In an article published by The Metropole, Kevin McGruder has written an excellent review of Lance Freeman’s A Haven And A Hell: The Ghetto in Black America (New York: Columbia University Press, 2019).

Kevin McGruder is Vice President of Academic Affairs and Associate Professor of History at Antioch. In the article, he identifies a number of big questions that we should be asking in society today:

• To what extent does the assumption that residents of black neighborhoods called ghettos are trapped in a cycle of poverty lead private investors to withhold capital and cities to withhold public safety, sanitation, and educational services?
• Why aren’t poor and working-class white neighborhoods called ghettos?
• In what ways does the continued use of the term ghetto serve the intent of white supremacists rather than describe what is really happening in black neighborhoods?

Read the full review on The Metropole.