Ghettos
Jews and Black people are historically interconnected in many ways, and the ghetto is just another example.
The ghetto may mean many different things to different people, but one thing we all know for sure is that it is an area that segregated a homogeneous group of people from others. It is where Jewish people lived in segregation in Nazi-occupied Europe and Black/Brown people also lived in areas designated for ‘coloreds’ and impoverished people. We also know that due to systemic racism, it was and still is hard to get out of the ghetto.
Before we continue to explore the ghetto, let’s understand a little more about segregation laws.
Inspired by the Jim Crow laws of the South and other discriminatory and terroristic practices of the United States, Hitler and his regime devised the Nuremberg laws. Like Jim Crow laws separated ‘coloreds’ from White people, the Nuremberg laws segregated Jews. Similar to Jim Crow laws that facilitated the continued denigration, criminalization, and genocide of Black people, the Nuremberg laws allowed for the persecution, marginalization, and terror of Jews.
The race laws of America were directly connected to the antisemitic laws of Nazi Germany. From segregation, to miscegenation to dehumanization, the Jim Crow and Nuremberg laws are tied to one another. These laws facilitated the establishment of ghettos for Black and Jewish people.
The ghettos of America were created as a result of systemic racism and oppressions. From segregation to economic inequities, many Black/Brown people lived in these areas struggling to thrive. The ghetto was a safe haven for some, but for others it was a war zone. It was an area where people had to create new rules, economies, and securities to survive inside this separated bubble of marginalization. Due to income scarcity, food limitations, and legal pressures, the Black/Brown ghetto created a hard life for people to live inside and outside.
The Black/Brown ghetto became a symptomatic zone of historical inequities, forbidden liberties, and systemic injustice. At the same time, ghettos were communities that allowed Black people to freely explore their traditions and recreate their culture. Unity was also established as families learned to work together so they can be safe and survive.
Jews also lived in ghettos in other parts of the world. These ghettos were created similar to the Black/Brown ghettos. As a result of economic and social marginalization, Jewish ghettos became a place for community, commerce, and religious freedom. However, during the Nazi occupied Germany, Jewish ghettos were zones of certain death. As a result of the Nuremberg laws, Jews were segregated to certain areas (ghettos) and they had many restrictions. The oppressive rules enforced on Jews in the ghettos resulted in sickness, famine, and death. As Jews struggled to thrive in the ghetto, many were ultimately transferred from these horror zones to a different zone of terror. They were forced onto trains and taken to work as slaves in concentration camps. Some toiled until they died while others faced death by gas chambers, bullets, or beatings.
When Black people left the harsh life of their ghetto, they also entered a zone of terror. Black people then (& still today), are targeted and unjustly criminalized to be put into a modern day system of slavery. Many held captive in private prisons, work in factories and fields for the benefit of corporations and individuals. Black people are dying because of inequities in healthcare, criminal justice, and employment. Black and Brown people are dying because of modern day lynchings, militarized policing, police brutality, murder, terror, gun violence, inequalities, and every day aggressions. Black and Brown people are massacred due to systemic racism and economic injustices.
The Black and Jewish ghettos tether us, our exodus from Egypt connects us, our release from slavery and journey to freedom link us, our fight to thrive and survive bind us, and our faith reveals that we are one.
History has shown us and continues to prove to us through repetitive cycles, that we are all connected. The fight against racism is also a fight against antisemitism. Our collective fight is one against indifference and hate.
Although we endured the ghettos of yesterday, some people still struggle to survive in the “hoods” of today. As we persevere in these times of renewed hate, may we do so together. May we understand our integrated communities and appreciate our tethered histories. May we open our hearts and homes whether we live in a ghetto, hood, or gated community and fight against the same hate that prohibits our spiritual, economic, social, and religious freedoms.
“Talking bout the ghetto
Trying to survive, trying to stay alive
The ghetto
Trying to live our lives
The ghetto
Trying to survive, trying to stay alive
The ghetto
Trying to live our lives
The ghetto
I wonder if the mayor overlooked that list
Instead of adding to the task force send some help
Waiting on him I’d better help myself
Housing Authority and the O.P.D.
All these guns just to handle me in the
The ghetto
People all dying
The ghetto
Children are crying
The ghetto
Don’t have enough to eat
The ghetto
Don’t even have shoes on their feet
The ghetto
Even though they put us down and call us animals
We make real big banks and buy brand new clothes…
… In the ghetto, you keep one eye open
All day long, just hoping and hoping
You can pay your bills and not drink too much
Then the problems of life you’ll be throwing up
Like me, but you don’t see
Ten years from now, where will you be?
The ghetto (Talking bout the ghetto)
Tryin’ to get out of the ghetto
The ghetto (Talking bout the ghetto)
But I got no place to go
The ghetto (Talking bout the ghetto)
(Trying to survive in the heart of the ghetto)
The ghetto (Talking bout the ghetto)
Cause that’s the only place that I know
So much game in a Too $hort rap
Blacks can’t be white and whites can’t be black
Why you want to act like someone else?
All you gotta do is just be yourself
We’re all the same color underneath
Short Dog’s in the house you’d better listen to me
Never be ashamed of what you are
Proud to be black stand tall at heart
Even though some people give you no respect
Be intelligent, when you put em in check
Cause when you’re ignorant, you get treated that way
And when they throw you in jail you got nothing to say
So if you don’t listen it’s not my fault
I’ll be getting paid while you’ll be paying the cost
Sitting in the jailhouse running your mouth
While me and my peoples try to get out
The ghetto (Talking bout the ghetto)
Talking bout the ghetto.”
- Songwriters: Donny Edward Hathaway / Leroy Hutson / Alfred Eaton / Todd Anthony Shaw
