Southern University: Hip-Hop & Politics
This podcast was born from Dr. Eugene Lee-Johnson's Hip-Hop & Black Politics class at Southern University. Throughout the semester, the students learn how White supremacy impacts each part of their lives and how fate and group consciousness work to influence Black political participation. In tandem, the students will speak about specific topics (the media, gendered racism, the history of American racism, etc.) from class and how they influence their lives. We hope you enjoy!
Southern University: Hip-Hop & Politics
The True Colors of Our Urban Landscapes
Growing up, both Markela Cooper and I, Destiny, experienced firsthand the contrasting realities of neighborhoods labeled as "the hood." From the outside, these places are often painted with a broad brush of negativity—crime, poverty, and a lack of opportunity. Yet, there's a depth and complexity to these communities that defy simple categorization. Our latest episode takes you on an eye-opening journey into the layered history and current state of urban neighborhoods, offering an alternative narrative to the one-dimensional portrayal often seen in the media.
With intimate stories from our past and a critical look at the social and political forces that shaped these areas, we unpack the term 'ghetto' and its evolution from Jewish quarters to its present-day association with predominantly Black spaces. We scrutinize the influence of societal structures, such as redlining and the Federal Housing Act, on the distribution of resources and opportunities for Black families. Through our dialogue with Markela, an exploration into the duality of the hood emerges—rooted in historical adversity yet brimming with a resilient drive to redefine success and triumph over systemic barriers. Tune in for a conversation that challenges perceptions, uplifts the voices within these communities, and shines a light on the myths and realities of the hood.
Hello everyone, my name is Destiny, hi, my name is Markela Cooper and today we're going to be talking about who created the hood, the ghetto. First, what is the meaning of the hood? Based on society perceptions, the hood is a neighborhood with high crimes, low income housing, inhabited by mostly black people with low social economic statuses. Correct Right. To add on to what Destiny said, the hood is where people have a perception of where there's low income. Also, the hood, or ghetto, is also correlated with different ways of immigration and internal migration. Immigrants and migrants would often arrive in cities looking for economic opportunities. They would settle in neighborhoods with people of similar backgrounds. Those neighborhoods became ethnic ghettos characterized by poverty, social isolation and limited access to resources. People typically don't realize that nowadays, the hood is specifically just sought out for black people. One would be surprised that the exact same people who designed the hood for us actually have their own. There's a hood everywhere. For example, in my hometown, we have two different versions of the hood a black hood as well as a white one. As Destiny stated, I am too, from a small hometown where we have a black hood and a white hood. The black hood in my hometown is basically where low-income people stay at. But my perception of the hood is different from what others may say. The hood is Like I wasn't around violence or we didn't have, like I wouldn't say, a low income because, like I had everything that I needed, I didn't go without or anything like that. So I wouldn't say it was. That wouldn't be my perception of the hood. But we did. I did say I'm from Toluca, louisiana, and my neighborhood was called together. They were saying that Madison Apartments was the hood. So they'll say, like this is what crime happened, this is what killing happened. But me, growing up, I never seen that. I never saw someone got gunned down in the street or nothing like that. Okay, I'm originally I agree, I'm originally from Beaufort, south Carolina. I moved to Jennings, louisiana, in like 2015. I moved to Jennings, louisiana, in like 2015. And what I noticed is they had tracks that separated the white people and the black people and the black people was literally the hood and the white people had more opportunity. That's where all the restaurants was and everything. And basically we also have a white hood which is called the west side. They basically did like the same thing the black hood did. Still to this day, we, still to this day, I feel like the black hood still goes to like racial, uh, racial discrimination, because we're like the first target, right, all right. And to add on to what Destiny said, it basically goes back down until when the hood was actually created.
Speaker 1:Many people say the government created the hood, the FHA, the Federal Housing Act, where they created a color system. I think A was green, b was blue, c was yellow and D was red, and red basically was for the blacks and they called it redlining. So they put us in these neighborhoods outside, like it was outside of where everyone else was, where, outside where everyone else was, where there were little to no resources at all, like the job, employment was down. And then, to add on to that, like, if a black person wanted to stay or purchase a home, the Federal Housing Act had this where the bank couldn't apply loans to black homebuyers or anything like that loans to black home buyers or anything like that. And then also, two, like years later after that, if the black person wanted to like buy or rent a home for a white person, they had a own contract where, like, they'll have to pay a down payment and like, if they miss a payment on the house. They'll, uh, distract the previous payments. They'll even get their home back and there wasn't. Like the black homeowner didn't have the deed to the house, like it was still in the white person, so they didn't own actually own the house. It was just like renting their buying from the house, I agree, which created black people to be limited to resources, because buying a house equals wealth and black people didn't like have the opportunity.
Speaker 1:For example, society has told us like if you live in the hood, then you sold drugs, you ran from the cops, you shot a gun or you've been to jail, when in reality you don't have to be from the hood to do those things, which leads back to the concept of the talented 10th, which refers to one in 10 black men being educated enough to lead their communities, which, if you did not have higher education, you were seeing less through the eyes of the whites. Throughout the years, blacks were moved to suburbs, which moved resources from what society calls nowherhood due to the permexity of whiteness, and Kanye West's song when it All Falls Down is a prime example, when he stated "'Cause they made us hate ourself and love they will. That's why Shorty's hollering where the ball is at. Drug dealer by Jordan, crack head by crack and the white man get paid of all that". I agree to add on to that, to what she was saying about how blacks and whites in the neighborhoods have.
Speaker 1:Blacks had little to no resources and how they are, how whites, how white families that put them on in the house and being being homeowners they had left, like generational, generational, uh wealth to their children and then their children could pass it on to their children. Blacks didn't have the opportunity. I think that's why, um, blacks today, like they'll say they fight, they fought so hard to get out of the ghetto because of what people's perception of it was, because they didn't have the same access as to white people. I'm going to college to do this. I'm going to graduate high school to prove them wrong about this. And they just kept adding on to change people's perception of what like, okay, I came from the ghetto, but the ghetto is not me. I stayed in the hood, but I'm not hood. Like, I can go do this, I can be great, I can become somebody Cool, which one weighs?
Speaker 1:Education Black people were limited to education, which stemmed off of racism, which leads to the Brown versus Border education of 1954 being established which allowed black people to seek higher education where they later can buy homes to later create wealth. Also later on, booker T Washington announced the Atlanta Compromise on September 18, 1995. His goal was to acquire education, economic security for African Americans while astonishing the whites. He wanted the whites to be patient with the African Americans as they figure out how to become respectable citizens. Washington and WE Du Bois argued over the establishment of equality. We Du Bois believed that fighting for civil rights was the right way to handle the situation, while Washington argued that blacks having economic independence and wealth would lead to equality. He also believed that it was a good idea for African Americans to remain separated from the whites if African Americans had the right to education, economic progress and justice under courts. And to add on how they wanted the whites and blacks separated.
Speaker 1:Drumroll laws played an important role in what the hood is today. By them passing laws that did not prevent racial segregation, the government only kept progressing into creating more red-line neighborhoods. For example, a black person could not go into a white neighborhood, and if a white neighborhood was too close to a black neighborhood, they would create fences to block it off. And even so, today we still have neighborhoods that you can tell oh, that's where white people stay. You would barely see a black person in that type of neighborhood. But also, too, we also have nice neighborhoods where black people have nice houses today, kids are outside and it is a safe environment, although the government advertises hood as a hazardous and not safe environment, which leads back to how white people can also be a product of the hood if they live in economically disadvantaged areas with similar challenges, such as economic inequality, lack of access to quality education and health care, family instability and exposure to violence can also impact individuals regardless of their race. Therefore, white individuals living in poor or weak neighborhoods may also be considered products of the hood in terms of experiences, social and economic realities.
Speaker 1:To add on to what Destiny said about whites, can be a product of the hood too, because they have faced similar problems and issues as the black race and, being that, their race is the only significant difference. But from previous experience growing up, when we ever seen a white person come into our neighborhood, people would say that CPS is a police officer or someone looking to buy drugs. That's why I, too, agree when people say racism plays an important factor in who created the ghetto, because of how blacks were already labeled as, which leads black to slavery, and the government issued the separate but equal law, placed it versus Ferguson in 1896, saying that blacks and whites can live in separate neighborhoods, go to separate schools, but they were still equal, and we all know that that wasn't true. To contrast to that, and to contrast to that, even before this, the government did not hide that the black neighborhood was a low income neighborhood, no access to resources. So how was it separate but equal, when whites had access to resources and their incomes were not low? They lived where all the resources were surrounded. Therefore, to me, creating the hood was created by the government as a substance of slavery, to make blacks feel less than what they are, not hermits as they pictures, and to keep blacks where they can see them and know what they were doing. Which, carter g what's in?
Speaker 1:The father of black history and the writer of the Miseducation of the Negro, emphasizes what African Americans are learning in America in pertaining to education. He addresses that we do not know much about ourselves, but we are learning to affiliate ourselves with the idea of white successes, for example, the movie Boys in the Hood. The message is that fathers must teach their boys to be men. Also, police brutality happened, often in low-income communities. For example, slave patrols were in control of enslaved populations, leading to brutality against black individuals as a means of social control. I agree police brutality was significant to the hood. And, to sum it all up, on our discussion of who created the hood, the ghetto, we introduced what the hood is, which is a neighborhood known as the projects formed by the government, which was characterized by low property values, where the government denied housing, loans and limited resources to the black African Americans.
Speaker 1:Many people have different perceptions of the hood. One might say the hood is where crime, drugs and uneducated people live. Movies such as Don't Be a Menace to Society and New Jack Cedar would be great movies to watch if this is your perception of the hood. And others may say the hood is just a low-income place where the government plays black African Americans. Others may say the hood is just a low-income place where the government plays black African-Americans. Both can be true, because both of those things are true factors on what happens in the hood and who created it. Slavery and racism are two main key factors in who created the hood. To me, honestly, this is what brought the hood about, because the ghetto was originally a term for Jews and to whites, anticipated onto blacks. What would be your perception of who created the hood and what would you think it will be? Thank you for listening to our discussion on who created the hood. Together, mark and destiny.