be ah and that can be detrimental.

Here's a link to another part of that same interview:  

What does it mean to be "ghetto" -- Interview w/
Nikki Jones

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkHNwwZPX1s

TRANSCRIPT:  

What does it mean to be "ghetto" -- Interview w/
Nikki Jones

Karen Sternheimer (USC) :
The term ghetto is a very loaded concept. What does it mean to your informants.

Nikki
Jones (UC Santa Barbara):
So the term ghetto right ah can be used in really derogatory ways. Ah so it can
be used to ah ah ah to particularly mark ah a low income African American women
as somehow outside ah feminity right. Ah it can be ah used to ah ah describe a
certain kind of moral orientation right. Ah um. And there are people in the
neighborhood that use it that way. And at the same time ah people in the neighborhood
can consider being ghetto, right, as ah as ah asset. So I I had ah conversation
with a young woman in San Francisco right. And I was talking to her about how
she thought other people perceived her, right. And perceived young people in in
her neighborhood.  Right, and we began
talking about outsiders seeing them as
ghetto right but then she said to me that ghetto is also about being innovative,
right. It’s also about making a lot out of a little. It’s about surviving,
right. And there’s a lot of pride that goes along with that. I had a
conversation with another group of women in the same neighborhood and they had
a similar story, right. And so I’ve come to think of some of some of the young
women in this neighborhood as ghetto survivors, right. Because that theme of
survival right cuts across those experiences, right. And so ah in some ways ah
people themselves will use it to distance themselves from others whose behavior
ah they are they they they see as ah as ah as as worth distancing themselves
from. Um but there’s also the sense that you can use the term, right, or that
it means something about survival for young people and particularly young women
I spoke to.

Karen Sternheimer (USC) :
The term ghetto is a very loaded concept. What does it mean to your informants.

Nikki
Jones (UC Santa Barbara):
So the term ghetto right ah can be used in really derogatory ways. Ah so it can
be used to ah ah ah to particularly mark ah a low income African American women
as somehow outside ah feminity right. Ah it can be ah used to ah ah describe a
certain kind of moral orientation right. Ah um. And there are people in the
neighborhood that use it that way. And at the same time ah people in the neighborhood
can consider being ghetto, right, as ah as ah asset. So I I had ah conversation
with a young woman in San Francisco right. And I was talking to her about how
she thought other people perceived her, right. And perceived young people in in
her neighborhood.  Right, and we began
talking about outsiders seeing them as
ghetto right but then she said to me that ghetto is also about being innovative,
right. It’s also about making a lot out of a little. It’s about surviving,
right. And there’s a lot of pride that goes along with that. I had a
conversation with another group of women in the same neighborhood and they had
a similar story, right. And so I’ve come to think of some of some of the young
women in this neighborhood as ghetto survivors, right. Because that theme of
survival right cuts across those experiences, right. And so ah in some ways ah
people themselves will use it to distance themselves from others whose behavior
ah they are they they they see as ah as ah as as worth distancing themselves
from. Um but there’s also the sense that you can use the term, right, or that
it means something about survival for young people and particularly young women
I spoke to.

I added both of those transcripts for the record and for the benefit of those who might not be able to hear those videos. I don't have any concerns about the first interview. But I have a number of concerns about the second.It should be emphasized that the first interview the interviewer asked about and the person being interviewed talked about the ghetto the idea of the ghetto. "Ghetto" is a noun. In the second interview, the interviewer asked about and the interviewee talked about "what it means to be ghetto". Ghetto -the adjective. Here are my concerns. Putting aside the fact that in that 2nd interview Nikki Jones focuses on young women in that neighborhood and doesn't mention males, it seems to me that when some young women told her that "being ghetto" meant being a survivor and being innovative, she went with that (perhaps because it fit into her feminist viewpoint). However, "being a survivor being innovative is hardly the most often used definition of "being ghetto" among African American and Latinos or among non-African Americans and Latinos.  I make that distinction because there are definite differences how "being ghetto" is used among many Black and Latino folks and among many White folks.  To be succient, among Black and Latino folks "being ghetto" is usually an insult. It means acting without class, or taste, being loud. It also means something that is of tacky, of low quality.  "Being ghetto" may also be an insult among White people, but it also may be glamourized as being cool, being gangsta.  Check out urban dictionary.com. There are 19 pages of definitions for the word "ghetto" and none of them talk about surviving or being innovative. Note to Nikki- The "ghetto" isn't the same as "the 'hood".  In my opinion, the word "hood" conveys much more pride than the word "ghetto".In emphasizing the definition of "being ghetto" as  surviving, I think that Nikki Jones may have focused on what she wanted to to hear. I also think it's important to recognize that just because a researcher is the race as those she (or he) is interviewing doesn't mean that that researcher is not going to be snowed (not told the complete truth and nothing but the truth). The person's class also factors in as well as the sense the researcher might unconsciously convey to those she interviews that she isn't the same as they are. For example, notice this comment from that 2nd interview: 

Deep breaths, rehearsal takes, c'mon ladies, that was embarassing.

High yella don't know shit.