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by tks 5277 days ago
I think the parent's underlying point is that, while the title's usage is perfectly comprehensible, the word is unsavory as part of a headline on a news websie. To go through the well-worn analysis: "ghetto" has strong connotations of specifically black poverty and crime, and is often used as somewhat comic shorthand for these issues, which is arguably offensive to people for whom these problems are their lived reality (leave alone its extensions in phrases such as "ghetto fabulous" and "ghetto queen"). I'm not black but I am a racial minority and I've always been attuned to words with valences like these, and I do micro-wince whenever friends or acquaintance use the term flippantly in conversation. So it's usage in this context is worthy of comment and pushing back against it legitimization, especially when its usage adds absolutely zero value above substituting "high crime area."'