Racism, not poverty alone, is the decisive factor forming ghettos.

Evidence

External observers also tended to ignore the fact that there was more variation in education and income among the inhabitants of these ghettos than would have been the case if income had been the sole determinant of where one lived. Four of the preconditions of ghettoization are ethnic diversity, racism, poverty, and urbanization. The United States had the first three in abundance at the beginning of the twentieth century and was about to add the fourth. Because racism is a decisive factor in the formation of a ghetto, most of the ghettos in the United States are black. — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 2384

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the ADDENDUM ‘On Sacrifice’ essays and to work on neighborhoods and racialized urban space; also echoes the discussion of racist violence in parables of structural segregation.