Only African Americans have been true ghetto residents in America

Evidence

The difference between ghettos and what were called “foreign districts” can be illustrated with reference to the situation in Chicago in the 1920s. There were in the city at that time some 27 ethnicities led by the Italians, the Poles, and the Irish. However, even though almost all of these groups had their own identifiable neighborhood, the areas they occupied were always ethnically mixed. Although one or two ethnicities might dominate an area visibly, the statistics told a different story. The Mexicans, who increased from 1200 to almost 20,000 during the 1920s, never became the dominant ethnic group in any part of the city; they were not subjected to segregation in spite of there being some hostility towards them. By contrast, at the end of the nineteenth century there was already a Jewish ghetto where some 14,000 of Chicago’s 75,000 Jews were concentrated. Nevertheless, many Jews lived outside the ghetto and this tendency for the Jews to be dispersed throughout the city grew with further Jewish immigration. There were few African Americans living outside the ghettos and these were mainly livein domestic servants. If the ghetto is defined as an area inhabited almost exclusively by an ethnic group, such that the vast majority of members of that group live in ghettos, then only African Americans have been confined to ghettos in the United States for any length of time. — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 2386 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Only African Americans have been confined to US ghettos for any length of time — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 2386; Only Black Americans and apartheid South Africa sustained extreme segregation — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 2429; Ghettoization failed to erase minorities and instead preserved their cultures — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 2392

Broader Connections

• Only African Americans have been confined to US ghettos for any length of time #corroborates (0.97) — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 2386