Hood vs. Ghetto

Simple question: Is there a difference between the hood and the ghetto? I've heard these two terms a lot and was curious if they are different or one in the same? Please educate me!

 

I am not the official spokesperson for all things slang but to me “hood” is short for neighborhood which could be the ghetto or the burbs.


Ghetto is a government owned slum.

I'm sure it means the same in some circles however.....

 

No difference among hood folks. It's the same thing. When people say "you so hood, or you so ghetto", they mean the same thing, and aren't going by technical names. There isn't an actual definition for hood that describes the ghetto anyway, I pretty sure.

 

It depends on it's context.

In slang, "ghetto" and "hood" can mean very similar things, especially in reference to a persons personality.

"He's so hood."
"He's so ghetto."

However, "hood" in this usage tends to be more positive than "ghetto".

"Hood" is simply a shortened version of "neighborhood", and "ghetto", while generally used to describe housing projects and slums, is a term that can be applied to many living situations involving a large amount of people in poverty. The slums in Mumbai would be adequately described as ghettoes. In the same vein, the area of my home state where I grew up could also be described thusly.

According to a web definition, the usage of the word "ghetto" among American urban youth (and beyond) is likely contributed to this, the second definition of the word: a quarter of a city in which members of a minority group live especially because of social, legal, or economic pressure.

Again, it comes down to context. Both words can be used as both noun and adjective, and sometimes even a verb. It's certainly not proper, by the book English, but it is part of a slang language, predominantly called "Ebonics".

Now, from your post I'm assuming you're simply wondering what the difference is when it comes to describing physical location...i.e. "I grew up in the hood." vs. "I grew up in the ghetto.". Often the two terms, in this sense, can be used to describe the same thing, though "hood" can adapt to non-poverty areas depending on who is describing it. I went out with a guy who referred to his neighborhood as his "hood"...yet it was in the suburbs, an obviously well-off place. His choice to use the term mainly reflected his submergence in hip-hop culture and his upbringing. He was a pretty "ghetto" (adjective form) guy who grew up in the "ghetto" and worked really hard in his teens and early 20s so he could buy himself a house in the 'burbs when he hit 30.

Both, aside from generally describing poor areas in large metropolitan areas, also tend to point towards poor -and- violent areas. Though poverty and crime tend to go hand in hand, I've heard more violent places in my area described as "the hood" and "ghetto" than the less violent yet still poor areas.

In the end, it's just slang either way you go, and depending on the person saying the words it can take on different meanings. There's no right or wrong...what one person tells you the words mean another may disagree with. With slang it's hard to define the words specifically due to the nature of slang to begin with.

 

DH, thank you for that great response. That really helped. We were just talking about this at work with a guy that said he grew up in the hood. Somehow we started discussing the hood versus the ghetto and his definition was that the ghetto was trashy and the hood was.......well, just the hood. lol That lead me to asking the question here to try and figure this out!

 

Well besides the spelling, I can't really tell the difference. I always thought they were synonyms.:smt102

 

No problemo. I love language, especially slang dialects. They're fascinating. Glad I could help! My boyfriend helped, too, though. I discussed it with him first and he reminded me of a few points I had forgotten. Funny enough, I think I still know more about Ebonics than he does. Lol

 

Good response DH !!!

There is an old saying, "You can take the person out of the 'hood but you can't take the ghetto out of the person". The hood is more of a physical location where ghetto can be a state of mind. Some people can have money and will ALWAYS be ghetto.

Its like some of the guys I grew up with, no matter how good their situation is they don't feel right unless they've somehow taken advantage of someone. Its what we refer to as always trying to be SLICK, not SMART, but SLICK.

Its trying to be SLICK that gets them in trouble. It ALWAYS comes back to bite you because you're trying to pull something over someone.