I agree that a ghetto has not come to mean a physical enclave like in old
Poland. I live in what is called the ghetto in Sacramento. We have a mix of
Latino, Southeast Asian, poor whites, and Black folks. But, our state
senator lives here. We have different ethnicities scattered throughout the
city. What shocked me was how close the rich and poor neighborhoods are to
each other. The rich have tried to remedy this by building way out in the
country in Rancho Murieta and Granite Bay. But the older well to do
neighborhood are within walking distance of the poor. Nestor is correct
about a cultural ghetto. We do have concentrations of Native Americans in
the southeast of town, Chinese in the near southwest, Russians in West
Sacramento (a city on its own in another county). But they do tend to
worship and socialize as ethnic groups. Those cultures that are patriarchal
tend to isolate their women (and elderly relatives) so yes they are the ones
without English skills.
While we are on this subject, there is another phenominon that I find even
more disturbing. I call it alingualism. California spends the most of any
other state on prisons and is 47th in educational spending. My father was in
the military so I lived in two countries and many places. Other countries
have better educational systems than the US. California's is one of the
worst. Even the college educated can't use proper grammar. Those with less
education, can't make an English sentence. When you attempt to correct them,
they argue with you. They also have poor knowledge of geography. I have had
co-workers who don't understand the concepts that Denver is a city in the
state of Colorado and that South Africa is a country and not a region. They
have little knowledge of history and what they do know is very biased. What
is very shocking is the lack of knowledge of religious matters. I, as an
atheist, am one of the few folks who have read the entire Bible. When we do
cross word puzzles, I, in a room of of Christians, am the only one to get
Bibilical references. I am certainly rare in that I have read half of the
Koran, many Buddhist texts, a summery of the Kabbalah, smatterings of what
are called "pagan" religions. What this means is that folks are ripe for
unscrupulous religious leaders who interepret religious texts to create
followers. This is strongly encouraged by the government and the Republican
party.
This general ignorance is why US citizens vote so naively and make political
decisions not in their own interest.
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