What do people mean when they say "ghetto"?

I've heard people call areas of cities ghetto, but I've also heard people call cars or clothes ghetto as well.

What exactly are people meaning by this? At first... all my life... I thought ghetto meant an area where black people live. But with people calling certain cars, clothes, etc, ghetto, I'm not exactly sure what people are meaning.

People say ghetto, as if they have a definition of ghetto, and they say it as if everyone else is suppose to know what they are talking about.

What exactly are people meaning when they call something ghetto? Are people talking about poor areas? Or poor cars?

As an adjective, I think it means a cheap, provisional alternative - like something you would put together if you didn't have the means to buy anything better, hence the connection with poverty. It's kind of similar to the way people say they're slumming it if they're staying in low cost accommodation on holiday.

Google.com is really good for finding definitions if that wasn't helpful enough. :P

In The Ghetto

On a cold and gray Chicago mornin'

Another little baby child is born

In the ghetto

(In the ghetto)

And his mama cries

Because if there's one thing that she don't need

It's another little hungry mouth to feed

In the ghetto

(In the ghetto)

Lizardy type animal. Bulging eyes.

The hood has a particular culture.

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas in a nutshell.

A ghetto is a slum. Usually used in reference to a place where Jews were segregated in Europe.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghetto

The part of town we usually avoid.

A rough area full of gangs or chavs.

Ghettos are associated with poverty, by definition. If someone is calling something "ghetto" as an adjective then they are calling it cheap or of poor quality.

-Byshop

Literally, "ghetto" is a noun as it is place where people deemed of being low-class or low-wealth (for example, the Jews in Nazi Germany, and blacks in America) are either forced or encouraged to live. You'll generally find a lot of tenement and low-income housing in ghettos, in addition to a lot of minorities. There's always trash on the ground, poor upkeep of structures, and so forth.

An American ghetto:

As an adjective, ghetto means trashy, low-class, low-quality, and so forth. If a woman did her hair in a terrible way, her friend might be all "Damn girl, that hair is so ghetto". If my bumper fell off my car and I taped it back on, someone might comment that I had "ghetto-rigged my broken bumper" (as in I used a low-quality solution to fix it).

A ghetto woman:

@mrbojangles25: Dat grill tho.

@mrbojangles25:

No, she probably just pretending to be ghetto.

@qx0d: "I thought ghetto meant an area where black people live."

lol

Ghetto: "a part of a city, especially a slum area, occupied by a minority group or groups."

It doesn't have to be just black people, but could be any minority. If there's a relatively impoverished neighbourhood that predominantly consists of minorities, then that's a ghetto.

But the word "ghetto" has also become a slang term for low-cost hip-hop fashion styles that originated from black neighbourhoods.